A brilliant author, who made his debut with the renowned in 2013 Viticulture and since then has only published great hits without missing a beat. After our Wingspan review we will talk to you again about the Stonemaier Games and its founder Jamey Stegmaier, designer (among others) of Scythe, Euphoria e Tuscany. Experience the kind of civilization with this year Tapestry, a two-hour game for 1-5 players.
Setting and materials
In Tapestry each player is called to manage a civilization, guiding it from prehistoric times to the modern era, increasing its different spheres of competence (science, exploration, technology and military power) and at the same time developing its capital (with the construction of buildings and monuments).
We will then have the opportunity to shape some social aspects of our population (playing the “tapestry” cards in eras 2, 3 and 4) and even, in some cases, to obtain a different civilization that replaces the original one.
The materials, as always when it comes to Stonemaier Games, are phenomenal: high-quality cardboard, beautiful illustrations but above all 18 pre-painted monuments, as well as 100 miniatures of single-colored buildings. The main board (double-sided depending on the number of players) represents the game world, while the three personal boards of the players show the controlled civilizations, the eras of the game (with the social characteristics by which they are distinguished) and finally the map of the capital. It is on this last board that we are going to place our buildings, trying to complete sectors, rows and columns.
Tapestry mechanics
The game develops in five different eras: on their turn, each participant can decide to advance their civilization in one of the four different tracks (paying the advancement cost and obtaining the relative benefits) or to move on to the next era, playing a tapestry card and triggering an income phase. At the fifth stage each player will have a final scoring phase: whoever gets the most points will be the winner.
Advancement in the tracks (science, exploration, technology, and military might) requires a resource cost and provides benefits, including building buildings, developing technologies, placing new hexes, and controlling a territory. As is the case with the "upgrade" action of Scythe, the construction of a building involves the display of the bonus printed on the relative space: by moving the building from that space to our capital, the bonus will become available at each subsequent income phase. Even the positioning in the capital has its own importance: filling sectors, rows and columns will provide us with further advantages in the income phase, such as resources and victory points.
The other bonuses that can be obtained from the various tracks are numerous and not always easy to understand: it will be essential for the first games to keep the game symbology guide at hand, of which two copies are provided. If you want to get an idea, the links to the rules and reference guides are available on the website of Stonemaier, at this link.
The transition to a new era is mostly a "forced" action, to be chosen when you do not have enough resources for any other advancement on the tracks. It does not necessarily happen simultaneously between the players: it is possible that someone is forced to enter the final era while the rest of the table is still in the third or fourth era. This leads to exclusion from the rest of the game, with long waits for the final count of points.
Considerations
We can describe Tapestry like a decent middleweight German manager. As for the civilization side, however, it turns out to be rather lacking: the setting, which tends to be inconsistent given the abstract nature of the title, is completely demolished by heavy inconsistencies. In fact, it will frequently happen to see civilizations enter the Middle Ages after having invented batteries and transistors, or to begin the exploration of space having only a very limited knowledge of the geography of their native world.
We also noticed strong imbalances in the tapestry cards, which could affect the outcome of the games: these are rather limited cards in the game and each of them affects an entire era. Some house rules have even been hypothesized in our group to solve the problem, such as an auction of victory points for the initial card or drawing 2-3 cards at the beginning of the game, among which to choose the one to play with.
The limited duration (around two hours) and the interesting mechanics (even if not innovative) make it anyway Tapestry a pleasant title, with a high cost but justified by the materials of excellent workmanship.
