Lookout Games | Patchwork | Board Game | Ages 8+ | 2 Players | 15-30 Minute Playing Time

After owning Patchwork for a year, and having bought copies for other people since, I think Patchwork is up there with the great Two Player board games. It's main beauty is in it gets the balance of being simple enough to learn and know after a first playthrough, but that doesn't mean it lacks strategy, far from it, and due to the nature of how you set the game up, each game can feel pretty different and you will find yourself having to change plans as things don't always work out. Each move will have you balancing your personal points or should you spend some to gain more later, but on top of that you are also balancing what your opponent needs next or will gain if you move. It sounds complicated but it all works so smoothly while being a challenge.My personal other fav Two Player games include Lost Cities, Battleline, Jaiper and Air Land & Sea, and if you are a fan of any of those I think you will enjoy what Patchwork has to offer.

Bought for my son, says he loves it

If you want a straight forward game that doesn’t take long to learn, this is one of them. A nicely put together game that runs smoothly. The only downside is that it is only a 2 player game.

I bought this for my 7-year-old daughter for Christmas but my wife and I have been playing it mainly at night. The rules are exceptionally simple but the game actually has a tremendous amount of strategy. My favourite two player game is currently Jaipur but Patchwork may very well dethrone it, it's that good.Both players have their own gridded mat on which they need to construct a quilt. On a turn, the player may take any of the next three quilt patches from those encircling the board: there is a rather substantial wooden marker to mark the current point and it's moved to where the patch was removed from each time, thus your choice affects the patches available to your opponent.Each patch is a shaped like a tetris piece (of three, four or five blocks) and so the first puzzle is fitting these onto your grid. Each piece has a cost (in buttons, the game's currency) and time printed on too. You see, to represent time, there is a third board with a track on which the players have a token: once a player reaches the centre they can make no further changes to their quilt. The game finishes when both are over the finishing line.To buy a patch you have to both pay its cost in buttons and also move your piece around the timeline the number of spaces shown on that piece. The twist is that the person at the back continues to play until the other player is at the back, golf style. That way there is a strategic element of taking the pieces with the low time cost in order to get multiple sequential goes and, in doing so, access to the better patches. However, the more awkward shaped pieces tend to be cheaper so sometimes you have to pay high in order to get a piece that actually fits your quilt. In addition, many of the patches have one, two or three buttons icons on them: for these you get payouts whenever a button icon is crossed on the timeline (there are several of these) and it's important to get lots of buttons in the early game as otherwise you don't have enough cash to buy what you want later on. So there are many factors in play here: money, time and best fit.If there's no quilt piece you want you can, instead, move in front of the other player on the timeline and gain one button for each square you moved, thus allowing you to cash time for money to get access to the more lucrative pieces. There are also five 1x1 patches on the timeline that are won by the first player to cross over them: extremely useful for filling those inevitable holes.At the end of the game, each player loses two buttons for each empty square on their quilt board, so it pays to get as much covered as possible. Finally there's a 7 button bonus for the first player to complete a 7x7 square without gaps. The winner is simply the player with the most buttons at the end. We've had winning scores ranging from the negatives to 40, but we've also had some very close games too, with just a button or two between us.All in all, Patchwork is a pure gold: it has simple and straightforward rules, it's quick and easy to play, tense in places and a lot of fun! It's also has surprisingly strategic depth: I especially like how you can really stick it to the other player, by making a snazzy chain of moves when they go too far ahead on the timeline. This is especially satisfying when you are running out of buttons but are then able to set up a chain of moves that pushes you over a button icon giving you a button haul you can then use for your second or third contiguous go.This is the second Uwe Rosenburg game I've played: Bohnanza, too, is a fantastically original and fun game so I'm starting to think this guy is some kind of game designing genius: I'll definitely be checking out his other offerings (looking at your Caverna).

Everyone in our household loves this game. Such a simple but fun concept and suitable for all ages. Definitely recommend

Great, fun little game for two. Easy to pick up and a great way to pass a relaxed Sunday afternoon 😊

This is a very simple 2 player game but really enjoyable and one of our favourites. It does not take too long to play but long enough that you can get competitive. Suits all ages. Thoroughly recommend.

This games goal was very simple to understand but the rules and how it played left me scratching my head initially.Although the first few playthroughs irritated me, because of the wording of the rules and how vague it was, I really like this game.Once I ironed out the rule hitches, for myself, it was a fun and enjoyable game of making a Tetris like game. I enjoyed the idea of resource management and how the position of your pawn determined how many goes you got per turn.It's a clever game and is quite fun, with lots of counting and points spending involved. I'm happy with the game and hope to play more very soon.To clarify, on the movement/score board when you pass a button, you collect buttons equal to the number of buttons on your quilt tile.Example:You have placed 5 pieces and two had buttons on them you collect the amount of buttons you see on those pieces. When you get to the next button you should have more pieces and there should be more buttons to collect.If you can't play a piece you can still take your go as if you did, it's called passing, it doesn't cost you buttons but allows you to move.This is my only major criticism as it really doesn't explain this scenario, which happened twice, once right at the end of the game!Example:In your turn you have 3 pieces to choose from, if you can't afford to buy or play any of the pieces then you must move forward till one space ahead of your opponent, you collect 1 button for each space you move this way.*A variant of this is to simply move the tile selector pawn as you would normally but you don't get the tile, you do however move the number of spaces indicated, you will not receive or use any buttons this way* - I've used this particular method several times, it makes for a tough but interesting game.