Calico Review - Brutal Cat Carcassone 

I am so excited for this game. I feel like the entire game is similar to a relationship with a cat...it has distain for you, but you still feel elated by a nugget of positive attention.

As a person who sews and owns 3 cats I can attest you don't need to assemble a fancy quilt to please them - just lay your fabric out on the floor to cut out your pieces and all 3 will happily pile onto it to get in the way. : ) Great video - looks like a fun game!

LOL loved ur review!! I’m not a gamer & really loved this bc of the quilting & cats. The book actually suggests a beginner game w/ millie, tibbet & coconut as the cat goals (3 or more of a pattern) until you’re all comfortable. We have since flipped the cats over & now have to find them in the specific shapes. I’m really happy w/ the purchase bc it’s a beautifully made game & you can play a solo chill game depending on the goals u set 4 urself or adjusting the difficulty in a group setting. I love how u can build from the tiles on ur board already & it just looks so pretty when u’re done!

1. me, drinking coffee while watching seemingly harmless video 2. Efka casually dropping uwu out of nowhere 3. the predictible result

Hate to break it to you Efka but that is not a cat....it's clearly a ferret.

That UwU killed me. "Efka we need to widen our target audience so we get more views. Here is this game with an animal on the box, now you just have to say uwu in the video!" "Uvu? What does that mean?" "I'm not sure, just write it somewhere in the script. It's written with a 'W'"

What an incredible cat you have! My cat also enjoys going on long walks on the beach in her navy blues, yearning for the day her captain will say the crew’s homeward bound-a hallucination in the island sun, craving a return to a family that has long since thought the crew of the HMS Meowsers dead and buried. But not this cat. It would be weeks on surviving on coconuts and palms collecting water until a saving grace would come, a flash drive containing a single mp4 titled “Calico Review” with a man discussing a game about cardboard quilts. Unfortunately due to lacking any way to watch or engage with digital multimedia works, my cat simply stared at the flash drive and yearned for the days of bird footage playing on a TV screen. One day she knew she would return home, but that day is not today. She imagines the video on the drive and says “yeah that’s pretty good, should buy the game whenever I can”

Calico is one of my family's favorite games, and this is a fantastic review. I noticed a mistake in the video, though. At 2:30 there's a shot showing 4 Tecolote tokens. But the string of flower pattern tiles going from top left to bottom right only counts as 1 group. Groups have to be distinct and separate in order to count, so what you have there is 1 group of 8, not 2 groups of 4. Page 9 of the rulebook says "Groups of the same pattern that touch each other will *not* attract another cat." Love your reviews!

This is the best board game review I've ever randomly stumbled across. Bravo!

"How do u gwet twiles and how do u plwace them uwu?"

UwU

I don't think I've laughed more at any of your previous reviews! Great writing in this one, love it :D

Such a great review. Trying to double score on the 3 big objectives will cause you to throw away so many other points. IT"S A TRAP. But, I fall for it EVERY TIME.

What I found funny about this game is that ginger cat is drawn on the box art of the game, instead of calico cat :D

Man, I know I haven't played this game, but this theme, while lovely, feels like a jarring mismatch to me. A brutal, unforgiving, cruel, stressful and uncompromising mental gauntlet does not scream "cats sleeping on a quilt uwu" to me. Still, for my playgroup, that mismatch would make it funnier and all the more enjoyable. There would be much hollering and swearing at fictional cats and their arcane needs.

I played one game of this and felt like a cat was scratching my brain the entire time so cat/5 really

Glad you liked Calico. I really enjoy it but I get that for a lot of people it can be very frustrating. That feeling of having a perfect plan that you keep having to slightly give up as the tiles come up is great, but also can be infuriating.

been super into Barenpark recently, this seems like a hellmode version of that I love it

I love this game in all it's unforgiving, brutal, stressful glory. I love how true it stays to it's philosophy and how it allows you to fail through your own mistakes (and that darn opponent who always takes the one piece that would save you). The stress of drawing a piece you need and having to sit through a full round, hoping no one else takes it. The last 3rd of the game, where possibilities have turned to prayers, and finally pure damage control. I love it!!

I need to buy this for my wife. She'll destroy me at it, as I'm not good at these kinds of games. But it just looks so fun. Excellent review, as always!

Thanks again for a review that manages to give enough information about the game for me to decide if I like it based on my own preferences, without praising or bashing the game too much.

It's the same sort of thing that happens in Sagrada too. At a certain point during the game you realize there is no possible combination of dice you can place that will achieve every goal, so you're forced to choose which ones you'll focus on and which you'll abandon.

Cool as cats. Thanks. Just acquired the game a few days ago and love it! Ended up making my own cat- storage box for the 3-11point cat tokens.

Met a sloth named Bart a few months ago. Can confirm, he was chill AF.

I highly recommend this game it is excellent. We’ve played it 30 times already. Great value thanks for drawing attention to a good game

truly the dark souls of the casual cozy puzzle builder world

Mate your comedy is on point! Big fan! got some genuine laughs out of me :) great job

While I have enjoyed your non-review content lately, this is - without a doubt - a triumphant return-to-form!

