In the diverse world of tabletop games, finding connections between seemingly disparate games can be a delightful journey. Today, we’ll explore three different games, starting with Calico, then moving on to Splendor and Agricola, highlighting how they each offer unique experiences while sharing a sub-genre.
Calico
Calico is a beautiful tile-placement game where players are tasked with sewing the coziest quilt. The main genre of Calico is Tile Placement, with sub-genres including Pattern Building, Set Collection, and Spatial Awareness. Players strategically place tiles with different colors and patterns to attract cats, achieve pattern objectives, and create color groups. The balance between these different goals creates a compelling depth of strategy.
Splendor
Our second game, Splendor, shares the Set Collection sub-genre with Calico, but not its main genre. Its main genre is Engine Building, with sub-genres including Set Collection, Card Drafting, and Economic. In Splendor, players are Renaissance merchants trying to buy gem mines, transportation methods, and artisans who can turn these gems into beautiful jewelry. The player with the most prestige points wins.
Agricola
Lastly, Agricola shares the Spatial Awareness sub-genre with Calico, but again, not its main genre. Its main genre is Worker Placement, with sub-genres including Card Drafting, Spatial Awareness, and Resource Management. In Agricola, players are farmers building and managing their farms. They place family members on action spaces to gather resources, build facilities, and expand their family.
Why You’d Enjoy Splendor and Agricola
If you enjoy Calico, there are reasons you might also find enjoyment in Splendor and Agricola, even though they offer different experiences.
Splendor shares the Set Collection sub-genre with Calico. If you appreciate the strategic depth of gathering and managing resources to achieve specific goals in Calico, you’ll find a similar satisfaction in collecting and playing cards in Splendor to acquire developments and garner prestige.
Agricola, on the other hand, shares the Spatial Awareness sub-genre with Calico. If you enjoy the challenge of fitting tiles together in the most effective way in Calico, you’ll appreciate the spatial puzzle of organizing your farm in Agricola. Both games require careful planning and foresight to optimize your space.
Common Threads and Differences
While each game offers a unique experience, all three games require strategic planning and resource management. They all have elements of gathering and using resources (fabric tiles in Calico, gem cards in Splendor, and various farming resources in Agricola) to achieve goals. Yet, they each apply these concepts in different ways, providing a variety of strategic and thematic experiences.
In summary, if you’re a fan of Calico, venturing into Splendor and Agricola could offer you new challenges while maintaining some familiar elements. Despite their different main genres, their shared sub-genres offer similar strategic depth and satisfaction, showcasing the rich diversity and interconnectedness of the world of tabletop games.
