Stonemaier Games: Tapestry (Base Game) | A Civilization Building Board Game | Lead a Unique Civilization to Greatness Through Cultural and Technological Advances | 1-5 Players, 120 Minutes, Ages 14+

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!!!

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.

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've enjoyed Civilization games since the original boardgame came out in the early 80s. This is nowhere near as complicated, but you still get a little sense of Civ building by why of tech improvements and adding buildings to your city. My wife enjoys this one too so we play it a lot just the 2 of us. Plenty of replayability with the number of civs, cards, etc. You can always try a different blend/combo of tech advances. We tried it first on Board Game Arena, loved it, bought it. If you're an avid boardgamer, this is a must for the collection in my opinion. Will probably get the expansions soon ;-)

I bought this for what I felt was unique mechanics. The game play is "ok" and it tries to combine a few things into one game. However found it mostly a focus is on "move along a gameplay track" focus. But still found it overall enjoyable to play from time to time.

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!

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 is maybe the hardest game to learn. The thing is that there are simply a ton of different mechanics in the game but the mechanics are all simple as long as you have the guides nearby. My wife and I love this game but it takes patience to learn it. I recommend buying it. But know that there’s a lot to it. And it sometimes feels like all of it doesn’t need to be a part of it. At times, feels overly complicated, although if you love board games, this needs to be on your shelf.