11 great polyomino games
I'm breaking down some of the great games using polyomino tile placement.
Like all great concepts in board games, there comes a time when a mechanism, feature, or concept reaches some sort of critical mass, exploding on to the wider board gaming scene. I have long assumed this was the case with the polyomino tile-laying game, that there was a simmering under the surface, then a burst. A sort of Old Faithful sort of situation. (A side note: I saw Old Faithful this summer. It was very cool. It also felt a bit like the most tourist-focused thing at Yellowstone National Park, where there were so many amazing sights. I dunno, interesting thing, that.)
What’s a polyomino? You might be asking an important question here. Consider this: A domino is a rectangle composed of two squares. A polyomino is composed of at least one square, and most of these games are composed of three, four or five squares, if not more. You probably also know Tetris, the classic video game — those are all tetrominoes, a four-square subset of all polyominoes.
On reflection, though, I’ve realized something more. That simmering under the surface? That might have just been Uwe Rosenberg all on his own. The legendary German designer released games one after another featuring polyominos, and that might have spurred the rest of the industry on to further action. One cannot be totally certain about these things, but it’s easy to track a trajectory. (Patchwork, in 2014, begat A Feast for Odin and Cottage Carden in 2016, which begat Indian Summer and Spring Meadow and Second Chance and New York Zoo and — deep breath here — apparently Planet Nubo? You get the idea.) Of course, the polyomino is not a design element exclusive to Uwe Rosenberg games. He does feature in today’s subject, but he’s far from the only designer using these magical pieces.
My focus today isn’t necessarily historical. I’m not out to tell you about the origin of polyominoes, but you will recognize them in games like Tetris, and they’ve featured in mathematical puzzles for over a century. The term was originated by the famed mathematician Martin Gardner in a Scientific American column in 1960, but the general concept predates the term.
Blokus: The first (really good) polyomino tile game
So, Blokus might not be the first true polyomino tile game — Pentominoes in 1953 gets that nod, although I can’t find anything aside from the year as far as information about this one is concerned. There are also two separate tabletop versions of Tetris that were both released in 1989; they too don’t get the nod. No, we’re going all the way to the year 2000 and the game Blokus. It’s the first of the polyomino games that is still generally regarded as quite good, and it’s where we’ll start today.
In Blokus, you have a collection of polyominoes ranging from all 1-square to 5-square free polyominoes — meaning they can be rotated, flipped over, turned around, all that, and it’s not a separate shape. On your turn, you’ll place one of your pieces on a big ol’ grid, starting at your corner. You can then expand outward from there, but you must touch at least one of your other pieces diagonally, and you can never touch them orthogonally. You’re of course opposed in this by at least one other player, who is doing the same thing while also attempting to block you off from placement. Careful consideration of your pieces and your opponent’s pieces will be vital. This is a really fantastic abstract game, and it still remains one of the greatest polyomino board games.
Patchwork: The first game in the Uwe Rosenberg Polyomino Compendium
OK — there’s not actually a compendium of these games, but perhaps they should be. We’ll cover some of them in more depth than others.
Patchwork, designed by Uwe Rosenberg, is one of the greatest family-weight games of the last decade (I can say this only for a few more months, though. 1: Happy September! 2: It came out in 2014. Time flies. Sorry about the reminder.) It’s also a great little two-player polyomino-based tile-laying game. It also features a rondel, I guess. Remember when rondels were all the rage? I do.
A tangent here to discuss rondels. Sorry. You got me talking again. So, a rondel is a divided circle with game actions you can take, and you, as a player, have choices from one point of that circle to another point on that circle, usually a few spots away. When you take an action, you’ll then only have actions from that point to another defined point on the circle. You’ll rotate around the circle as actions are taken, so actions will come available again. They became a big part of Euro game design, but that’s a relatively new occurrence. Glen More features a rondel, and I really love that game. (I guess it also features a bunch of single-square polyominoes, but that’s stretching the definition far beyond reason.) It feels like the late ‘00s featured a few rondel-centric Euro games, and it’s only grown since. I actually think 2018’s Teotihuacan may have played a big role in the rise of the rondel, too. (Say that three times fast!) Alright, tangent over — let’s get back on track.
So, Patchwork. A rondel? I guess it’s technically a rondel as I described it above, because on each turn, you’re selecting from one of the next three quilt tiles encircling the score track, then moving a marker to the place from where you’ve plucked a tile. The next three are then selectable, and you’ll thus circle around the pieces to be selected. I guess that’s a rondel by a loose definition, but if I went around calling Patchwork a rondel game among players of heavy Euro games, I might get myself some dirty looks.
