Stamp Swap

Not a great game in my opinion, lots of luck and very little control of what happens.

solo approved

Toothless and bland. The collection of stamps crossed with how valuable/valueless certain stamps are to various players often makes the splitting without any meaningful decisions. The surrounding tableau building is bland.

I was really excited for this game and it didn't disappoint! Like most Stonemaier games setup was a breeze and learning it was even faster. The art on the main board was great and the stamp tiles were very pleasing. This is the type of game you can play at a game night as a starter or finisher but also would be a great game to play on a work night. The I cut, you choose mechanic was interesting and gave it a really fun bluffing opportunity. I think this game lives up to Stonemaier and Paul Salomon's name. I'm not a stamp guy but I'll enjoy replaying this more!

What a terrific game!

From a publisher that has brought us some of the most elegantly designed games ever made, this one is a huge miss for me and my first big Stonemaier dissapointment.

The game is beautiful and has great components - the color palate is lovely and some pieces, such as the gold stamps and colorful event tickets, are really exciting. It does take up a huge amount of space - even with a full dinner table with a leaf added, we had trouble fitting a 5 player game on the table, and it's hard to see opponent's stamps when it comes time to the swap phase, or read the text on specialist cards (so it becomes easier to just skip them).

The main downfall of the game is how clunky it plays - the overwrought setup of the stamps prior to the collect phase, the laborious placement of stamps where you have to reference 5 or more potential goals at the same time, and the complex and ultimately unnecessary specialist cards are examples of things that bog the game down so that it never moves at a pace that feels exciting or fun.

The game's main mechanics - the tile selection and the "I split you choose" mechanics - are at direct conflict with each other, so that what you pick doesn't feel that important since you only have partial control over what you're ultimately keeping for your board.

The Contest Cards are underwritten and not well explained on the cards themselves or in the rulebook, so be prepared for some rule debates at the table, and even things that seem like they should be simple (such as what constitutes a "group" can be frustratingly ambiguous when playing the game), and depending on which cards you choose they may not even ultimately matter (the last game we played, groups only mattered for one card, making the placement of tiles feel completely arbitrary).

This feels like the first playtest demo of something that will become a much better game in the future - it's much more complex than it feels like it should be for the simplicity of its presentation, it doesn't reward you for the choices you make, and it just isn't fun to play. I can't imagine this making it back to the table after our first two plays.