Patchwork: Quilting Tetris-style
My two friends were in town last weekend, and we took a quick road trip to Sedona, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon in northern Arizona. The state never ceases to amaze me in terms of scenery. It truly has some of the most gorgeous locations in the U.S. I posted a few photos on Instragram from the trip.
One friend left on Sunday afternoon, and the other on Sunday night. That left us with a few hours of chill time in between and, of course, some quick games. I busted out Patchwork since it’s a 2-player game and fairly short with a game time of 30 minutes.
Patchwork is designed by my favorite game designer, Uwe Rosenberg. The goal of this game is to build the best quilt on your 9×9 grid and to have the most buttons (the currency for the game) at the end.
The game is set up with all the Tetris-like pieces displayed around the time board. This setup is random every time, but the neutral token is always placed next to the smallest piece, the 1×2. (And full disclosure: I just now realized I placed it next to the incorrect quilt piece in the photo.)
So on your turn, you can either purchase one of the next three pieces after the neutral piece or pass. When you purchase a quilt piece, you pay the indicated cost and then move your marker along the time board based on what it says on that piece. The neutral marker then moved to the location of the piece recently purchased.
You then place your newly acquired piece on your player board. You can place it in any direction. The goal is just like Tetris: fill up the space using your pieces. Because at the end of the game, for every square that’s open, that’s minus 2 points.
If you decide to pass, your marker on the time board immediately moves one space ahead of your opponent. For each space you pass, you get 1 button.
When your time token passes a button on the board, you get income based on the buttons printed on your pieces. Also, if you pass a special patch, that patch is yours to place immediately on your board. These patches are good for hard-to-fill spaces.
No matter who just took their turn, the person farthest behind will go next. If both markers are on the same space, the person on top goes next. Also, the first player to fill a 7×7 grid gets the 7 button bonus marker.
The game ends when the markers reach the last space on the time board. At this point, players count the number of empty spaces and multiply that by 2. That number is subtracted by the number of buttons that player has, and that’s your final score. The person with the most buttons wins the game.
My friend ended up beating me in our game. She was so happy that she took a photo and texted some of our other friends. We also played a few rounds of Sushi Go. Good times! Anyway, Patchwork is a great 2-player game when you don’t have a lot of time to play. Plus, it’s easy to teach and learn, and the box is small enough to transport easily in a purse or backpack.