Stamp Swap Board Game Review

Stamp Swap

WBG Score: 8.5/10

Player Count: 1-5

You’ll like this if you like: Castles of Mad King Ludwig, 7 Wonders, Stamp collecting!

Published by: Stonemaier Games

Designed by: Paul Salomon

This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.

There is always a bit of a fanfare with any Stonemaier release. Their marketing is generally excellent, the games sell well, though not always popular; and with the big hitters such as Wingspan and Scythe, they have played a huge part in redefining what the modern era of board games is all about. No question. The reaction to Stamp Swap was a little different. I can only think it was because the theme underwhelmed some people. Not everyone is into stamps, I suppose. But neither am I, and I was still buzzing for this. The reason? The fusion of Open Drafting and I Cut You Choose intrigued me. Drafting things that you then must split into two piles, only one of which you get to keep, sounded like a fascinating mechanical fusion. But does it work? Let's get it to the table and see how it plays.

How To Set Up Stamp Swap

Each player takes a player board and places in front of them. Note the Exhibitor ticket built into the board for each player. This adds a small amount of asymmetry and early game focus as each player will gain points from different types of stamps according to their own board. Everyone now chooses their player colour and takes a reference card, three Show Tickets, and two score markers in their chosen colour. Next, place the main board down into a central playing area, and each player will add one of their two scoring cubes into the zero starting space on the outer score tracker. Keep the other back for when you circle the board for the first time. Which will happen!

Now, place the Phase token onto the first space at the beginning of Friday. The game will run over three rounds, which will track the phases and rounds. On the main board, you will notice spaces for five different coloured cards. Take the Contest decks and shuffle them independently, and draw one card from each colour, placing it face up onto each space. Alternatively, you can shuffle them all together and draw cards until you have one of each colour. There are five spaces, one being the Finale. Place the unused cards back into the box; you will only use one of each for every game.

Finally, shuffle the Attendee cards, which include both the specialist and exhibitor cards, and place them into a face-down pile; along with the Event cards, which should also be shuffled separately into their own face-down pile. Assign the first player token to the last person to mail something. You are now ready to begin.

How To Play Stamp Swap

At the start of each round, one player will draw one Event card equal to the number of players. Place these on top of each other, so you can only see the text on the very top card. Then use the symbols shown on each card to draw the stamps and cards that will be drafted in this round in what is known as the daily collection. Note the imagery used for face-up or face-down stamps, and also the cards. It will be a mix of stamps and Attendee cards being drafted. Then read the text on the top card so all are aware of the new rule active this round. This could be a mix of being able to swap items from your collection with those in the daily collection, being able to add items from the supply to the daily collection, being able to reserve extra items, and different ways to score that round.

At the start of the next round, remove the top card, add another to the bottom, create the new daily collection, and read the new rule from the now uncovered top card. This way, you have some information about upcoming rounds, in that you can see some of what may be coming in the next drafting phase.

Once this is done, the game begins, starting with the drafting phase. This phase is called "Collect" in the game, but follows a traditional drafting mechanic. Players will take turns to draft one of the items from the daily collection, adding it to their player mat. There is space for six items there, just to remind you how many you take each round. However, as shown above, some Event cards can change the amount you can take. The first player will go first, adding the first player token to the daily collection as they do this. Players then take turns to take one stamp, card, or the first player token until all players have drafted the allowed amount of items for that round. The cards will either be Specialist cards adding in-game powers and two points to the final scoring, or Exhibitor cards that add end-of-round scoring for all remaining rounds in the game. Note, the gold-coloured stamps are rare stamps. They score well on their own at the end of the game, but do not contribute towards any colour, size, or theme in the end-of-round scoring. the other stamps come in one of five themes, colours, and sizes. Also, be aware of the single space forever stamps. Again, they cannot help you in the end game scoring, but will help fill holes to create what you need for the Finale.

