Starting Over with Tapestry and a New Civilization Game
Build a civilization through the eras with a combination of science, technology, exploration, and military in Tapestry.
It feels like it’s been an era since I last played Tapestry! Back in 2019, it arrived and I gave it a single play before packing it up. When I wanted to dive into something new, the box practically cried out to me. Then again, it was hard to hear over the din of all the other unplayed or underplayed games! Yet it won out, and I prepared for some civilization fun!
Game Overview
Game Name: Tapestry
Publication Year: 2019
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Artists: Andrew Bosley and Rom Brown
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Put simply, the overall goal is to advance along 4 different tracks. Yet that does a disservice to the moving parts that provide interesting bonuses, exciting late-game moves, and plenty of variety with seemingly endless choices. This is about building a civilization and all the intricacies of it.
First Play
November 4, 2019
Complexity
3
Latest Play
September 7, 2025
Expansions
3
Setup Time
15 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
22
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
301
Game Area
38" x 30"
Low Score
108
Are You Entertained?
Multiple civilizations provide unique bonuses and guide certain play styles. Setup involves a choice between 2.
I chose to go with the entertainers. Although very varied, I still had to choose a general path to get the right sort of bonus during every income phase. Already a decision!
The civilization may also be hand-picked rather than chosen randomly. However, since I had basically no experience, going with the entertainers seemed right!
Just shuffling through a few others made me appreciate the differences. There was a lot of content right there.
Easy Solo Management
Although I always refer to my challenger as the solo opponent, this is another Automa design by none other than Morten Monrad Pedersen. Simply fantastic!
Each pair of cards creates a central area that determines exactly what happens. Seems complicated? Not at all.
The track icons show the priority should there be a tie for what’s depicted, whether that be the nearest landmark or closest track to completion. A single play makes this clear.
Other icons and sections indicate tiebreakers, income timing, and special conquer actions. Very easy, I promise!
In the Beginning
Such a neat little setup with the income buildings. As these are earned, they go on a capital city mat to fill in a little puzzle and provide extra bonuses. A fun mini-game!
Beneath each building is another bonus, so that each income phase becomes steadily more lucrative.
At the start, only 1 of each resource is earned. Yet by the end, that might be closer to 5 resources of some types.
Of other importance are the card slots labeled 2, 3, and 4. These are where tapestry cards are played, providing either one-time bonuses or ongoing era effects.
The Story of the Land
I played through to the end, never stopping for much since the sequence was so straightforward and I didn’t have time to pause in my thinking. There was a victory in store!
The main map is something that can sometimes tell its own tale. My pieces, represented by yellow, spread out and clearly showed a dominant civilization everywhere.
The solo opponent and the secondary opponent, known as the Shadow Empire, were rather quiet in the west.
Please also note that the entertainers conquered the middle island, which was worth some extra victory points!
A Tapestry of Life
It wasn’t easy to put together a coherent set of tapestry cards for my civilization. This told of a switch from military to technology and then… Pleading for aid? Ha!
Tapestry cards aren’t always easy to come by, though, so it’s important to find some that make sense.
Then again, sometimes the best thing possible is to pick up a couple of victory points and find ways to earn more.
I felt like this was possibly the weakest part of the game for me, only because it was so random. My choice not to go for more tapestry cards may have biased me, though!
Back to the Future with a Tapestry of Thoughts
I want to quickly note that I’m a little behind on my session reports, so I’m writing this up after playing a lot more to explore more strategies. The bottom line is that the level 1 solo opponent offers very little resistance and probably isn’t a good starting place for most seasoned board game players. Take some of my early criticisms with a grain of salt!
This was a great way to get used to the mechanics of running the solo opponent, but I felt like I was just pushing pieces around most of the time. Please keep in mind that this is not the usual experience, though! I still wanted to document some of my initial thoughts for comparison. Know that it gets so much better even with the level 2 solo opponent!
The New Busytown
Did the game absolutely need these awesome prepainted miniatures and uniquely shaped income buildings? No. Yet what I thought was overproduction was just so cool!
My only real gripe was telling the buildings apart. So long as the grid spaces and general shape were close, I figured I was doing the best I could. And what a capital city!
Landmarks are earned for being the first into a certain tier for each track, so there’s a bit of a strategic race going on.
My forest region was a bustling sort of center where I picked up a few extra resources. But was it enough to win?
Session Overview
Play Number: 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Entertainers / Forest vs. Level 1
Outcome: 191-137 (Win)
A resounding success! It felt a little flat with the way I beat the solo opponent to most of the landmarks and other bonuses I was after. Maybe it was a little too easy for me? I didn’t feel a lot of tension and was almost disappointed by the end game. I think I knew I won before the halfway point, so hopefully things will improve at a higher difficulty level! Not too long of a wait… I’m excited to play!
%
20 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
10
+ Pros (Positives)
- There is a great deal of variety with all sorts of civilizations, tapestry cards, inventions, and capital cities.
- All of the rules are condensed in a short rulebook that’s easy to follow along with and learn from.
- Finding exciting combinations creates memorable moments in the later eras that are simply fun to carry out.
- Each track has its own bonuses, yet finding a balance between advancing along several is often beneficial.
- A civilization starts off with practically nothing but grows into something grand in a very satisfying way.
- Setup involves a lot of components and decks, yet it’s mostly intuitive and still doesn’t take that much time.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The level 1 solo opponent might be too simple to defeat and doesn’t showcase the challenges present in the game.
- Although the sequence for the solo opponent is straightforward, the reference cards don’t cover everything.
- Keeping track of the landmarks can be difficult since some look similar and they’re not individually labeled.
- All of the components look excellent but the required table space is extremely large and spreads out during play.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game against the level 1 solo opponent.
Win at least 1 game against the level 2 solo opponent.
Win at least 1 game against the level 3 solo opponent.
Win at least 1 game against the level 4 solo opponent.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Tapestry lately? What do you enjoy about it? There could very well be an excellent civilization-style game here! It’s possible that I just started off at a far too easy level. After all, there are 6 difficulty levels so I imagine I definitely need to find more of a challenge. I’m excited to keep digging into this one after it waited so long on a shelf!
Morten is great!
I’ve heard other people say that the actual “civilisation-building” part of the game doesn’t seem very important in play – but I haven’t tried this myself.
I have a bunch of additional posts incoming over the next week! There’s certainly an interesting game here, though I might agree that the feeling of building a civilization isn’t overarching. You might invent a neat technology or reach a high position on an advancement track, but does it tie back into the civilization? Hmm, good question. It’s certainly much less narrative than one might imagine, although I don’t count that as a major negative: Just the style of play, which I’m absolutely loving!