Gameplay
In Calico you sew a quilt, collect buttons and attract some lovely cats! You do all of this by choosing and placing tiles upon your playerboard, althewhile making patterns. Points can be earned in three ways.
At the start of the game, three cats are selected, giving you a way to score points with patterns. Each cat has preference for two different patterns, once you placed it the way a cat likes it, that cat will come onto your playerboard and score you some extra points at the end of the game.
Players will also take three random object tiles and place them on their playerboard. These tiles contain ways to score points with either color or pattern, or extra points when achieving them both!
The third way to score points is to make a combination of three tiles of the same color. When achieved, you will gain a button of that specific color, scoring you 3 points each. When you scored buttons of all colors, you may also place a rainbow button on your board, scoring you another 3 points.
When everyones playerboard is completely filled, players count scores, highest score wins the game!
Thoughts
Calico is a lovely puzzling game. I myself am crazy about these tile laying puzzly kind of games, where you are able to score points in a lot of different ways. It gives me the feel of having a lot to explore, also in next games. Also because of the variation in different cats and object tiles the game comes with a lot of variation.
Some players however find the options a bit too much, causing some analysis paralysis brain action. Most people know this about themselves and having said what I just said could be enough to know whether this is going to be the case for them.
The games component quality is lovely! The playerboards are doublelayered, and both the boards and the tiles are linen finished. Artwork looks lovely, again: Beth Sobel, well done!!
Playing Calico solo is a delight as well. There are also solo scenarios and achievements available, those I have yet to discover.
Do you like puzzly games that can be a little brainy? You would definitely like Calico.
A copy of this game was provided to me by White Goblin Games for the purpose of writing this review. My opinion however remains my own.
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