#96: So ein Käse

So ein Käse

• designer: Peter Neugebauer
• publisher: Goldsieber
• date: 2003
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/5.7
• age: 5+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: in print?
• cost: $24.95 (USA), EUR 12,95 (about $19.50)

I didn't classify this game of mice chasing cheese (this won't be the last time this theme crops up here on the list - it certainly wasn't the first!) as a memory game, though there is a memory element to it. It's really a game of collecting victory points by moving efficiently around the board.

You're working your way across the kitchen, picking up cheese & sausage & various other goodies - the board is laid out in a (primarily) hexagonal grid (though that's disguised as point-to-point movement). Players roll the dice & then take their move - but there are (thankfully) a trio of twists:

1. A few of the tokens are cat tokens - which allow you to scatter all of the mice back to the corners... and you get to choose who goes to which corner.
2. The die has two special symbols on it - a padlock, which allows you to "lock" one of your items so it can't be taken, and a hand, which allows you to take another players' item & return it to the board. (In a nice touch, you can simply refuse either of these special powers & roll again.)
3. Mice block other mice... meaning you can be boxed in and/or cut off from good hunting areas.

When less than 3 tokens remain on the board, the mice return to their corners & count their stuff.

While it will work with 2 players, the game really shines with 3 or 4 players.