Matthew BaileyToday, we’re looking at “Stamp Swap,” a tile-laying game from Stonemaier Games. The idea is that you’re attending a three-day stamp convention, meeting other collectors, swapping and accumulating stamps, and trying to win the top prize. Sounds delightful.
If you’ve been here a while and regularly read my reviews, you’ll know we’re big fans of tile-laying games. So, Jack(9) and I jumped straight in to give “Stamp Swap” a go.
The first thing that hit me was how much this game reminded me of “Fit to Print.” I played that last year and really enjoyed it—it’s one I’d happily recommend. While “Stamp Swap” plays differently, there’s a similar vibe, that same kind of feeling you get when you’re in the thick of it. The big difference, though, is that “Stamp Swap” doesn’t have the frantic speed element. Instead, it leans into a slower, strategic “split-and-choose” mechanic, which is actually a lot of fun.
The game is split into three phases. First, you’ve got the collect phase, where you decide which stamps to grab. Then, there’s the swap phase, where you split your collection into two piles, and your opponent picks one. Finally, there’s the show phase, where you arrange everything in your album and score.
To start, you’ll choose some contest cards. These are basically your scoring goals for the round. You’ll also shuffle event cards, lay two out, and use these to set up the pool of stamps you can draft from. Some are face down, some face up, and some are attendee cards, which give you cool little bonuses.
On your turn, you take a stamp from the pool and add it to your collection area. You keep going until you’ve grabbed six items. Then comes the swap phase, where you split your collection into two piles. Your opponent picks one pile, and you keep the other. This bit is brilliant—you’re constantly second-guessing yourself. Do you make the piles even, or do you sneak something you really want into one pile and hope the other one looks more tempting? It’s a proper game of cat and mouse.
Once the swapping’s done, you hit the show phase. This is where you place your stamps in your album and work towards those all-important contest cards.
At the end of the game, you add up your points, including the value of your stamps, and the person with the highest score wins. Simple!
Now, here’s the thing. While I had fun with “Stamp Swap,” there were a few bits that didn’t quite land for me. A lot of the scoring relies on grouping stamps by colour or theme. The themes are shown through tiny little images, and they’re not always easy to figure out. Is that stamp a space theme or a monument? Or maybe it’s a vehicle? Honestly, it wasn’t clear, and it ended up taking way more time than it should’ve.
The colours were also a bit of a problem. Yellow and brown stamps, for example, can look ridiculously similar, and that didn’t help matters. The game tries to make the backgrounds of the themes stand out more, but when you’re playing quickly, it’s just not obvious enough.
On top of that, I wasn’t blown away by the visuals. Everything feels a bit muted—pastel and earthy tones that don’t really pop. For a tile-laying game, where the look of it is half the fun, I found it all a bit dull. Even the stamps themselves didn’t bring me much joy. It’s a shame because the theme had so much potential to be charming and vibrant, but it just didn’t come through.
That said, I did have a good time with “Stamp Swap.” If you’re into tile-laying games and come across this one, you could certainly do worse. But if I’m being honest, I couldn’t help comparing it to “Fit to Print,” which gives off a similar vibe but is far more polished, exciting, and enjoyable overall.
Disclaimer: A copy of “Stamp Swap” was provided by Stonemaier games for the purpose of review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
