Episode 87 AP Table Talk: Grid Coverage
AP Table Talk: Grid Coverage
Episode Summary:
In the first episode of AP Table Talk, a podcast that explores board games, Brian and Dave Eng discuss the Grid Coverage mechanic. They define the mechanic as players covering a grid or filling a space using various shapes such as polyominoes. Some of the games that they discuss which use this mechanic include Patchwork, Blokus, Copenhagen, Cultivate, Silver and Gold, and Tiny Towns. Brian and Dave also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the mechanic, such as the strong core loop and the potential for it to be luck-dependent. They mention twists on the mechanic, such as enforced fill order and the extension of Grid Coverage upwards.
Brian Eng:
Hello and welcome to AP Table Talk, a podcast where we explore Board Games and what makes them interesting to us. We are your hosts, Brian.
Dave Eng:
And I'm Dave. And this is our very first episode of AP Table Talk. Brian and I are co-designers, we're cousins, and we're here to talk about Board Game Mechanics. And this is our first episode. Everyone's got to start somewhere. Brian, you want to tell them about what episode, what Board Game Mechanic we're going to cover in this first episode?
Brian Eng:
Okay. So for our inaugural episode, we'll be covering Grid Coverage, is our first one. And I thought to start it off in my kind of just thought about what that mechanic means to me. And basically I think of it as a mechanic where you are placing pieces, whether they be tokens or polyominoes or whatever it is in order to cover up the board, being your main goal is to cover the board.
Dave Eng:
And the definition that I was able to pull off of Board Game Geek is, Grid Coverage is a family mechanisms in which players cover a grid or fill a space using a variety of shapes, like with components such as polyominoes." Like you said before, Brian. "This is sometimes called a Tetris mechanism that challenges players to use shapes efficiently. Games that use a single piece type to construct or enclose areas of control, especially when in competition over common spaces, they utilize a different mechanic called Enclosure." So for this episode we're going to specifically be talking about Grid Coverage and not Enclosure. So there's a bunch of games that use this already. Brian, what are some games on your list?
Brian Eng:
So I think the first one that immediately comes to mind is Patchwork. I mean it's the whole game, is just covering that quilt with patches. Some other ones that we've played recently, I know we've been playing Castles of Burgundy.
Dave Eng:
Yep.
Brian Eng:
I would consider that Grid Coverage. I was introduced to The Isle of Cats on Board Game Arena as well. One that I know you like, that you introduced me to a while ago, Sagrada, and we just played My City recently. We're in the middle of our legacy game of that as well.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. On Board Game Arena And some of the games that I've played that use Board Coverage as well. Again, similar to a lot of the games that you listed is Blokus, I feel like that fits in that textbook definition because it has those polyominoes. Same thing with Copenhagen, which I've been playing a lot on Board Game Arena as well, uses polyominoes as well.
A game on my list that I had gotten recently off a Kickstarter Cultivate is similar to Sagrada in that you are covering grid components, but in Cultivate you're using meeples, in Sagrada you use specific dice in a pattern. One of my favorite designers, Phil Walker Harding, also designed a game called Silver and Gold. And in that case it is... Combines like a flip and write with Grid Coverage because you're also drawing over different areas of a card on a grid.
A game from my game group that is a big favorite is Tiny Towns. So that's another, I would say Flip and Place placing different cubes on a grid. A game I played at this latest PAX Unplugged was called Tribes of the Wind in which you are covering grid spaces there as well. And another latest Kickstarter addition to my collection is Vivid Memories, where you are actually using diamond shaped components to cover up the grid.
So those are some major examples of Grid Coverage, Bri, we're going to be talking about likes and dislikes, but we're going to set this up in a specific way, so you want to talk about that?
Brian Eng:
Sure. Yeah. Actually, I think you came up with this idea. So we figure in stereotypical Board Game fashion, we will roll D20s for initiative and talk about the things that we like and dislike in games that use Grid Coverage.
Dave Eng:
All right.
Brian Eng:
Sounds good?
Dave Eng:
On the count of three, we'll both roll our D20...
Brian Eng:
Sure.
Dave Eng:
... and whoever rolls highest is going to have initiative and we'll go first. So ready when you are.
Brian Eng:
All right. I'm ready. All right, roll.
Dave Eng:
All right. I have 17.
Brian Eng:
I got 10.
