What Mosaic is
Two of you, five factories of glazed tiles. Take every tile of one colour — you don’t get to leave the rest — and build a wall out of what fits. What doesn’t fit lands on your floor and costs you.
Five factory discs of four tiles feed the duel. Taking a colour means all of it, the leavings pile up in the centre, and the first player to shop the centre each round takes the starting marker — plus a floor penalty for the privilege, since the marker sits in your cheapest free floor slot.
The board is one connected grid: five pattern lines on the left, the wall on the right, and a line only tiles the wall once it is exactly full. Selecting a colour ghosts the move onto every legal line before you commit — overflow, floor damage and marker included — so nothing lands anywhere you did not see coming.
Nothing is hidden except the order of the bag. Both boards, both floors and every disc are public, and the screen keeps a live count of the row, column and colour bonuses each of you is threatening — the endgame is readable from across the table, which is the game.
How to play Mosaic
- Five factories, four tiles on each. On your turn take EVERY tile of one colour from one factory — you never get to take just some.
- Everything you leave on that factory slides into the centre, for your opponent. A greedy take is also a gift.
- Put the tiles you took on one of your five pattern lines. Line 1 holds one tile, line 5 holds five, and a line may only ever hold one colour.
- You may not start a line in a colour your wall already has in that row — check before you take.
- Anything that will not fit falls on your floor: −1, −1, −2, −2, −2, −3, −3.
- Take from the centre first and you also take the 1 marker: it lands on your floor line like a spilled tile — costing whatever space it takes — and it opens the next round.
- When the table is bare, every FULL line moves one tile onto your wall. A tile alone scores 1; a tile in a run scores the whole run, both ways if it touches both.
- Finish a horizontal row of five and the game ends after that round.
- Then the bonuses: 2 a finished row, 7 a finished column, 10 for each colour you placed all five times.
How to win at Mosaic
Count what you leave
Your leavings slide to the centre, so a decent pick that hands your rival a better one is a bad pick.
The marker is a purchase
Going first next round costs a floor slot this round — cheap early, free once your floor is already full.
Build crosses, not islands
A tile touching neighbours both ways scores both runs at once, so the wall wants a spine down the middle, not confetti.
Mind the colour lock
A wall row that already holds a colour bars that colour from its pattern line, so every placement closes a door as well as scoring.
Short lines always pay
A one- or two-tile line banks something every round; a five-tile line that stalls sits there holding its colour hostage.
The floor beats a dead line
Minus one now is better than jamming a line you can never finish — the first two floor slots are the cheap ones.
Questions about Mosaic
What ends the game?
The round in which somebody completes a horizontal row of five is the last one. Then the bonuses are paid: two points per full row, seven per full column, ten per colour placed all five times. The host can fix the game at four or six rounds instead.
How does a placed tile score?
Its unbroken horizontal run plus its unbroken vertical run, each counting the tile itself; a tile with no neighbours scores one. The wall is tiled top row down at the end of every round.
What do floor tiles cost?
The seven slots cost −1, −1, −2, −2, −2, −3, −3 — fourteen at worst. Anything past the seventh slot is discarded free, and a bad round can zero your score but never take it negative.
Is anything hidden from me?
Only the order of the bag — a hundred tiles, twenty of each colour, with the discards shuffled back in when it runs dry. Both boards and every disc are public, along with a live count of what is left.
Is Mosaic free?
Yes. Every game on Table Party is free, with no accounts, no adverts and nothing to buy.
How many people do you need for Mosaic?
Exactly 2 — Mosaic is built for that number and no other.
Do we need to download anything?
No. One person opens the site and starts a room; everybody else joins by typing the room code on their own phone. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.
Can we play Mosaic over a video call?
Yes. Share the room code in the chat and play with the call running — everything private stays on each player’s own phone.
