The Mice of Hickory Dickory
It's a 5S Game!
Know Your Mice
Hello and welcome to the first in a series of articles about the worker rotation game Hickory Dickory. In this article, we will be discussing the cute little mice that make up each player’s team.
In Hickory Dickory, each player has a team of five specialized mice represented by adorable wooden meeples. Each mouse is different and has unique advantages. Using the right mouse for the right task is important!
When the game starts, each player will only have three mice on the clock face. Let’s look at them first.
The Spotter
Your goal is to win Lord Cuckoo’s royal scavenger hunt by collecting matching sets of trinkets, baubles and possibly even Lord Cuckoo’s lost relics, all represented by colorful acrylic tiles you draw from a bag when your mice search. The Spotter is particularly good at finding things making them a highly valued member of your mouse team.
When a mouse searches, their controlling player pulls a random tile out of the search bag and places it in the searching mouse’s pouch. If it’s the Spotter searching, you can draw two tiles and pick which one you want to keep. This means the Spotter has a better chance of finding the tiles you need to make the matches that score best.
The Spotter’s pouch is a decent size, able to hold up to four tiles.
The Scavenger
Turning in tiles is your primary source of scoring points during the game. You earn more points when you turn in more items at the various turn-in spots on the clock, so having a big full pouch is paramount. This where the Scavenger comes in!
The Scavenger has a bigger pouch that can hold up to five tiles. No mouse can carry as much as your Scavenger, ‘cause it takes a big mouse to carry that big ol’ pouch. The Scavenger takes up two spaces on the minute hand, and space is limited! When the Scavenger hops on, he might bump a rival’s mouse off. Oh well!
The Scurrier
In order to get your mice to the best tiles before your opponents, you’ll need to have them ride on the clock’s minute hand and hop them off at just the right time to grab the goods. No mouse is better at this than the Scurrier. With its long legs, it can hop up to two spaces ahead when it jumps off the minute hand, or even when it’s pushed off. This means you can grab tiles before other, slower mice.
The Scurrier also has a decent-sized pouch that can hold up to four tiles. Not too shabby!
There’s Another Mouse!
The Scamp
By visiting certain spaces, players can add an extra mouse to their team called he Scamp. This little mouse may be late to arrive to the hunt, but when it does, you can place it anywhere on the clock and perform the associated action right away! In fact, after you have this mouse in play, any time one of your mice lands on the Scamp action space, you can surprise your opponents and leap your Scamp to any space and perform that action, even if they’ve already performed an action that round!
The only problem with the Scamp is its tiny little pouch. It only holds up to two tiles which makes the Scamp pretty weak at turning in tiles for points. Luckily, mice on your team can trade with each other when in the same area!
Bless My Buns! Even More Mice!
The Scaler
Not all of your mice are mixing it up on the clock face. There is one more mouse that is key to scoring big points by climbing up the clock weight chains. This mouse is called the Scaler and your other mice move them up the chain by visiting certain spaces. The first Scaler to reach the top, earns points, but then goes to the bottom again! Each time a Scaler scores points, the chain moves up and the points become less, so paying attention to your Scaler early in the game is paramount.
The poor Scaler doesn’t have a card or a pouch, but it's just as cute as all the others, and a big points earner for the players who take advantage!
Next week we’ll be covering the multiple ways to earn berries, aka victory points, on your way to winning the royal scavenger hunt! Hickory Dickory is available for preorder right now with a release date of January 2023. Orders in the 48 contiguous US receive Free Shipping!