Dave Eng:
All right. So I have initiative, I will roll... I go first. So I'm going to talk about some of Grid Coverages likes. I got three specific ones that I really like about this mechanic. One of them I think is that it is a strong core loop and has a very good visceral reaction in that whenever I'm playing and it's a Grid Coverage game and I'm able to cover something or just get a piece to fit, I know this happens a lot right now in My City. It's like, "Oh, I really hope that T-shaped fits or comes up because I really needed to go in a specific spot right now." So once you get that spot covered, I think that's a really great visceral reaction.
The second thing I really like about Grid Coverage is that it's a spatial and visual puzzle. So I would say this is more for games that have those polyominoes, I'm talking about My City, talking about Patchwork and Blokus and Copenhagen, where you need just the right piece to fit in that right spot, I think is a really cool and visceral aspect to playing with this Grid Coverage mechanic.
And I'd say that my last like specifically about Grid Coverage is the way that it's implemented. So part of the BBG definition was talking about using polyominoes, and for the most part those happen to be in squares, but you can also use different shapes. They can be squares, they can be hexes, kind of like with Castles of Burgundy, they can be pentagons, they can be whatever shape you want. There's lots of different ways to play with these different shapes for Grid Coverage. You can have those shapes all connect. You can have them all individually set up, but the way that it's set up, I think provides a lot of interesting combinations from the board overall. So those are my three top likes for Grid Coverage. How about you, Brian?
Brian Eng:
Yeah, I think actually stated slightly different, but I think ours have a lot of overlap here. So yeah, the number one thing to me, reminds me of Tetris, that same feeling you were talking about of just, "Hey, is that...? I need that four line piece so I can get that Tetris." I feel like you get that same feeling in a lot of these games where you're hoping that piece that you need comes up.
And again, another one, very similar to what you talked about, I do find playing the game has a visual appeal to it, trying to get those pieces to fit nicely. And you almost get visual feedback when you miss a spot. And that if you have any sort of ADD tendencies or OCD tendencies, it's going to bug you.
Dave Eng:
Yeah, definitely.
Brian Eng:
And yeah, I overall just enjoy that packing efficiency as my wife, Violet, will leave the packing on a trip to me because I like to see the efficiency of getting those bags into that trunk.
Dave Eng:
Or I would say the opposite for me in our game of My City is, "Why did I choose to put a tree there?" Because now I can't drop that T-shaped or that S-shaped in there and it's just, it's so aggravating.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, I actually... I've been enjoying that kind of legacy mode for My City and having that board just change a little bit each round and you kind of live with those consequences, which is... I mean, I know that's true to all the legacy games, but interesting for... You kind of know how you play with those same pieces each time, but you have... But you don't really know how they're going to change up the game for you. So I do find that interesting. Sticking new rocks on, new trees on, getting new pieces or whatever into your kind of bundle of pieces that you pull.
Dave Eng:
Exactly. All right, so now we've covered likes. Should we roll for initiative for dislikes?
Brian Eng:
Sure.
Dave Eng:
All right. So I'm ready to roll when you are.
Brian Eng:
Okay, I'm ready.
Dave Eng:
3, 2, 1. Roll. Ah, I whiffed, I got a 4.
Brian Eng:
Oh, I got 13. Okay.
Dave Eng:
Dave, you lead.
Brian Eng:
So I really only have one major dislike in terms of Board Game design is that for some people and for some games, I find that it can be a little bit too luck dependent if there's no way to mitigate the randomness of the pieces that come up. A lot of the games that I consider better games will have ways to maybe wipe a market, things like that. But again, depending on the game, that would be one thing that I would say I would dislike from this mechanic in some games.
Dave Eng:
I have three of them, but they're not overly big dislikes. I would say number one is more of a component dislike than anything else, particularly if you're playing a game where it's Grid Coverage, but it's individual uniform components, so they can be jostled off the board really easily. You could kind of see this with Patchwork, but if you're building your quilt really well, then it should be a solid piece. However, with a game like Sagrada, if it didn't have those dual layer boards, you could very easily shuffle those dice off of the correct spots. So that's one of my main dislikes.
The second one is that some people, and I'm not one of them, could interpret this mechanic as being simplistic without a lot of meaty decisions. I think that our game of Castles of Burgundy kind of solves that a little bit, and that when you roll those dice, that gives you optimal placement. But getting those workers allows you to mitigate that dice roll a little bit, which I think is okay. So I think that your interpretation of simplistic immediate decision as an individual player could be valid or not valid, I guess depending on the game that you're examining.
