Overview

Patchwork is a quilting themed game created by Uwe Rosenberg, known for designing popular games such as Agricola, Caverna, and Le Havre. In Patchwork two players are competing to create the best quilt from a variety of unique patches. Your goal is to have more buttons than your opponent when the game ends. On your turn you have 2 simple options: purchase a patch to put into your quilt or skip your turn in order to acquire more buttons.

Setup

Each player receives a 9×9 grid board and 5 buttons (the currency used in this game). The patches are randomly arranged in a circle on the playing surface and a pawn is placed after the 2×1 piece (clockwise direction). At the center of the circle goes the Time Board, which players use to keep track of how much “time” they have left to finish their quilt. Finally, place the five 1×1 pieces on each of the empty squares on the time board. You are now ready to play!

Playing the Game

On your turn you have 2 options:

Purchase a patch: Choose any 1 of the 3 patches in front of the pawn in the clockwise direction. Each patch has a button cost, a time cost, and anywhere from 0-3 buttons printed on it. The button cost indicates how many buttons you need to pay to gain the patch, and the time cost shows how many spaces your token advances on the time board when you purchase your patch. Then place your patch on your quilt board so it doesn’t overlap any other pieces. Move the pawn to where the patch used to be, changing what patches are available to be purchased. If you are further along the time track than your opponent, your turn is done. Otherwise, you go again!

A piece is purchased for 3 buttons The piece is placed on the quilt board The pawn is moved to the empty place The time marker is moved 4 spaces

At some point, your token will land on or pass a special spot printed on the track and trigger an event:

Button: Count the number of buttons printed on all of your patches and gain that many buttons from the supply

1×1 Patch: If you’re the 1st player to reach or pass that patch, take it and place it immediately in your quilt at no extra cost

Skip your turn and gain buttons: Advance your token on the time board until you are on the space in front of your opponent’s token, then gain a number of buttons equal to the number of spaces you moved.

If you are the first player to fill in a 7×7 area on your board, you receive a special bonus worth 7 buttons. When your token reaches the end of the track, you’ve run out of time to finish your quilt. Count up all the buttons you’ve earned throughout the game, taking away 2 for every empty space in your quilt. Once both players have reached the end, the person with the most buttons wins

Thoughts

Despite its simple gameplay and looks, there is a fun strategic element to this game. Each turn can take a lot of thought, deciding whether the 3 available patches will fit well into your board or even taking a low time-cost patch so you can string 2 or more turns together, grabbing an even better patch further on in the circle before your opponent can. The design of the game also makes it difficult to predict the final outcome, and players always seem to be equally matched right up until the last turn. The game’s casual nature makes it a great choice for a nice quiet evening with your partner. It’s easy to get this game to the table with its quick set up and simple rules.

I find that some people unfortunately judge the game by its box. When I showed this game to some of my usual gaming friends, they took some convincing to try it out as they had a hard time seeing past the seemingly boring quilting theme. This game also requires a decent sized table to play on as well; at the start of the game all of the patchwork pieces need to be spread out and require a fair bit of space. It’s too bad that the game only comes in a 2-player format, disqualifying it from your group game nights. I feel that it has the potential to be a good game with up to at least 4 players. Perhaps a larger version is in the works, as Uwe Rosenberg’s previous 2 player games (Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small and Le Havre: The Inland Port) were based on his larger games? Just wishful thinking 🙂

Final Verdict: Great game, love it, definitely worth picking up if you tend to play a lot of games with only a friend or your partner