Tapestry: Four Tracks to Your Destiny
Tapestry is a colorful game will give you the chance to explore science, technology, exploration and military. Gain benefits, resources and more as you advance and upgrade your civilization.
- Average Time to Play: 90-120 minutes (though usually 90 minutes after you play once or twice)
- Average Age: 12+ years old (our 10 year old learned it well but had some help)
- Amount of Players: 1-5 (yes there are cards for playing by yourself)
- Kids Rating: 4/5 (fun, colorful and varies every time but can be long sometimes)
- This takes up a lot of space so have a good open area to play and spread out the pieces/board.
The Game
Set Up Your Tapestry
There are four essential parts to the set up of this game:
- The board
- Your capital city
- Your extra abilities as leader of your city and
- Your resource mat
Tapestry Gameplay
First set up your player mats – the main player board, your capital city player mat, the resource mat and select your ability card.
Place your resources on your mat. These are the technologies/improvements you will earn over time and add to your city for bonuses.
Place one of your player markers (color cube) at the start of each track (technology etc.). Then put your two buildings on the city main player mat – this is how you will grow your civilization.
Get the buildings (that you will earn as you go) set up on the side accessible to everyone (the first person to reach that spot on the track earns that building!)
Then start playing – do an income phase to gain enough “tokens” or resources to move along the track. Then start moving on the board each taking turns.
Much of this game is a “learn as you play” game because there are so many options and outcomes.
This game gives you many perspectives as you play – both a macro view of the world you are creating and then a micro view of your capital city and how you build and launch it into the future with improvements. Tell your story and grow your capital. Each era and age allows you to grow and improve with resources and upgrades.
Tapestry Strategy
In a nutshell: You have to strategize as best you can to figure out the best way to upgrade your city. Get the most points with the limited resources/turns you have. And there are a million ways to accomplish that.
Choosing which path you want to advance in is a little strategy and a little luck. As you start the game you have four plastic resource shapes (star, bag etc.) to use to pay for your track. If you don’t have enough resources then you can’t advance on your track. It’s a lot of choices and give and take.
As you advance on a track (say technology) you will upgrade and advance in different categories which gives you more resources on the next “income phase” which is essentially rounds of the game once everyone runs out of money.
A good strategy may be to choose one color path (yellow for technology or red for military) and steadily upgrade so you can specialize in those resources and those upgrades. This will allow you the most opportunity to advance to the final part of the track and gain the most benefits.
Overall – Tapestry is a Fun Family Game
You can topple your opponents on the world map and gain more points, or you can play cooperatively and simply go around to gain more resources.
Whatever your option – plan for a game of fun and variety. Every time you play it’s a new path and a new game. You may get over 100 points in the end for a full built up city and advancements, or you may end up with less than 50 points. No matter what, this game is less competitive and more intriguing and challenging for all ages.