And then my last dislike would be that it could potentially be used as a side mechanic in a game with other main mechanics going on. Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's plenty of modern Euro games available that use a collection of different mechanics and Grid Coverage could just be one of them, but I would say the main mechanic of the game, but it is sometimes could be sidelined and some people could see that as a more interesting part of the game that is not the actual objective, main mechanic of the game. So those are really my three only dislikes so far.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. And I would agree, they seem rather minor. I mean, overall I think we both kind of like this mechanic and I mean there's definitely been different ways it's been implemented, which kind of brings us to our next talking point here and it's kind of twisting of this mechanic as well.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. So I think we got to roll again for initiative to...
Brian Eng:
All right.
Dave Eng:
... see who's going to go first. So I'm ready when you are, Brian.
Brian Eng:
Reach my die here. I am ready. Let's roll.
Dave Eng:
3, 2, 1. Roll. Whiffed again. I got a 2.
Brian Eng:
I got nine. Oh, okay. Well,
Dave Eng:
You lead.
Brian Eng:
Okay. So one thing that we've mentioned already is variations in the type of grid that you're covering, whether that's the shape of the grid, hexes, squares, triangles, whatever they are, or the shape of the grid or shape of the pieces or types of pieces that cover them. If they're single cell pieces that cover or polyominoes and whatnot, you want to go ahead and do the next one?
Dave Eng:
Sure. So for me, I think that, like we said before with My City, I think this legacy component is an interesting application of it for it to cover, not to cover. For me, since we're playing this very first campaign, I don't know where the best places to put these trees, I just know I have to put them down somewhere. So I think using that as a legacy component going into the future could be an interesting application.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. One twist in a game I've been playing, I just got introduced to My Shelfie, which has kind of an enforced fill order where you have to fill the pieces, you drop the pieces in, kind of Connect Four, so you have to fill the columns in order from bottom to top. So it's kind of like you're forced into the order that you need to put those pieces in.
Dave Eng:
And My Shelfie, that's that metagame, about collecting and shelving board games?
Brian Eng:
It's not specifically board games, but you could definitely, it does look like a Kallax shelf. Okay. That you're filling. So...
Dave Eng:
Yeah, I'd say that another twist, and I don't know, this might be pushing the edges of what we define as the mechanic right now, but I played a game called Miyabi by HABA in which there's Grid Coverage, but it extends upwards, meaning that you're actually laying components on top of each other and some of those components are icons, but some of them don't. I think that a lot of the games we talked about at the very beginning, were using a component to cover up an icon or some other feature on a specific board, but not necessarily building up from those components, but more games that use that ability would be a welcome addition, I think, to see this mechanic in action.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. Okay. The last one I have here for a variation or a twist is you could be playing or filling your grid on a shared board or you could each have your individual boards. So I mean we've named a lot where you have your individual boards, like My City for example, we have our own cities to build, but Castles of Burgundy, we are kind of filling the same board, a shared board, I mean.
Dave Eng:
That kind of reminds me of... Did you ever play Teotihuacan?
Brian Eng:
I think we played it. I feel like we did.
Dave Eng:
I don't know, I have to look in the log to see if we did play it, but you reminded me just now of building on a shared board because of the pyramid in Teotihuacan.
Brian Eng:
Right.
Dave Eng:
Where that is a common component for all players to build upon. So you could see it there as well.
Brian Eng:
And actually that one specifically makes me think... Because when I was looking at this mechanic for the episode, there was a little bit of overlap with Grid Coverage and Pattern Building mechanic. Because I was thinking of Cascadia, which was interesting because not only are you covering the grid, but you're building the grid out as you draft. But I actually feel like that game probably falls more under Pattern Building because you're not, your goal isn't really to cover all your spaces its to form those patterns for your scoring.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. And I'd even say that for Cascadia, it's true, you are building out the grid as you go along. The coverage component comes into play with the different animals that you could play on top of it, which is a way to score points, but not the only way to score points. So I'd say that I wouldn't classify Cascadia as a Grid Coverage game, but it certainly does have Grid Coverage in it. I agree.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, it just made me think of... A lot of the games I thought of sometimes could fall under Pattern Building as opposed to Grid Coverage. So, I could see some cross over there. Azul, for example, you do score based on almost kind of pattern... Specific locations for your pieces, but ultimately you do want to cover that. If you can you want to cover your entire board.
Dave Eng:
Right. Yep. That's another example of Grid Coverage. But as a knee-jerk reaction, I wouldn't say I would think of Azul as a Grid Coverage ...
