I will discuss thermodynamic and dynamic properties of simple models of particles interacting via a small number of localized patches. I will show that the resulting reduced number of bonded neighbors has interesting consequences on the thermodynamic of the system. More specifically, (i) the region of the phase diagram where liquid-gas coexistence is observed is significantly reduced as compared to the isotropic interaction case. (ii) the wider region of stability of the liquid phase favors the establishment of a homogeneous disordered material at small packing fraction, which can be named accordingly "equilibrium gels" or "network glass". (iii) it becomes possible to generate liquid states (i.e. states with temperature lower than the liquid-gas critical temperature) with a vanishing occupied packing fraction, a case can not be realized with spherically interacting particles; Finally, I will show that for particles with a small number of patches it is possible to derive a fully predictive parameter-free theory of equilibrium self-assembly by combining the Wertheim theory for associating liquids with the Flory-Stockmayer approach for chemical gelation.