Workshop Wednesday: Picture Perfect, Atiwa & Mosaic

Due to popular demand, we will now be teaching three games on Wednesdays.

This Wednesday we will be playing Picture Perfect, Atiwa & Mosaic.

Picture Perfect: 7.0

How do you take the perfect picture of a group of people if you only have one try? Each character has different wishes. Some want to be at the front of the picture; some want to stand next to another; and some really don't want to be next to that one particular person by any means. Do your best to make everyone happy – even if you don't actually know all the characters' preferences.

In Picture Perfect, first released as Der perfekte Moment, you need to arrange fourteen characters to take the perfect photograph. Each of them has three specific desires that you want to fulfill. Unfortunately, these desires are hidden in envelopes.

During the game, the players try to take a look inside these envelopes to figure out how to place the characters correctly. To do so, they trade their information with others — or maybe try to hide it...

Whoever earns the most points at the end of the game has fulfilled the most desires and becomes the master photographer.

Atiwa: 7.5

The Atiwa Range is a region of southeastern Ghana in Africa consisting of steep-sided hills with rather flat summits. A large portion of the range comprises an evergreen forest reserve, which is home to many endangered species. However, logging and hunting for bushmeat, as well as mining for gold and bauxite, are putting the reserve under a lot of pressure.

Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Kibi, the mayor is causing a stir by giving shelter to a large number of fruit bats in his own garden. This man has recognized the great value the animals have in deforested regions of our planet: Fruit bats sleep during the day and take off at sunset in search of food, looking for suitable fruit trees up to sixty miles away. They excrete the seeds of the consumed fruit, disseminating them across large areas as they fly home. A single colony of 150,000 fruit bats can reforest an area of up to two thousand acres a year.

Just like that mayor, in Atiwa, you know that fruit bats — once scorned and hunted as mere fruit thieves — are in fact incredibly useful animals, spreading seeds over large areas of the country. By doing so, they help to reforest fallow land and, in the medium term, improve harvests. This realization has led to a symbiotic cooperation between fruit bats and fruit farmers. The animals are kept as "pets" to increase the size of fruit farms more quickly. Tall trees are left as roosts, providing shelter for them rather than hunting them for their scant meat. However, if you have a lot of fruit bats, you need a lot of space.

In the game, you will develop a small community near the Atiwa Range, creating housing for new families and sharing your newly gained knowledge on the negative effects of mining and the importance that fruit bats have on the environment. You must acquire new land, manage your animals and resources, and make your community prosper. The player who best balances the needs of their community and the environment wins.

Mosaic: 7.6

Mosaic: A Story of Civilization is a Civilization-Building game from Glenn Drover, designer of, among others, Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery, Railways of the World, Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame, and Raccoon Tycoon.

Mosaic is an action selection game. On your turn, you will perform one of eight actions and acquire pillars of civilization.

Acquiring pillars is important in creating the unique mosaic of your civilization. They are used as prerequisites for many new technologies, as well as for scoring. Also, by pursuing a specialization in one or more civilization pillars, you may be able to claim a ‘Golden Age’ of that type.

As the game goes on and your civilization grows, scoring cards are eventually revealed from the four decks. Each time a scoring card is revealed, your civilization will score for each region that you dominate with your cities, towns, wonders, and military units. After the third scoring card is revealed, there is one final turn, and the game ends. You will then score for your cities and towns, your wonders, projects, achievements, and golden ages, and for all of your cards that score for your unique civilization pillars.

-description from publisher (corrected and updated)

Please note that the solo rules are only included in the Kickstarter editions, not in the retail versions (although they are available as print-and-play in French at the very least).

Come join us on Wednesday, November 22nd @ 6:00 p.m. to learn any of these games for Workshop Wednesday. See you soon!

*This event requires a 1-Day Membership, credit will be applied back for qualifying purchases. Current Members are always free for this event.*