Brian Eng:
Yeah. It's not the one I would think of as Grid Coverage primarily.
Dave Eng:
Right. I had two more twists and variations to discuss, and they both have to do with 3D components. One game I just got it as a Kickstarter, but I've yet to get on the table. It's called Block and Key, where you're actually stacking 3D cubes on top of each other, not necessarily Grid Coverage, unless you are stacking on top of existing blocks. And again, I think that's pushing the envelope of what we are defining right now is Grid Coverage. And then another game, which we definitely did play together in which I definitely got trounced by you is The Climbers. Do you remember that game from ..
Brian Eng:
I do remember that game, but I also... I think I did win, but I think we agreed that maybe we didn't understand the rules properly.
Dave Eng:
I just remember it was very tough for me. I got into a situation where I just could not advance. And I think you were leading as... Or you had initiative as first player, and because you had that, you could always deny me spots to climb on that tower.
Brian Eng:
I mean, from our experience playing together that's my MO in games, is action denial. So, when I saw the rules for that, I was like, "Okay, well I can just make it so you can't play." Which is why I felt that we must have been doing something wrong because a lot of people did like that game. And I feel like if that had a major fault in it like that, then we must have missed something.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. No, again, but I don't know would like a 3D element where you're actually building up if that necessarily is Grid Coverage. But we did talk about Teotihuacan, and in that pyramid you are building up, covering specific icons. So I don't know, maybe we'll see a redefinition.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. There is another game that comes to mind. I forget the name, but you introduced it to me at one of the PAXs, we were playing their closing time where you're trying to have your pieces on the top, you're building in a small cube. I think it was red and black pieces.
Dave Eng:
Oh, it was Convert, that was the game.
Brian Eng:
Yes. Convert. That's the one. Which is kind of the same idea, you're building up and you're trying to cover up the other pieces to have more of your color showing.
Dave Eng:
Right. And I think that that speaks directly to you, Brian, because I think I remember reading the designer's notes about that game and how they actually worked at either UPS or FedEx and that was their thing. They liked to pack the truck and to get as much space...
Brian Eng:
There you go.
Dave Eng:
... used up as possible. So that is definitely an optimization puzzle if I saw one before.
Brian Eng:
I agree. So, evolution of the... Sorry, did you have any more for twists and variations?
Dave Eng:
That's all I had for twists and variations and evolution.
Brian Eng:
Oh, okay. So, I do have just more some talking points here for the evolution. So, the ear... Okay, so since I've got some notes here, maybe I'll form it as a question here. What can you think of as the earliest game that you can think of with the Grid Coverage mechanic? And this may be up for debate so we can see what you think about this.
Dave Eng:
So this is the earliest game that had that mechanic? Or earliest...
Brian Eng:
The earliest board game.
Dave Eng:
Oh, I would say...
Brian Eng:
That you think has that mechanic.
Dave Eng:
Gee, I don't know. I'd be hard-pressed to the... Well, I mean now that I'm thinking about classic games, I guess Scrabble is a Grid Coverage game. I would even say it's an area control game that you play with letters.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, I'd say it falls closer to an Area Control. So the first one that... My knee-jerk reaction was actually Blokus, which you mentioned in your major examples. And that was released in 2000, which isn't that early even for board games. And there's actually another one, when I looked it up on BGG, that also came out in 2000... I couldn't find months that they were released. So these will be tied on BGG, was the Princes of Florence, which I had never heard of. So those two came out in 2000, which actually had the tag on it, but it got me thinking. And would you consider Battleship to be a Grid Coverage game?
Dave Eng:
Let's see. So Battleship, I would say it is a... I'd say that the main mechanic is Deduction. I don't know if we're going to cover that because we are trying to find and sink each other's opponent ships. It's very much a game about contention. So it's a war game.
Brian Eng:
Yeah.
Dave Eng:
Grid Coverage though, based on what we've discussed so far, I would say no, because the main objective is not to cover every single grid element. The main objective is to cover the grid elements that have your opponent's ships on.
Brian Eng:
Right. I agree. But it did make me think because I mean, you get into that classic situation where you just start doing every second space until...
Dave Eng:
Then you find out that all my ships are on the edges.
Brian Eng:
So I mean that would've been 1931, which was earlier than I thought, because I always think of that copy in the '60s with the meme cover with the son and the father playing Battleship and the wife in the background in the kitchen washing dishes. So yeah, very '60s cover there. Not a board game, but Tetris was 1984, which does bring a lot of Grid Coverage. How about Othello? I kind of thought of that one as Grid coverage.
