Mosaic: A Story of Civilization

Rick: Hey, Pete?

Pete: Hey, what?

Rick: You like empire and civilization building games, right?

Pete: Typically, I love them. As long as they are not too abstract. However, I do feel like admitting that is saying the quiet part out loud. So many of those games—all of them, really—are based on imperialism and colonialism. At best, they are unapologetically restating—and at worst, are celebrating or romanticizing—some of the darkest times in human history. It’s not a great look.

Rick: No, no, this game is different. What if I told you that this game wasn’t about colonialism or imperialism or subjugation, but about building a community of civilizations?

Pete: I would say that this game was glossing over some important historical lessons.

Rick: No, no, no—players build their civilizations and weave them together like a tapestry.

Pete: Ah, I know that game. It’s called Tapestry, and it’s entirely too abstract for my tastes. The map is a silly grid and there are not enough decks of cards in the game. I like decks and decks of cards.

Rick: Well, that’s fair. Everybody has their own preferen–

Pete: I mean, likening a civilization-building game to tapestry that is not Tapestry, given that Tapestry is a well-known civilization-building game, is just confusing.

Rick: Sor-sorry about that. Anyway—

Pete: If you’re going to do that, why not talk about simple war games where the “name of the game is risk” but the game that you are talking about is not, in fact, Risk?

Rick: See, I didn’t quite do that, so—

Pete: Or why not talk about an art-themed game where you create on a canvas that is not Canvas?

Rick: Is there such a thing? See, I’m not sure that’s an issue.

Pete: I mean, why not just go the other direction and throw any kind of sensible or reasonable naming convention out the window? 

Rick: Um—what?

Pete: Before you know it, your “friends” will ask you if you want to play “Art Bar,” but little did you know, there is no “play” because there is no game, and you wind up at an art bar just tipsy enough to be grumpy, wholly unaware that you’ve paid forty-nine bucks for an evening of painting a sad sunflower and sipping on a whiskey sour that almost certainly has more than a dab of acrylic paint it it.

Rick: Wow. Who hurt you?

Pete: Or maybe they tell you about some new game called “Mosaic” and before you know it, you’re in the car (not your own) on the way to a decoupage class!

Rick: Well, this is a little uncanny.

Pete: What? What is?

Rick: “Mosaic” is the name of the game.

Pete: What game?

Rick: The civilization-building game I came in to tell you that we should unbox before you went down the rabbit hole of one of your typical rants.

Pete: Wait, really?

Rick: Yeah, Mosaic: A Story of Civilization (2022), designed by Glenn Drover and published by Forbidden Games. It’s a civilization-building, action-selection game. On your turn, you will perform one of seven actions and acquire components. Acquiring components is important in creating the unique mosaic of your civilization. They are used as prerequisites for many new technologies, as well as for scoring.

Pete: I’m on to you. If I end up in a decoupage class with the Sarahs, I’m taking you down.

Rick: It has a map plus decks and decks of cards.

Pete: I’m in.