If the First player token is still present when the final player drafts the final item, they can take the first player item along with whatever else they took that round. Players then move to the second phase, moving the round tracker marker accordingly on the main board. This is the first part of the "Swap" phase and is carried out simultaneously. First, all players will choose one item from those recently drafted to put into their Reserve area. Each round, one of the items is guaranteed to be yours. But no more! This is no ordinary drafting game. Now comes the twist.

Players will now need to cut the remaining items into two piles. Usually five items, usually one pile of two and one pile of three items. But it is up to you how you do this. Each pile must have at least one item in, but you could do a pile of one and another of four. Your choice. Any items you drafted face down must remain face down. You can look at your own face-down items, but do not reveal them to the other players yet. Perhaps the mystery here will make them more alluring? Maybe it adds too much risk and randomness to a pile? Either way, forge your piles carefully as you will only keep one of them. Look at what other players may want or need and try to tempt them with something juicy that you do not want to keep!

Players will then take turns, starting with the new first player in the "Swap" phase. They can take any one single pile from any player, other than themselves. Take all items in one pile and move it to your play area. When one player has one of their piles taken, they can then move the other pile they created into their area. Players cannot take both piles from one player. One always remains as their own. Each player will choose one pile like this until all have now taken one pile from another player, and kept one of their own piles for themselves. If, in a three-player game, player A takes from player B, and player B takes from player A, player C is then left with both of their original piles for themselves. This is the only way you will keep all the tiles you drafted in the "Collect" phase.

Finally, the "Show" phase begins, where, simultaneously, players will place their newly acquired items into the relevant areas. Specialist and Exhibitor cards are placed on the space designated for them on the players' boards, and Stamps are placed onto the player mats. You can place stamps wherever you like, as long as they don't overlap, hang off the edge, or move any existing stamps previously placed in an earlier round. All stamps must be placed upright with the value or cancellation mark in the top right. Placement matters based on this game's Contest cards, especially the finale.

Once all players have done this, each player will score their current collection. In later rounds, you can do this simultaneously, but it makes sense to do this one at a time with new players, especially in the first round, or if you just want a bit more interaction between players. It does not slow things down too much and makes it more interactive. However, for a faster game, all players can simply do this on their own, when ready.

Players will score for three things. Two points go to the player with the first player token. Players then score for their Exhibitor cards, of which all players have at least one - the one on their player board. This typically will be points awarded for specific types of stamps. These will score each round. So, the earlier you get them, the more valuable they will be to you.

Finally, all players will now pick one of the four Contest cards. There are five, but you cannot pick the Finale card at this point. There are three rounds, and four cards available, so note one of these four will be irrelevant to each player in each game. You just need to focus on three of them. And the Finale, of course. Players choose which one they want to score this round, place their show ticket of their colour underneath it, and take the points for this card. The cards offer points based on colour, theme, size, or if they are cancelled stamps. Note your collection will only get bigger, and you can only pick each card once per game, so make a plan for what you will aim for in rounds two and three when making this choice. Also note that some cards offer points on a multiple of two or three. Maybe choose the two points in the early rounds when you have fewer stamps to hold back the three point cards for later rounds when your collection will have grown and the multiples will be higher.

If this is the first or second round, set up for the next round. If this is the third round, score for the finale. This will be a space-related bonus; all players now score. Perhaps you have been tasked with creating 1x2 holes in your stamp collection, or empty regions (of any size), or perfect edges (all spaces of the edge of the board are filled with stamps). Players then score based on whoever has the most Forever stamps. These are the one-by-one-sized stamps. The player with the most gets ten points. Six points go to the player with the second most, three to the person in third. In a two-player game, add an imaginary player with three Forever stamps for the purposes of this scoring alone.

Players now score two points for all Specialist cards they gained during the game, and the face-up value on each stamp in their collection. Note: some stamps have zero value, and some offer a negative score. Total your final score and the player with the most points wins. The tie breaker is set by the player with the highest value of rare stamps. If there is still a tie, well then players share the victory.

