Stonemaier Games: Tapestry - A Strategy Board Game by Jamey Stegmaier

I love this game. I first played it once as a one player game. The rules were a little confusing which is my only critique to this game. The rule book should have been a couple more pages of instructions. I did like that they provided both words and pictures to explain b/c that's very helpful. There just should have been a little more of that b/c the automa and shadow empire rules to me were a little confusing, and so was the income scoring. Eventually I figured it out but wasted a lot of time at first re-reading and re-reading trying to understand it. I've played the game four more times as a two player game and once as a three player game. My friends and I had a lot of fun. It has lots of replay ability b/c of the 16 different civilizations you can play. And not only that but the randomness of the different tapestry cards and tech cards you may get. I'm excited to see they have an expansion that adds 10 more civilizations and other things for even more replay-ability. I will definitely be getting that in the near future. One note, I wish that on the bottom or on the base of each building that they had put the name of the building. It would be much easier to determine what building is which when setting up the game, and from the buildings that are on the tech cards. And the bases don't quite fit the squares it shows they cover. So when you are placing them on your capital mat, make sure to keep that in mind. Don't go by just the building itself when placing it. Go back the helpful picture that is provided on the building mat and the tech card. B/c you might short-change yourself on a couple of squares. Other than that this game is great and my friends and I love it!!!

This is a great engine building civilization board game in which you guide a civilization through time advancing your technology, expanding your territory, and expanding your ability to generate resources. It is relatively easy to learn for this genre of game and can be played in 2-3 hours. The components are of great quality like all Stonemaier games and the fully painted miniature buildings really add to the atmosphere of the game. Overall, it is a very fun game that can be learned quickly but has an immense amount of depth.

If you like Settlers of Catan, but want something a little deeper, this is perfect. Once I ordered it on Amazon, I spent the next two days while I waited for it to arrive to watch Tapestry - How to Play tutorials. I probably spent 2-3 hours watching how to play so that when it arrived, there were only a few things I was unsure about. Two of the income mats arrived with a purple ink mark baked into the print, but I contacted Stonemaier Games and they shipped out replacement mats for free. My wife and 10-year old played it the first night, then my wife wanted to play it again the next day. First 3-player game was about 4.5 hours (probably from learning rules as we go), then the 2-player game the next day was only 1.5 hours. You can even play a solo 1 player game or add a shadow empire variant to a 2-player game to make it more interesting. There is even a winner's log that you can submit your winning civilization and score so that they can continue to improve the game with handicaps, etc. Some Civs are definitely better than others, that's why they have handicaps included.

I love this game. We've played it well over a hundred times since buying it a year and a half ago and have all the expansions. It has not grown old. My husband and I most often play at 2-player, but we've played up to 5 with our teens and tweens and everyone enjoys it. I think of this as a medium-weight engine builder with infinite variability rather than a more realistic civ game. Combat is not the focus of the game and most actions are rewarding. I'm always happy to win, but I also come away from the game feeling good when I don't lose because I know I did my best to maximize the potential of my situation that game. I don't see this one ever leaving our collection.

