Message:
The night started slow as weather delayed a number of the participants. The short games came out and warmed up the brain work.
At the end of the evening someone pulled out Calico, a game of cats and quilts.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283155/calico
Calico is a puzzly tile-laying game of quilts and cats.
In Calico, players compete to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns. Each quilt has a particular pattern that must be followed, and players are also trying to create color and pattern combinations that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also able to attract the cuddliest cats!
Turns are simple. Select a single patch tile from your hand and sew it into your quilt, then draw another patch into your hand from the three available. If you are able to create a color group, you may sew a button onto your quilt. If you are able to create a pattern combination that is attractive to any of the cats, it will come over and curl up on your quilt! At the end of the game, you score points for buttons, cats, and how well you were able to complete your unique quilt pattern.
Now, I have a guide line that I prefer to not play games where I can just as easily do the thing that is the theme of the game.
Cats - check.
Quilts, patches - check.
As it would seem, this is neither how you interact with cats or patch quilts. It's just a bunch of colored cardboard that you are trying to put on another hunk of cardboard to make combinations of shapes and such. The tiles have both a pattern and a color and if you put them together in particular ways that change by the prime number of seconds that have passed to change the scoring value.
If there was a cat present, it would have been tossed on the ground with imperial demeanor and left for the humans to pick up.
This was sheer torture to me. Have you not tried Sorry or Parchisi? Hearts? King Oil? Careers? Panzer Group Guderian?
But, this was a hit for for some of the gamers. Board Game Geek lists it at 49 Overall.
Some however descripted it as
A 1-4 person game designed by Kevin Russ and published by Flatout Games and AEG, Calico is an adorable tile laying game that likes to softly punch you in the face.
It is a mystery to me.
Yours,
IronConrad
19-May-2025