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How to Play

Calico

1-4 players 30-45 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Players craft quilts by strategically placing colorful pattern tiles to attract cats and earn buttons. Each turn, select a tile from your hand, place it on your quilt following specific pattern requirements, then draw a replacement. Creating matching color groups awards buttons, while certain pattern combinations lure cats to your quilt. Victory comes from scoring the most points through collected buttons, attracted cats, and successfully completed quilt patterns.

Published 2020

Calico

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Select Scoring Cats
Randomly select one Scoring Cat from each difficulty level (•, ••, and •••)
2
Place Button Components
Place the Button Scoring Tile and Button Tokens in the play area
3
Prepare the Tile Bag
Place all Patch Tiles in the bag
4
Distribute Player Materials
Each player takes a Quilt Board and a matching set of Design Goal Tiles
5
Create the Market
Draw 3 Patch Tiles to form the market
6
Determine First Player
The player who most recently pet a cat goes first

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Place a Patch Tile
Place one Patch Tile from your hand onto an empty space on your Quilt Board
2
Take from Market
Add one of the tiles in the market to your hand, then replace it by drawing from the bag
3
Placing Additional Tokens
To place another token of a colour/pattern you've already placed, the new group must not touch the previous group
4
Border Hexes
Partial hexes printed on the Quilt Board border count as part of groups

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Game End Trigger
The game ends when each player has filled their Quilt Board
2
Score Cats
Score the points indicated on the Cat Scoring Tile for each Cat Token on your Quilt
3
Score Buttons
Score 3 points for each Button on your quilt
4
Score Design Goals
Check if the 6 hexes surrounding each Goal Tile satisfy the requirement with colours, patterns, or both
5
Determine Winner
The player with the most points wins
6
Tiebreaker
If tied, the tied player with the most buttons wins

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

Hoe speel je... Calico

Hoe speel je... Calico

Instructional

How to Play Calico | Concise Board Game Rules & Instructions

How to Play Calico | Concise Board Game Rules & Instructions

Instructional

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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