There is no doubt about how great this game looks, you will be drawn in by the quality of the components and how visually pleasing it is out on your table. We love that as well. In Tapestry you'll follow very simple rules to advance and build your own civilization from just discovering and making fire to eventually launching spaceships or creating AI singularities. It sounds like quite a journey, and it is, you'll get the chance to advance however you want along 4 different tracks. This is a very fun option and one that seems very well enjoyed by everyone we've played this with. All the time while advancing on these tracks you'll use your civilization's special abilities to help grow and expand your territory and build up your city. There are a lot of fun parts of this game that play off of one another, and can generate unique ways for you to score victory points. With so many ways to score points in different areas of the game board even new players will find themselves competing in score with experienced players. So there is a nice balance between everything, unless you choose to spread yourself too thin on all the tracks you'll find it very competitive. We have a lot of fun playing this, my wife perhaps more so than me. I do have a few problems with it that drop my personal thoughts on it a little. It’s a simple game, this is not the issue though, I love a simple game, they are fun and exciting. My problem is, this is a huge box game with so many things in it, so many abilities, possibilities, options, ways to score, ways to play. There is just so much possible in this game, that for it to play so simply then kills it for me just a little bit. I wanted more from it, being such a great put together game with great quality components and it being so vast in possibilities I just want a bit more complexity from it. My larger complaint with the game is the Rulebook; I am not satisfied with that at all. It is not as descriptive or full as it needs to be. There are many icons not explained, you can reference through an included sheet and match up things and eventually learn what something that isn't represented means. The Warp Space tiles for example are not explained at all. It could also have benefitted from a few play examples, or at least a simple setup guide. Our very first game of this was a struggle of referencing rules online and referring to the Rulebook for answers we hoped we'd find but didn't. You can learn the whole game this way, but the turnaround time on your first game or two could be decreased a lot with a better Rulebook. I still recommend this game and like to show it to new players. It is not at all that I don't enjoy it; this one just falls slightly lower on my list as far as how much I like it. I've enjoyed many of the other games from Stonemaier much more than this one, but my wife rates this one at the top of her lists, so again you can see it comes down to just personal preferences. It is for sure one to own and enjoy playing, I think it plays best with at least 3 players. 2 is a doable and works well but the added players do increase the tension and enjoyment for me. There is an alternate Automa set of rules for playing a 3rd in a 2 player game. I'll be sure to update once we've given that a try.

I've played Tapestry dozens of times and still look forward to the next game! It's one of those games where it's easy to learn but can take a lifetime to master the moves so that they stack on each other. Component quality is top notch, and although there's lots of pieces and cards to set up, it comes with lots of bags to organize. Many will criticize the randomness of the card draws, civilization powers, or rolls of dice, but every game has that to some degree. The beauty of the game is learning how to use that randomness to your advantage. Highly recommend this game for anyone who has dipped their toes into European style board games and wants to take it to the next level!

Easy to get started but infinitely variable and has lots of strategy paths to follow. Mostly we play with 2 people and it's good fun. Takes about 2 hours

I enjoy this game. It has its flaws. Some civilizations are now powerful than others, but this has since been balanced out with a sheet you can download and print from the SM website. Game looks beautiful once it’s all set up. Gameplay can be clunky the first few times. The game is very picture based, but thankfully there is a cheat sheet for every action in the game. This can hinder your ability to plan, if you’re not able to understand what the next action in line is. Automa is fun to play against. I’m not a great player, so I always get beat. Definitely a challenge. This game makes it to the table more than Wingspan, which came out the same year by the same company.

This game is amazing because there are so many ways to win and so many different strategies. There even is a one player option. However this game is diffiualt to learn and takes a very long time to play. But because of that, it never gets overused. It is an amazing game.

É um jogo que dá prazer jogar, pois só os seus componentes e arte são um regalo aos sentidos. Gostei da mecanica e é um jogo que no fim dá vontade de voltar a jogar e descobrir o que mais se pode fazer.

I’ve really enjoyed playing this game since we got it. The rules aren’t entirely intuitive, and I’d recommend not using the civilisation cards in your first play through so as everyone’s playing by the same rules. It’s a good 2 hours to play a game, but it goes quickly. Slightly annoyingly the box isn’t very well designed for storage compartments, so set-up and pack-up take longer than is ideal.

Ha sido una gran sorpresa este juego, es sencillo de explicar pero con gran contenido y jugabilidad para pasar un buen rato con amigos o familiares

It’s very nice game! Super interesting and I think it could be my favorite game. It’s seems complicated but it took me just 20 minutes to understand all the rules. Art is so beautiful, all components are on high level and miniatures are just incredible beautiful and nice! 100% recommended and would buy it again!