Holmes and Moriarty: Review

Holmes and Moriarty: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Drafting, Trick Taking, Asymmetrical, Simultaneous Selection, Connect in a Row, Deduction

Player Age: 12+

Player Count: 2 Players 

Time to Play: 30 - 45 Minutes

Game Designers: Brad Lackey, Joshua Tempkin

Game Artist: Heiko Gunther

Publisher: Escape Velocity Games
Year Released: 2018

Objective:

Moriarty is up to his old tricks again but never fear as Holmes is on the case! In this game you either play as Holmes or Moriarty. The two characters have a unique objective whereby Moriarty wants to connect 3 of his tokens on the board in either a horizontal, vertical or diagonal pattern; and Holmes wants to delay this by either playing out the 5 rounds in its entirety (without Moriarty winning), or by making it so there are no valid positions for Moriarty to place. 

Card Anatomy:

There are two types of cards in this game, plot cards and case cards.

Plot Cards:
These cards will have:

- A number ranging from 1 - 16 at the top left and right
- Flavour text on the bottom of the card
- one of four possible colours (suits)

• Blue - Baker Street
• Green - Whitehall
• Red - Charing Cross
• Yellow - Tower Bridge

Case Cards:

These case cards will either have Moriarty or Holmes on the card. If the card has Holmes on it and the Holmes character wins the card, they will be allowed to place a free token on the board (depending on the suits). Moriarty cards will have special abilities that will change the rules of the case such as "A Claim Check: Charing Cross clues get +5 and win ties", although these abilities are only used in advanced games.

  

Set Up:

Open up the game board so the board is visible to both players. Shuffle all Holmes cards except for "Lost in thought" (this card can be added to the case deck if you feel that Holmes needs an advantage) and shuffle in nine random Moriarty case cards with the Holmes cards. The total number of cards in the deck should be 15. Give each player their role reference card, this is just a small version of the board that you can use to plan out your turns without giving away what location you’re looking at.

How to Play:

First off we need to establish the cases. Play three case cards face up beside the board (see image below). Remember, if the case card is Holmes it will give that character an advantage if he wins the case, and if the case card is Moriarty it will give an effect while playing this case in an advanced game.

The deck of plot cards are then shuffled together with two cards removed (to reduce card counting) and the rest are divided amongst the players. Each player will now play a face down card in the crime row and one in the clue row for one case card (see image below).

The crime row determines the trump suit for the clue row via the card with the highest number. The suit of that card, will now be trump suit for the clue row. When scoring the crime row there is a wrap around effect when determining who has the largest number. This means that 16, 15, 14 has the next three numbers as a larger number. For example 3 is higher than 16, 2 is higher than 16, 15, 1 is higher than 16, 15, 14. This will also determine what number Moriarty will place in the board if they win the case.

The clue row determines who will win the case by having the largest trump number, and if no player has the trump then whoever has the largest number in this row will win the case. The wrap around effect does not effect the clue row, If Holmes wins the case this will be the number that is placed on the board. 

After playing the face down card, the players will now pass the left over cards to the other player who will choose to place a card face down on the next case. Repeat this drafting process for the third case and now the leftover cards will be discarded.  If you so choose, you can now change the order of your clue cards without looking. The crime cards cannot be changed, only the clues.

Each case in then resolved one at a time, first with the crime and then the clue. This is where it gets confusing so bare with me. If Holmes wins a case they will place their token on the board with the Holmes side face-up in the location corresponding to the clue card. If that spot is already taken on the board then nothing happens. However, if the case had an image of Holmes they now get to place an additional token on the board of any number that matches one of the suits that were displayed on the card.

Because this game is asymmetrical, Moriarty gets to do his moves differently. If Moriarty wins a case, he places a token on the with the Moriarty side face up in the location corresponding to the winning crime card. Just like Holmes, nothing happens if there is already a token here. Now this continues for each case but here's the benefit that Moriarty has; if Moriarty wins two out of the three cases, Holmes must place a token on an empty location on the board with the Moriarty side facing up. If Moriarty wins all three cases then Holmes must do this twice.

This continues for five rounds unless Moriarty connects three in a row or Holmes makes it illegal for Moriarty to win by blocking his movement... There shall be no escape for you tonight Moriarty!

Final Thoughts:

Cons:

- The advance rule of Moriarty case cards make the game feel clunky (that's okay you don't have to use them)

- There is a bit of a learning curve when understanding how to play as Moriarty and Holmes due to the asymmetrical nature of the game

Pros:

- Moriarty and Holmes can be altered so one has more of an advantage which makes it more fair to play with kids or new players

- Highly strategic

- The game box folds out to be the board (makes the game compact and travel friendly, also cool!)

- High replay ability

- New spin on trick taking mechanic

The first time you play this game you come in with the assumption that you won't have to change your play style based on who you play. But after a few games you realise this game is highly strategic. Not only do you have to play differently based on whether you are Holmes or Moriarty, but you also have to think about the way your opponent is playing, what cards you are giving them and what cards they are taking from you. I was pleasantly surprised by Holmes and Moriarty and I will be playing it again for sure. The verdict of this game is elementary, my dear Watson, I find it simply amazing and  earning a well deserved Seal of Go to Golden Game.

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