Dave Eng:
Othello. Let's see if... You have to remind me of some of the mechanics of Othello. Can you ever remove a piece?
Brian Eng:
So Othello, you are... You can never remove pieces. All you're doing is you're always placing a new piece and then flipping any enclosed pieces to your color.
Dave Eng:
I see.
Brian Eng:
So you're always continuing and the game ends when the board is filled.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. Then I would... And then you score based on the number of pieces in your color?
Brian Eng:
And then... Yeah. Now obviously it's also Area Control, but because you are kind of filling up the board... Again the goal is not to fill up the board. If that's the key part of the definition we're holding to, then I guess it's not Grid Coverage, but I do think that it definitely is in the family.
Dave Eng:
Yeah, I would say so.
Brian Eng:
So that-
Dave Eng:
I guess if it's Othello we're considering, then you would also have to consider Go Grid Coverage.
Brian Eng:
So yeah, that was the next... The next step was Go, because Othello is 1883 and then Go is... I mean, I don't know.
Dave Eng:
BC sometimes.
Brian Eng:
2000 BC or something like that. But again, I almost feel like Go is more Area Control. But even though they're very similar, it just strikes me more as Area Control. But that could just be my own bias there.
Dave Eng:
I mean, I don't think it's wrong. I think you could say that Grid Coverage is a way for you to get Area control, right?
Brian Eng:
Right.
Dave Eng:
That is the way... That is one of the main mechanics that you're using to cover.
Brian Eng:
And again, I guess it really goes on how you're defining... How specific you're defining it. And then more of an out of the box example that I was thinking of, going back to our promo discussion about our first time getting into board games, do you consider Risk to be a Grid Coverage?
Dave Eng:
I would say... I feel like in order for it to be Grid Coverage, it has to be some regular repeating pattern. And for Risk...
Brian Eng:
Pattern?
Dave Eng:
... we don't have that. So I would say no.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, you're covering the board, but it's... And I think that's probably what makes it feel like it leans more towards Area Control over Grid Coverage. But conceptually, if you took all those places and turned them into squares.
Dave Eng:
Very like ...
Brian Eng:
You could can see it as...
Dave Eng:
Interpretative Risk.
Brian Eng:
Yes. If we lived in square world.
Dave Eng:
Then yeah. I guess in...
Brian Eng:
Where all your lands were squares.
Dave Eng:
Oh, it's like Risk just got transported to Minecraft world and everything's in block form?
Brian Eng:
There you go. Or those procedural computer algorithms, the life things where each color represents a different type of life form and you just watch it evolve.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. I guess if we were to interpret it that way, you could see Risk being a Grid Coverage game if it was reinterpreted in as a Grid. Yeah.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. I think everything except for the fact that there's no grid does lead toward Grid Coverage because your goal is to take over everything. So yeah, that's what I had for kind of evolution examples.
Dave Eng:
Yeah.
Brian Eng:
Okay. Well I think that wraps up our Grid Coverage episode of AP Table Talk. Also, our first episode, if you'd like to hear more content like this, please be sure to subscribe. You can also check out more of our content, projects and other information about us at University XP.com.
Dave Eng:
Now, thanks for joining us. We'd also love it if you took some time to rate this show. So we live to lift others with learning. So if you have found this episode useful, consider sharing it with someone could also benefit. Until next time. Game On!
References:
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My Shelfie. (n.d.). BoardGameGeek. Retrieved April 14, 2023,from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/366456/my-shelfie
Patchwork. (n.d.). BoardGameGeek. Retrieved April 14, 2023,from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163412/patchwork
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Sagrada. (n.d.). BoardGameGeek. Retrieved April 14, 2023,from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/199561/sagrada
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The Castles of Burgundy. (n.d.). BoardGameGeek. Retrieved April 14, 2023,from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84876/castles-burgundy
The Climbers. (n.d.). BoardGameGeek. Retrieved April 14, 2023,from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34297/climbers
The Princes of Florence. (n.d.). BoardGameGeek. Retrieved April 14, 2023,from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/555/pr
Cite this Episode:
Eng, D. & Eng, B. (Hosts). (2023, June 11). AP Table Talk Grid Coverage. (No. 87) [Video]. Experience Points. University XP. https://www.universityxp.com/video/87
Internal Ref: UXPFPIEGFJMY