Shifting Stones by Gamewright is a game of tiles and tactics. On the table are nine ancient stones that can be shifted or flipped, in order to achieve specific pattern cards you’ve been dealt. Will you attempt to achieve as many pattern cards as quickly as possible and build up lower point cards, or hold your turns back in order to achieve fewer, but higher point cards.
Shifting Stones is all about thinking ahead of the moves you’d like to take, although don’t think too hard, as your opponents are doing the same and messing up your beautifully planned patterned routes!
This beautifully designed game is perfect to introduce to new gamers or to play in between heavier games. The artwork is beautiful, the set up easy and it requires just the right amount of brain power. It’s a game I just keep coming back to – so, how do you play?
Set Up
A super quick and simple set up for this one. Shuffle the ancient stone tiles and randomly place them in a 3×3 grid on the table, ensuring they’re all orientated in the same direction. Shuffle the deck of pattern cards and deal four cards to each player, stacking the rest close to the grid. Give each player a reference card. Done!
Time to Start Shifting Stones
You may take as many turns as you’d like and in any order, providing you have cards to either discard or score.
To shift a stone, discard one of your pattern cards, and switch the position of two tiles, either horizontally or vertically (never diagonally).
To flip a stone, discard one of your pattern cards, and choose a stone to flip over to the opposite side, revealing a different picture.
Once you’ve achieved a layout on the grid that matches one of your pattern cards, you can place that card face up in front of you, which will count towards your end of game score. The pattern card orientation must match the grid, and your cards can only be scored on your turn (you aren’t allowed to score your cards if another player has magically made the pattern you want on their turn).
Your turn is likely to end when you don’t have any pattern cards left to either score or discard, but you can choose to stop at any time, and draw back to four cards. Alternatively, you can choose to skip your turn completely and opt to draw two additional cards instead, bringing your hand up to six cards, which could potentially make it easier to score higher pattern card points later on. Although, you cannot skip your go twice in a row, you greedy card hoarder!
Who Won?!
The end of the game is triggered when a player has laid a certain number of pattern cards (10 cards for 2 players, 9 cards for 3 players, 8 cards for 4 players and 7 cards for 5 players). Once a player has laid their final card, all other players finish their final turn and then tally the points on the scored cards in front of you. The player who played the most ‘1 point’ cards, receives a 3 point bonus, so watch out now. Overall the player with the highest score wins.
All Done!
And that’s how you play Shifting Stones! A super simple game that gets people to the table, whether you’re an experienced gamer or a complete newbie. I received this game as a present so it was completely new to me, I hadn’t read any reviews on it or seen it across socials, and it is now one of my favourites, I would highly recommend it!
