Paddy
- Designer: Alberto Camaño Pascual
- Publisher: 2 Tomatoes
- Players: 2-4
- Age: 8+
- Time: 40 minutes
- Amazon affiliate link:
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
In Paddy, you transform the landscape by creating terraces of rice paddies in the mountains of southeast Asia. On each turn, you decide what type of tile to add to the paddy and whether to place it in the day or night half. With each new tile, the paddy grows and adapts to the flow of water, preparing the ground for your species to thrive. While you collaborate with others to sculpt a landscape of terraces and water channels, you also compete to secure the best pastures for your species. With each decision, you influence the growth of the paddy and the irrigation of its fields. The winner will be whoever has the most points at the end of four cycles. Paddy is the fourth installment in the “Natural Wonders” series that includes Coral, Islet, and Gold Nugget.
To set up the game, the board is placed on the table and the 56 paddy tiles are placed near the board. Each player gets 4 event cards, looks at them and chooses two different cards to keep for the duration of the game.
The game is played in 4 rounds, each of three phases: Sowing, Growing, Harvesting.
Sowing: Shuffle the Paddy deck and burn the top card of the deck then deal each player 2 cards. Shuffle the Day/Night deck and deal each player 2 cards. The player with the highest score is the start player for the round.
Growing: Each player takes turns consisting of four phases
Place a paddy – play a paddy card and a day/night card from your hand; you must place the designated piece such that at least one part of it is on the designated day/night side of the board. It can be placed on top of other tiles, but all parts of the new tile must be supported underneath. You can cover your own animals (and then place them on the new tile), but you cannot cover animals of your opponents. You cannot cover nor abut a waterfall. You cannot form a terrace with two waterfalls. Terraces are areas of contiguous tile spaces that are all on the same level
Place Animals – you can place animals from your supply or move them from other plots; but when you place animals, you can never tie the highest number of animals that any other player has on that terrace. You can also always remove animals from the board back to your supply – assuming you respect the rule of never tying for the most.
Place Waterfall – you can place a waterfall at the edge of a plot which is level 4 or higher, and only on a terrace that does not already have a waterfall in it
Draw cards – draw 1 card from the paddy deck and 1 from the day/night deck
Continue this process until no one has any paddy cards left in their hand.
Harvesting: Now you score each terrace on three different criteria
- Profile – for each terrace, the player with the most animals on it scores the product of the number of plots times the level
- Irrigation – for each terrace, the player with the most animals on it scores ten points for each waterfall that flows onto it and does not itself have a waterfall going out. Water from a waterfall may traverse multiple terraces until it finds a terrace on which it will score
- Highest terrace – the player(s) who have the majority on a terrace of the highest level in the game scores 5 points. Each player can only score this once per harvesting phase.
Repeat the process for four rounds. The player with the highest score at the end of the fourth round wins.
My thoughts on the game
Paddy is the 4th game in the “Natural Wonders” series that includes Coral, Islet, and Gold Nugget. I have enjoyed the other three in the past, and I was definitely interested in seeing the next game. Paddy is a tactical abstract game where you need a bit of luck in the card draw to help you conquer the game.
You’ll start out with two cards of each type in your hand, and you’ll have to make the best play you can from that choice. All three of the tile types can be useful at the right time – you just have to figure out when that right time is! Also, though you only get two special action cards; these can also be used for maximal effect at the most opportune times.
There is a fine challenge in determining the optimal place to put your tile as well as where to place/move your animals. The rule that you can never tie for the lead in animals does lead to some interesting strategic plays, and lots of energy can be spent trying to figure out how to jump into the lead in an area.
The rules are otherwise quite simple, and a few example plays during set up is generally all I need to do to teach the game. The game itself though is a bit long – we definitely have been taking all of the recommended 40 minutes to play the game; there is a lot of thinking going on as players try to put the tiles and animals in the best places.
The wooden components are great, but I do have some reservations about the cards. I can definitely see what the publishers were wanting to do with the card backs, but they can be a bit confusing at times, especially the back of the day/night card. Adding a border around the edge would definitely clear that up. Also, I am not sure if the player aid cards are misprinted – my game has the same information on both sides (the actions available on your turn), and I think it would have been more valuable to have a recap of scoring on one side of the card.
Paddy can be a tense game as there are constant battles for area control (and waterfall control), etc. While some of the game can be predictable and expected, the huge special actions mean that nothing is really safe so long as players still have special actions to use. I have been on both ends (good and bad) of a devastating special action – and as long as you’re not bothered by these wild swings of fortune, you’ll likely find Paddy an interesting spatial puzzle game.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
- I love it!
- I like it.
- Neutral. Dale Y
- Not for me…
