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Tapestry was released in 2019. Despite loving Scythe, Charterstone, and Viticulture, I wasn’t interested in it. The main thing that put me off was that people could finish the game at different times. If you’ve had a bad game, it would be made worse by you having to watch the game for extended periods while everyone else, who has done better than you, continues to play.
So I forgot Tapestry and got on with my life.
Then in 2021, during a lockdown, I played it on Tabletopia. And I didn’t like it due to a feeling of randomness, the Tapestry cards were all terrible for me and got me virtually nothing, and getting a score under 100 when the score track goes up to 499 didn’t help either. I had a bad experience. I gave it a 3/10.
Jump forward to 2024. Tapestry was a game that had stuck in my head. Something about it made me want to try it again. I saw it was for sale at a relatively cheap price and gave it a go. Did my opinion change?
How Does It Play
If I had to describe Tapestry in one word, that word would be “TRACKS!”. There are four tracks around the outside of the board and whereas most other games with tracks have some bonuses littered about the place, Tapestry has an action on every single space of the four tracks. It’s a very simple idea: pay the resource cost to move on one of the four tracks, then do the action. There are some turns where you play a tapestry card and get points and income, but 95% of the game is moving up on tracks.
The actions will let you take Technology cards, build buildings on your polyomino capital city board, explore territories on a central map, conquer territories on the map, or even just move up on other tracks.
What’s Good About It
Tapestry, at its heart, is an efficiency puzzle. I think that's what’s kept it in my mind for so long. You have to build an engine at the start of the game to make sure that you can generate plenty of resources, or if your initial tapestry card is terrible you can focus on getting better cards. Then it becomes a game of looking forward along all the other tracks to plan your turns and maximise the points you’ll earn.
For example, you’re close to reaching the end of the blue track. When you look ahead, you see that you’re going to earn points for every space you’ve advanced on the yellow track. You want to make sure that you’ve moved up the yellow track as much as you can before you hit that point-scoring space. There are lots of moments like this.
The more you play, the more you learn its intricacies, and the better you get. Initially, I thought there was too much randomness. Now, I can see that there are lots of ways to mitigate against it. A good experienced player will beat a beginner pretty much every time. The first time you get a 300+ score is a real rush. I haven’t hit 400+ yet, but the drive to get better and hit that target is strong.
We play Tapestry at two players. There is a Shadow Empire variant, that adds a bot whose job is just to add to the competition for landmark buildings and achievements. It’s very easy to run and I would recommend it.
If you add in the Arts & Architecture expansion, you get a fifth track that opens up the game even further. There is plenty of replayability in the base game, but if you enjoy Tapestry, you’ll probably like it even more with this expansion.
What’s Wrong With The Game
The issue of some people finishing earlier than others is still there. At two players it’s not too problematic. We’ve only had one game where there was a ten minute difference in finishing times. Every other game has been a lot closer. It could be worse at higher player counts, especially if there is a mismatch of experience levels.
It’s blatantly not a civilisation game. It’s a nice theme but it has been severely pasted on.
I despise the Trap cards. Ooh, I’m going to conquer this territory and get a nice achievement. Excellent. This is fun. I place down my little turret and knock the other player’s turret on to its side. But, oh no! They play a Trap card—ha ha, gotcha! This is really annoying and is designed to stop me from having fun. Even when the situation is reversed, I don’t want to play a Trap card and stop my opponent from having fun. They’re miserable.
What were they thinking with the buildings? Despite being lovely prepainted sculpts, they don’t cover the spaces on the grid completely and can lead to some confusion. I’ve got used to it now, but it’s still a niggle.
For me, these issues don’t distract too much from an otherwise excellent game.
Conclusion
If you like efficiency puzzles, and you like tracks, then it’s worth giving Tapestry a try. For me, it’s had the largest swing from my initial rating to what I think of it now. I can only see it getting higher as I experiment with the other civilisations in the three expansions. Yes, it has some problems, but they fade into the background when I get playing and puzzling out which track to go up on next. I’d find it hard now to rank Scythe, Viticulture, and Tapestry, but I suspect that Tapestry may end up on top, and that’s high praise.
