Get the cheese

"Get the Cheese" is a little card game for 3-5 players. As you might guess from the name it involves guiding a bunch of hungry mice to some slices of cheese. But things get complicated real quick as the food rush unfolds: sneaky cats are preying on careless mice and dogs loom around the corner to chase off these frantic felines. Each animal can score points for its actions, so deploying your critters at the right place at the right time is paramount to your success.

At the start of the game a number of cheese cards are placed in a circle. Each card has a number indicating how many mice can feed off it. Then each player receives a deck of 15 cards, containing a dog, two cats and various mice. The decks are shuffled and each player draws three cards. Now the game can start.

The active player has two options: either draw three cards (with a hand limit of six) or play three cards. When he chooses to play, the first card is placed face down before any cheese, queueing up atfer cards already present. The next 2 cards are placed clockwise and face up before the next cheese cards. However, to keep things interesting, some cards may be played face down there as well. When the chosen action is completed, the next player gets a turn.

When all cards have been played (after nine rounds, i,e, 5x play and 4x draw) each queue is evaluated. First the dogs are considered. If any cat is adjacent to a dog it gets caught (worth 3 points) and moved to the dog owner's score pile. Then the cats get their say: they chase up to three mice in front of them and carry other players' mice (worth 1 or 2 points) to their score pile. However, they are stopped when they run into another cat or dog. And finally the remaining mice can grab a piece of cheese and head back to their lair. At least, if they are high enough in the queue (remember: a cheese can only feed so many mice).

When all queues are resolved, the players count their score pile. The player with the most points wins the rush for the cheese.

"Get The Cheese" is a fun little game that's explained quickly. Only the queue evaluation might be confusing at first, but you should take your time to get it clear for everyone because it really determines the way you should play your cards. You can play it casually ("see what happens") or you can start counting cards and try to anticipate other players' moves. Of course there are some obvious tactics to consider (e,g, save certain mice for last, don't play a cat face up, don't play your cat in the first spot of a queue, ...), but other offensive and defensive tactics will pop up after some games. All in all, "Get The Cheese" is a nice filler that should appeal to many players. I enjoyed it a lot, and I hope you will too!

Get the cheese was donated by Stronghold Games and can be played from november at Het Geel Pionneke.

Number of players : 3 - 5

Playtime : 15 - 30 minutes

Age : from 8 years