Anyway, Patchwork’s neat. There’s a time track, and the player furthest back on the time track gets to take a turn. Each piece you select has a button cost (in that quilt-lover’s dream where buttons are currency) and a time cost. Pieces may have buttons depicted; at certain points on the time track, you’ll trigger income, and you receive one button for each button depicted on your board. It’s a pretty simple design, but it’s better described as elegant than bland, I think. It’s also a joy at which to look.
A Feast for Odin: The Uwe Rosenberg Polyomino Compendium’s heaviest entry
Uwe Rosenberg has designed some of the best medium-heavy-weight games in the annals of the hobby. He’s the designer of the all-time classics like Agricola, Le Havre, Caverna and Ora et Labora. (He also designed Bohnanza. The guy has done a lot. Also, Ora et Labora features a rondel. We’re going full circle here. Ha, get it? OK. Sorry.) One stands above the rest — at least if we’re looking at polyominoes: A Feast for Odin, a game in which you’re playing as viking explorers. There are a ton of ways to earn points, but almost all of them involve the polyomino. Food, animals, treasure, weapons, equipment, and even ships are all represented by polyomino tiles.
Without getting too in-depth here, you’ll basically be placing tiles on different boards to do different things. It’s a woefully inadequate description of the game, but is it wrong? I don’t know. As you explore, you’ll get to place tiles on exploration boards. As you build, you’ll get to place tiles on building tiles. When you want to increase your income, you’ll place tiles you earn from various takes on your personal board, and you’ll earn income accordingly. There’s a lot to this game, but it’s also a game that feels like it’s offering you all sorts of opportunities at every turn. I really, really like it.
The continued compendium
I can’t believe we’re 1,200 words into this. Oof. I better hurry here.
Cottage Garden is a game about gardening. You’ll place tiles on your planting board, trying to fill every empty square with a tile. When you complete a board, you’ll earn points for uncovered pots and plant covers.
Indian Summer is a game about taking a walk in the forest. You’re filling your board with tiles, but each tile features an open spot with which you’ll see the board below. On your board, you’ll have little treasures — berries, mushrooms, nuts and feathers. You want those to be visible with the hole on a tile, if you can help it.
Spring Meadow is a game about taking a mountain hike. On a mountain board featuring a plethora of little burrows, you’re placing tiles that have between zero and two holes. If you manage to place a hole over a burrow, it counts as cleared. That’s great for scoring.
I don’t know if I have a favorite of the three right now. I’m sort of interested in playing them more, but each of them is, I think, pretty good and not great. I don’t think that’s too controversial. I think they work really well together as a trio, and respect to Mr. Rosenberg for finding three different ways to use polyominoes in a nature theme with each feeling pretty different. I like that.
I should also mention New York Zoo, which is a zoo-building game in which you’re taking zoo tiles (they’re polyominoes!) As you build your zoo, you’ll fill those polyomino tiles with animals, which will then breed at certain points of the game. It’s a nice one.
Four more really cool polyomino games
The Isle of Cats is a game about rescuing cats from an island of … cats before some evil figure arrives. The theme’s something, isn’t it? You’re filling a boat with cats, which of course are polyomino tiles. There are a bunch of different colors of cats, and forming groups of cats of a color gives you points. Some other things give you points, too. It kind of changes every game. I really enjoy The Isle of Cats, even though I think I’m more of a dog person. Designed by Frank West (not the photographer), published by The City of Games.
The Kakapo: Buddy & Party is a super-cool cooperative tile-laying trick-taker that I wrote about recently. I’ll probably write about it in a little more depth soon, especially if it ever finds North American distribution. Anyway, you’re looking for birds (polyomino-tile birds!) in this game, and you’re surrounding them with polyomino tiles based on the suit and rank of the card that won the trick. No designer listed, published by Chatra Games.
Tiny Towns may seem a little out of place, because you’re placing individual tokens in a polyomino pattern, not placing a polyomino tile. I’m counting it, though. As you place tokens, when you reach one of several polyomino patterns used in a game, you’ll place a building piece, which will lead to points at the end of the game. Designed by Peter McPherson, published by AEG.
NMBR 9 is an abstract game in which each round, you and your opponents will all place a polyomino shaped like a number on your board — think the classic alarm clock numbers. You can stack number tiles, supposing you’re not leaving an empty gap underneath any portion of the tile. At the end of the game, you’ll get points for every tile that’s stacked at least one level high, earning more points for larger numbers placed at higher levels. Designed by Peter Wichmann, published by ABACUSSPIELE.
Hey, thanks again for being here! It turns out that there are a bunch of polyomino games I’d like to write about, so expect some more of that at some point in the next few months.
Next week: Wilmot’s Warehouse!