An Artistic Endeavor

I recently got to try a new-ish board game from a designer named Sean D. MacDonald, called Pastiche. It's a tile laying game with, as you might expect from the title, an art theme.

Players draw two paintings from a deck (actual paintings from actual artists), each one listing up to seven different colors (out of 17 total in the game) needed to paint it. Each player also has two hex tiles in his hand at all times, with dabs of primary colors on them -- a big one in the center, and smaller ones on the six corners. In a nutshell, you play a tile on your turn, hooking it into the growing web of all players' tiles, and drawing one paint card for each intersection of two or three colors you play. You can then make certain trades with the bank using the paint cards you've acquired, trying to get to the colors you need to complete one of your paintings and score points. The first player to a certain point threshold ends the game -- though last minute bonuses for finishing paintings by the same artist might give you a bonus to pass that person and claim the win.

The rules to the game are pretty simple. The theme is very strong, and the vaguely Carcassonne-like tile play is a tried-and-true model for a game. The game has just a light streak of educational value to it without beating you over the head with it. The components are neat, including fold-out wooden easels on which each player can place his paintings-in-progress to hide them from the other players. In short -- good concept, pretty execution.

But not a flawless game. For starters, there are some difficult-to-learn rules about what colors combine to make other colors. Sure, everybody knows that red and yellow give you orange, black and white give you grey, and so forth. But blue-blue-red as purple and blue-red-red as magenta? What makes teal again? Amber? Bisque? Even when you know exactly what you need to make, you'll find yourself constantly referring to a crib sheet to recall how to make it. (At least they did provide the crib sheets.)

A bigger concern is the crippling degree of "analysis paralysis" possible here. You have two paintings in your hand. There are four more face up in a common area, with the ability to trade one of yours out once per turn at any time. You have two hexes to ponder, each with seven color blobs on them, two or three colors always represented, and six possible orientations for them all -- most with different outcomes. And the longer the game runs, the more options you have on where to play those tiles. You could easily spend several minutes looking for the play that best gets you the most paint you need... and then spend a while longer figuring out how to combine that paint in such a way to avoid discarding unnecessarily to the eight-paint hand limit you must obey at the end of your turn.

It is fun, when you get down to it. But you also just have to be a respectful player when playing it, willing to stop looking for "the perfect move" after a certain point in the interests of keeping the game moving. I can't help but feel like the ideal venue for this game would be in an iPad/iPhone/Android incarnation, where you could take all the time you wanted on your turn before passing it along to the next player. Maybe someone will get on that.

I think this game deserves a variable rating, depending on who you play it with. I'd give my initial experience a B- or B... but I could easily see the game slipping whole letter grades if played with the wrong people.