Calico

CalicoCalico Calico might draw you in with it's promise of cats and easy gameplay but it's a devious trick! This is a brilliant mind melting game of optimal placement. Oh and cats. Calico is primarily a tile drafting and laying game. Each round you will play one tile from your hand to your player board before choosing a replacement from a selection of three. The components themselves are nice thick and chunky tiles, and player boards are dual layered

Calico Calico might draw you in with it's promise of cats and easy gameplay but it's a devious trick! This is a brilliant mind melting game of optimal placement. Oh and cats. Calico is primarily a tile drafting and laying game. Each round you will play one tile from your hand to your player board before choosing a replacement from a selection of three. The components themselves are nice thick and chunky tiles, and player boards are dual layered keeping everything in place. Speaking of the player boards, this is where the action unfolds as you construct your patchwork duvet for the cats to moult on! Before the game starts you will choose or randomly draw three scoring tiles. These will reward you for specific combinations of tiles adjacent to them at the end of the game. Each tile has a colour and a pattern and the scoring tiles have a request like AAA-BBB this means that the six tiles are either of two colours or two patterns to score, however if you manage to have both two colours and two patterns around the tile you will score more points! This is where the brain burn comes in as you try to maximise your points. On top of this are cats and buttons! Buttons are added to the board at the point you join three of more tiles of the same colour. Cats have their own specific likes which are listed on their cards. Achieve it and that cat will slump on to your duvet and sleep. Calico is one of those rare games that is easy to teach and understand but then gives you a lot to think about on your turn. While younger players will be able to play it, understanding the scoring and making best placement can be tricky! However the fun and tactile nature of the game make it a definite winner on game night! Player count: 1-4 Time: 30-45 minutes Age rating: 13+