Is It Fun? Stamp Swap Board Game Review

Enjoying this game will come down to three things. First, do you like the theme? If so, I can see this being highly intriguing to you, and a fun game simply due to the nature of there being so few games about stamps! However, I hate this theme, and love the game. So, this is not a requirement to liking this game, I just think it will help you enjoy it more if you do like the theme. Second, the length. This is a fast game. The box suggests 20-60 minutes, which is accurate. I have finished a two-player game in 25 minutes, and a three-player game in 30. It goes fast once players are familiar with the rules and strategy. If you like fast games like this, you may well again find this a big pull for a game of this weight. It delivers a beautifully mid-weight game in a really quick time. Finally, and most importantly, do you like the fusion of mechanics. Let's get into that!

A lot of people like drafting games. They are very popular as they offer you a high degree of control. You choose what you get, rather than being dealt it. The luck element is taken out, and people feel like they can strategize towards their own goals. Equally, "I Cut You Choose" is a very popular mechanic too. People like being able to create something to try and entice another player, meaning they get to keep the other thing - the thing they wanted all along. Mixing these two mechanics is quite rare. I cannot think of another game that has done it. And it has split opinions.

Some do not like drafting things they do not get to keep. They say it takes away the control I mentioned above. Others, myself included, feel it makes the drafting phase even more interesting. You are not just taking things you want, you are taking things you think the other players want. Equally, if you miss out on something you did want in the draft phase, you may well still get it in the Swap phase.

I love the thought of drafting when I am trying to build a group of items I want to keep and another I want to try and entice another player into taking. It adds a huge element of difference to the drafting phase compared to the many other drafting games out there, and for me, makes the draft more strategic. I can see why others simply want to draft and keep what they want. But that just isn't this game. If that is what you want, there are thousands of drafting games out there that do that. This game is different, and I feel this right here is the crux of this game's success or failure.

It is a strange thing to criticise in my opinion. As I say, there are many MANY other pure drafting games out there. Do we really need another just because it's about stamps? This game is trying to do something new by fusing these two rarely seen together mechanics, and I feel they do it in a really smart way. It also makes sense to me thematically. You are at a convention. You get new items each day. You then use these to swap with other collectors to try and get what you want. This is how it happens in the real world. Sort of. And I like it. But think yourself if this mechanical marriage will work for you or not.

Outside of this, I love the art of the stamps. Some of the themes do cross over a little and cause some confusion as to what exactly they are at first glance. You can easily figure it out, they just do not immediately pop out as theme X, or colour Y. You need to get your eye in, so to speak, and really look at the stamps you have. This is a good thing, as it adds some concentration and focus. Also, the stamp art is beautiful, and I like looking at them.

There is no insert, and the game doesn't quite have the same level of polish as some other Stonemaier titles. While nothing is subpar, there isn't a standout component like in many other Stonemaier productions. When packed away, it looks fine, and set-up and pack away is very easy. But an insert would have been nice.

Mechanically, the only thing that disappoints me is that when it comes to the placement of the stamps in the game, there is a sense of insignificance. While the finale does manage to salvage some of the relevance of stamps and where they go, the overall impact of this falls short. I find myself wishing for more agency in this particular aspect of the game. Enhancing this element by increasing the significance of where and how the stamps are placed could potentially elevate the gaming experience to a whole new level. You can get a lot of points from the Finale, which is all about where the stamps are, but it's not difficult. The stamps are all an easy shape. You cannot rotate them, and you can place them where you like. So, achieving optimum points for the Finale seems procedural more than a strategic challenge.

That said, the game works so well. The pace and length are perfect. The weight is also ideal. I love the look and feel of it all. The point scoring opportunities excite me. Your points ramp up very quickly and you will circle the board a few times in most games. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys stamps, that goes without saying. But also for anyone who enjoys Drafting or I cut, you choose games, and is looking for something a little different in that area. This certainly delivers there. First class! (Sorry).