Holmes: Sherlock versus Moriarty

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Holmes: Sherlock vs. Moriarty
Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft
Game data
author Diego Ibáñez
graphic Pedro Soto
publishing company Cosmos games ,
devir u. a.
Publishing year 2015
Art Card game
Teammates 2
Duration 20-30 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Holmes: Sherlock versus Moriarty or just Holmes (Spanish original title Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft ) is a card game by the Spanish game designer Diego Ibáñez for two people. The game was published by Devir in 2015 and was then published in several languages. At the beginning of 2017 it was published for German-speaking countries by Kosmos Spiele in the series Games for Two .

Theme and equipment

The game is a competition between the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes from the novels by Arthur Conan Doyle against Professor Moriarty or, in the original Spanish version, against his brother Mycroft Holmes to solve an attack on the British Parliament. The game is played as a card collecting game with a proportion of worker placement .

In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:

  • a game board with a round indicator and card storage,
  • 10 person cards,
  • 52 clue cards,
  • 2 overview cards showing the skills of the person,
  • 2 role cards (Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty), printed on both sides for the game variant "Sherlock & Moriarty",
  • 24 influence markers in the form of magnifying glasses ,
  • six pawns as action markers, three each in black for Sherlock Holmes and gray for Moriarty, and
  • 2 “Mycroft” cards for the “Mycroft” game variant.

Style of play

Game preparation

To prepare for the game, the game board is laid out in the middle of the table between the two players. The 10 character cards are shuffled and placed face down on the corresponding space on the game board. The influence tokens are placed under the game board as a supply. The top two cards of this pile of people are drawn and placed face up on the two fields labeled “Day 1”. In addition to these two people, at the start of the game there are always the people Dr. Watson , Mrs. Hudson, and Inspector Lestrade available.

The players choose who plays Sherlock Holmes and who plays Moriarty. You each receive the corresponding role card, the corresponding three game figures, six influence markers and an overview card. The clue cards are also shuffled and placed under the game board as a face-down clue pile. Then four clues are drawn and laid out in a row next to the pile.

Game flow

Phases per day / turn
  • Start / display of a new person
  • Investigating / using a person's characteristics
  • Evaluate completion / action markers

The game Holmes: Sherlock against Moriarty runs over a total of seven rounds, each corresponding to a day and each consisting of three phases. The first phase is skipped in the first round, in each of the following rounds a person card from the person pile is laid out face up on the next free day space. In addition, the action markers on the game board from the preliminary round are placed. In the subsequent investigation phase, first Sherlock and then Moriarty alternately choose one of the exposed persons in order to use their abilities. To do this, the player places one of the action markers on this person card, which is not yet allowed to have its own marker, and the investigation continues until all six action markers have been placed. When all markers have been placed and all abilities have been played, the markers lying on the table are set up again. If there are two markers on one of the people, it is turned over and is therefore not available for the next round. All cards that were turned over in the preliminary round are then put back face up and the new day begins.

Various skills are available to the players via the character cards. You can receive influence markers, indicated by the magnifying glass symbol, which can later be exchanged for clues using other cards. In addition, the players can take hint cards from the general display. Clues from the open display are placed face up in front of the player, similar clues are laid out in a row so that the number is always recognizable. Some people also have to discard cards that are put on the general discard pile. At the end of the respective turn, the open clues are refilled and if the clue pile is used up, the discard pile is shuffled and forms the new clue pile. For some people, hidden clues may be taken from the clue pile or stolen from the opponent. These cards are viewed by the respective player and placed secretly, i.e. face down, next to the rows. Face-down cards are only revealed at the end of the scoring and are immune to the abilities of the people. In addition to the general clue cards, there are five card fragments, the value of which increases with their number in the final scoring , as well as joker cards that are placed in any row immediately upon receipt and increase the number of clues in the row. Only one joker is allowed per row of clues and they must not be placed next to the card fragments. If the joker is discarded alone, a stolen or face-down card may be placed on it in a later turn.

End of game and scoring

The game ends after the seventh day, after both players have each performed their three actions. This is followed by a settlement to determine the winner of the game. At the beginning of the scoring, the players reveal all the hidden clues and place them in the appropriate rows. In addition, jokers that have not yet been assigned are assigned to the rows, although only one joker may be in a row. The following values ​​apply for billing:

  • The player who has collected more clues of the respective type receives the points for this type of clue. The number of points is determined from the printed value minus the number of cards of this type for the opponent including the joker. If there is a tie in one type of clue, neither player receives points.
  • If a player has all the clues of a type (number corresponds to the value), he receives three bonus points.
  • The card fragments are scored according to the number a player has. One or two map fragments are worth one point, three fragments three points, four fragments six points and five fragments 10 points.
  • Jokers that were only assigned at the end of the game count as a minus point. If a joker can no longer be added to any clue type, it is worth three minus points.

The winner is the player with the highest total number of points. In the event of a tie, the number of influence markers decides and if this score is also the same, the game ends in a draw.

Game variants

In the game instructions for game instructions Holmes: Sherlock versus Moriarty , several variants of the game are described, some of which require additional (existing material):

Alternative structure

City to place two random people from the person pile on “Day 1”, both players draw two people face down and choose one person from each to place it on the fields. Then all remaining cards are shuffled again.

Sherlock & Moriarty

For this variant, the back of the two role cards is required: At the beginning of the game, Moriarty turns his role card over and can reserve a hint card from the open display anywhere in the game. He places this horizontally in front of him and can then take it if he could take a normal clue card. As soon as he does this, he turns his role card over again and Sherlock is allowed to turn over his card and also reserve and take a hint card later in the game. If a reserved hint card is not used, the corresponding player receives three minus points in the final scoring.

Mycroft

For this variant, one or both of the additional "Mycroft" cards are required. These are shuffled into the pile of people after the display for day 1 has been made. If a “Mycroft” card is revealed at the beginning of a day, it is carried out and then removed from the game; only then is a person card for the day displayed.

  1. Raid: Beginning with Sherlock, both players must alternately put one face-up clue onto the discard pile twice. If the players have no clue cards, they each discard 2 influence tokens instead.
  2. Gala dinner: beginning with Sherlock, both players put down an action marker each, so they only have two markers on that day.

Development and reception

The game Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft was developed by the Spanish game designer Diego Ibáñez and published by Devir in Spain in 2015 . In 2016 editions appeared in English, Polish and Italian, in 2017 translations into Russian, Chinese and German followed. In German-speaking countries, the game was released by Kosmos Spiele for the Nuremberg Toy Fair 2017 in the series Games for Two .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Game instructions Holmes: Sherlock versus Moriarty
  2. ↑ Versions by Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on October 17, 2017.

Web links