Review: Partido

[Black_Wolf]

You have to appreciate a board game that comes in a small box with rules so simple they are printed on the inside of the box top.

That is one of the reasons to like Partido by designer Nick Ryan.

Partido is a tile laying game with a simple objective. "Match as many shapes as you can to score points. The first player to 21 points wins."

The games can be learned in about three-minutes.

"Stack and place all tiles face down in reach of other players, or leave them in the box. Draw a tile and place it face up to start. Decide which player goes first, turns rotate clockwise.

"The first player draws one face down tile and tries to match one or more of the shapes on their tile with any existing tiles on the playing area.

"If two or more shapes are matched, one point is awarded for every completed shape (two, three or four). Never one," details the simple rules.

And that my friend's is the extent of Partido.

If it was a longer game in a facet it would edge toward more effort than the game warrants, but as it is, it's great.

Think of this one as a filler game, or conversational one for a small group, it plays two to five, which will remind a bit of Quartex in its play, a tile-laying game I also highly recommended some time ago.

Check it out at www. idyllwildgames.com

Thanks to fellow gamers Jeff Chasse, Trevor Lyons and Adam Daniels for their help in running through this game for review.