Pickomino A Game of Dice and Tiles

This Game is Easy to Learn, and a Quick Game to Play

Pickomino is a great dice game from one of the most popular names in games today, Reiner Knizia. Knizia is known for making games that have deep strategies and interesting themes along with them. Pickomino is not quite as deep in the strategy department as some of his card and boardgame offerings, but it is a lot of fun. The theme is that of chickens trying to eat worms, but honestly the game would be pretty much the same without the theme. It's a game for two to seven players and only takes a few minutes to learn and twenty to thirty minutes to play a complete game.

The game revolves around two different playing pieces. They are a set of 8 dice, and a set of 16 tiles. The tiles are numbered from twenty one to thirty six. Each tile not only has a number on it, but it also has a number of worms. The number of worms are the key here as they will determine who wins the game in the end when it is scored. You will want to look closely at the tiles, because that will help you realize that the tiles with the higher number of worms on them also have the higher numeric number assigned. The next key to the game are the eight dice. They are almost standard six sided dice. The reason I say almost standard is because they sixes have been replaced with worms.

To start the game all sixteen tiles begin in a common area where all the players can see them. Once a player is chosen to start , which I recommend the oldest starting first, the fun begins. On your turn you first roll all eight dice on your initial roll. You can then lock in any number of dice you want that have the same numerical (or ones that all have a worm) on them. You then roll the dice again, that is you roll all the dice you haven't locked in yet. This time again you can take the dice you want to lock in that all have the same numerical value out of the game. There are a couple things about locking in to remember. You must lock in all the dice that have the number you choose on your turn, you can't just take two out of the 5's showing and leave one to roll again (you would have to lock in all three). After you lock in a certain value on one roll you can't lock that same value in on a future roll. You can keep rolling as long as you wish or stop whenever you wish. If you take another roll though and you roll all numbers that you have already locked in you lose that turn. More about losing on your turn later.

Now if you decide to stop, you add up the value of your dice and take the tile with that value and put it on the pile in front of you. It can either be from the common area or from the top of one of your opponent's piles, which is referred to as stealing. If the value you have from your dice combined is not shown on one of the face up tiles, you may take the tile with the highest value in the common area that is lower than your locked in total. Now, let's say there is no tile that matches your locked in total and there are no tiles lower than your locked in total in the common area, what happens then? Once again you lose on your turn. So, what is so bad about losing on your turn?

Well first of all you are not entitled to claim a tile. Not only that you must put the top tile from your pile back into the common area face up, and finally turn over the tile in the common area with the highest numerical value therefore removing it from the game. The whole goal in this game is to have the most worms on the tiles in your pile when the game ends, so as you can see not getting a tile, and giving one back on the same turn hurts you a lot. Also flipping over the highest value tile in the common area (which will have a high number of worms) also hurts you because that tile is no longer available to add to anyone's worm total. When all the tiles are removed from the common area into player's piles and/or turned over the game ends. You then add up the worms everyone has (not the numerical values) and a winner is declared.

This is a great dice game. You can play it quickly, and as you can see the rules are rather simple and can be picked up on quickly. The only parts that are even slightly complex are what happens when you lose on a turn. I think this game is a great family game, as well as one to play with casual friends when you want a game with a very light strategy that will get some interesting rash talking going on trying to convince opponents to keep rolling another round of dice. This game is very affordable at around $15-20, and I think it is one everyone should have in their collection. I rarely give out 10's to a game, and I can't do it for this one because of the theme not really being that much a part of the game, but I will give it a 9!

By Newshound, www.associatedcontent.com