Siesta

About this board game

Siesta is a beautiful wooden abstract board game for 2–4 players, with an approximate playing time of 70 minutes. First released in 1999, it challenges players to score the most points before one of the piece types runs out.

Each player has Roofs in their own color. A Roof scores when it casts a Shadow: place a Sun token next to the Roof, and the Roof’s owner scores points for every Shadow positioned on the other side. Shadows award points to the owner of the relevant Roof and may be scored more than once when they are surrounded by multiple Roof-and-Sun combinations.

On every turn, a player places three pieces in any combination. There is an important requirement, however: at least one point must be scored during the turn. This keeps every placement connected to the central scoring challenge and makes the arrangement of the wooden pieces especially important.

• Roofs: Colored pieces used to create scoring opportunities.
• Suns: Tokens placed beside Roofs to cast Shadows.
• Shadows: Pieces that score for Roof owners and can contribute to multiple combinations.

The game ends when a player plays their last Roof, or when the last Sun or Shadow is played. The player with the most points wins. With its concise turn structure, distinctive wooden components, and layered scoring possibilities, Siesta offers an abstract contest where every placement can affect several Roof-and-Sun combinations at once.

Whether approached as a visual puzzle or a point-scoring race, Siesta centers on reading the relationships between pieces and finding ways to make Shadows count repeatedly.