I almost spit up my drink when you said UwU. still coughing lol

This game is even more fun with the Luzapalooza roll-and-write variant!

Having had both a jack russell, a parson russell and an actual cat, I can vouch for that the terriers were more cats than the cat.

As to the game. It really is deceptively simple to learn, but such a hard puzzle to try and maximize goals. I love it.

*Intense CATS the musical flashback* *Shudder*

Every time I bust out this game I'm ready for a very chill session and instead my brain implodes from the intense puzzle

I love your humour and this video is just excellent. Thank you so much.

Love your videos. Funniest board game reviews out there.

This is the reason why the Beatles wrote 'we all live in a lemon submarine'

this game is brilliant. WHen I think of all the games in my collection that just get it right and I'll never get rid of, this is one of them.

Very well behaved cat

This game is fiendishly difficult while at the same time feeling super cozy. I love it, definitly in my top 8.

One of my favorite games. I play it with my fiance weekly.

Played this game a load on tabletopia and loved it, you summed it up perfectly Efka. Looks cute, cuddly and a sedate but those cats have CLAWS. I've pre ordered my copy for when it finally comes back into UK stock. I will have to mark you down for what looks like fake grass though, sorry that's the rules.

So, a game about you trying your best ;against all odds life throw against you; to please the cat but at the end it still prefer to stay in the box everything comes in? That’s so accurate.

Hearing Efka say uwu is my spirit animal now

The game seems to be an incarnation of cats.

😆 nice one. Btw. very chilled cat.

I love Calico. It's perfect for my tastes.

That's some fun! ...some masochistic fun.. :D

If NPI is using the term "welcoming game", that means it's officially a term, right?

Great production and a very good overview of the game

I love Calico so much. When I played it with my mom she said it was nothing special... needless to say I was a little bit offended

how is it you have Luna? I have a totally different cat for the thid level one :O

Hey, thanks for the review. I find agreeing with you on most counts. Could you compare it with Curious Cargo, which you didn't like ? I haven't played it, but felt from your & SUSD review that they had similar mechanics. Mainly, I feel like "staying open" and having tiles able to do multiple things and adapting on the fly depending on what comes up is the greatest asset of a player in those games. But I feel there must be something missing from Curious Cargo that you liked here !

Nice review but this looks like a game i might dislike even more than Tiny Towns.

I'd been wondering what this game was actually like. Thank you!

Who knew a game that looks so cute and welcoming is actually cruel and unforgiving. So basically like a cat.

This review is spot on!

He’s a mat! Half man , half cat. He’s his own worst friend.

Great review! Tried to love this game and ended up passing it along. Waaay too frustrating for me. Without any ways to mitigate the luck of the draw, every game of this feels like death by 1000 cuts. Constant negative reinforcement instead of positive, a game of small sacrifices instead of victories. I can see the appeal though, it was hard to get rid of purely because of the theme and component quality.

The anti-feline sentiment in this video feels like a personal attack on me and my cats! (but awesome and funny and cute review though)

You have a fine looking cat there

Move to Da Vinci for editing. It’s just better without renting for! Ever!

Dogs, the best kinds of cats.

Efkats!!!

This video was... just... great!

When he said UwU I died laughing

Best cat video EVER!

Fantastic presentation style - welcoming, interesting and funny. Keep it up!

It is a great game. It’s quite popular with people I play with.

I had to Google UwU. I guess I'm officially old.

Definitely buying this game

Your videos are awesome.

Featuring guest writing by Contrapoints

you forgot the Skillshare link, it just says [LINK]

I wish I liked this game more. I feel like the timing when a potential plan becomes crystallised is too far after a whole bunch of random stuff has happened. The importance of a piece only becomes clear too often too late for me.

Day 274: I did not bring back the ball ... again. I think I managed to fool them for today.

I absolutely love this game

Ok. The hat. Yes.

Puppy cats are an acceptable equal exchange for real cats.

wiggle wiggle

D-do you have astroturf instead of a lawn?

You want some fun? Play this with cats in the room...

How much player interaction is there in this game?

Upvote for "cat"

Ive been trying to track a copy of this down for ages. It is as illusive as a cat that youre actively looking for.

Laughed my ass off 🤣 . Lost it at the slow pan to Luna's requirements "When you open the box you are Immediately presented with a lie" You missed 1 warning-lie before it: the box. It's named "Calico" but features, not a calico, but an orange tabby. This forwarns that developing a Not-Give-A-F*ck attitude toward mismatched nonsense is basically a prereq to enjoying this game

F-cats Bladucats!

Hope for a expansion. ✌🏻

"Efkats"

They can also outside like all of the other parasitic animals. Lolololol. Tell us how you really feel.

Cats are amazing, cats rule, I welcome our cat overloads (help I’m being held hostage by a cali-), I love cats (hellllpj

So it's a cat

Haha so funny