First Look: Pastiche the Board Game from Gryphon Games

Gryphon Games has a new board game in the pipeline, “Pastiche.”  The game releases in the next few months and Gryphon Games  kindly forwarded the box art and rules to me for an early look. “Pastiche” is an art-themed set collection board game using the premise that each player gathers specific color palette cards and combines them to complete artistic commissions.

Players acquire palette color cards by playing hex tiles and combining the two  or more colors on either side of the connection point(s). As one of the many color-blind gamers this mechanic made me a bit nervous, but these are primary colors so it is not an issue.  As with other tile-laying games, I sense many opportunities to mess with other players. “Oh, I am so sorry, did you need that side of the tile? Oops, I blocked it totally without malice and by accident.” Wink, wink, nudge. nudge.

Here is an image of a player making a tile connection.

Here are some of the colors derived from the connections. This shot came from a useful reference sheet that comes with the game.

Victory points derive from completed commissions (all of which are famous paintings) and whatever remains in your hand at game’s end.

“Pastiche” is relatively rules light, with only an eight page rulebook and feels like a “fast” game.  “Pastiche” supports 2-4 players and an estimated play time of 45-60 minutes. Once I get a chance to play it, I will post a review.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer