Calico rules: how to play and how to score

Calico quick rules

The goal

Everyone sews a quilt on their Quilt Board, one Patch Tile per turn. Every tile has a color and a pattern. You score by attracting cats, sewing buttons and completing your three Design Goal Tiles. When every quilt is full, the most points wins.

A game turn

You always hold two tiles. Place one on any open space of your board, then check whether you earn a cat or a button. Then take one of the three tiles in the market: never straight from the stack. The market is refilled, and the next player goes.

Attracting cats

Each of the three cats likes two patterns, shown by the Black and White Patch Tiles below it, and asks for a group of a given size or shape. Make a group of touching tiles sharing one of its favorite patterns, at that size or shape, and place one of that cat’s tokens on it. A group attracts only one cat.

Sewing buttons

A group of at least three touching tiles of the same color earns you one button of that color, only one even if the group grows. Each button is worth 3 points. With at least one button of each of the six colors, you also earn a rainbow button, worth 3 more points.

Design Goal Tiles

At the end of the game, each goal looks at the six tiles around it: three different pairs, all different, two sets of three… Completed with colors or with patterns, it scores the blue circle; completed with both at once, only the yellow circle. A missed goal costs nothing.

Game end and scoring

The game ends when every board is full, after 22 turns each. Everyone adds up their completed goals, the value of their cats and 3 points per button. On a tie, the most Cat Tokens wins, then the most Button Tokens; otherwise, the victory is shared.

Beginner pitfalls

The fabrics printed on the board’s edge count toward your groups. The same tile works by its color, for a button, and by its pattern, for a cat. Think early about the six spaces around each goal, and remember that the yellow circle replaces the blue one, it doesn’t add to it.

Solo

The market moves like a conveyor belt: after your pick, discard the tile furthest from the supply, slide the other one to the far end and refill the market from the supply. The rulebook also offers ten scenarios to play in a row, each with a score to reach.

How to score Calico

Design Goal Tiles

The points of your 3 completed Design Goal Tiles: the blue circle if completed with colors or with patterns, only the yellow circle if completed with both. Not completed: 0. For example, “all different” is worth 10 or 15, “three pairs” 7 or 11.

Cats

The value of your Cat Tokens: 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11 points each, depending on the cat.

Number of Cat Tokens

An optional line that scores nothing: on a tie, the player with the most Cat Tokens wins.

Buttons

The number of your Button Tokens, rainbow button included: 3 points each. After cats, the most buttons breaks ties.

Worked example

Emma: “all different” goal completed with patterns, 10; “three pairs” missed, 0; “two pairs and two singles” completed with colors and patterns, 8; so 18. Cats: Millie, Coconut and Gwenivere, 3 + 7 + 11 = 21. Five buttons: 15. Total: 18 + 21 + 15 = 54 points.

Common mistakes

• Adding both circles of a goal completed twice: only the yellow circle counts.
• Forgetting the rainbow button: it’s worth 3 points, like the others.
• Mixing colors and patterns in a goal: it’s completed all in colors or all in patterns.
• Counting two cats for one pattern area: an area attracts only one.

How to set up Calico

Setup takes about 5 minutes. For a first game, use Millie, Tibbit and Coconut, and the goals listed in the Design Goal step.