Matthew BaileyGame 2 of 4 of the “Bailey Boys penultimate day of the Easter holidays let’s cram it all into 1-day mini marathon” is HeckMeck (also called Pickomino) a “push-your-luck” dice game. Played by myself, Jack(7) and Toby(4).
HeckMeck contains 16 dominoes numbered 21 to 34 with increasing amounts of worms on them valued from 1 to 4, and 8 dice numbers 1-5 and a picture of a worm on the sixth side (also worth 5).
The winner is the player who collected the most worms on their dominoes at the end of the game.
Set up by placing all dominoes number/worm side up, in the centre of the table, putting them in line and value order from smallest to largest. The youngest player starts the game, and all 8 dice are handed to them.
The idea is you are trying to roll up to the numbers on the dominoes. You start by rolling all 8 dice and then can take all matching dice to add to your total (worms are worth 5). These are then set aside and you roll the remaining dice but you cannot take any face you have already taken. You MUST take at least 1 worm. This continues until 1 of 3 things occurs.
1. You decide to stop (assuming you have a worm) and take the value domino (or the next lowest available one) from the row. You can also take the most recent domino another player has taken but you must get the value exactly.
2. You are unable to take any dice as you have already taken all of the available faces. In this case, you bust and turn over the highest domino number (this is out of the game). Your turn is over and you take nothing.
3. You fail to roll a worm. In this case, you bust and turn over the highest domino number (this is out of the game). Your turn is over and you take nothing.
This then continues until all dice have either been taken or turned over. Most worms wins.
It is a simple game but has quickly become one of my favourite dice games. Both boys enjoyed it and totally understood how to play and it definitely helped Toby(4) with his mental arithmetic.
There is actually a fair amount of strategy as to what to take and how to increase your chances.
I bought a double pack from Amazon.de which came with the Deluxe version (that comes in a nice tin and contains both expansions where you put nice wooden meeples on different dominos to give extra powers when you take those dominos) and the mini travel version (which is super tiny and adorable). I have put pics of the travel version on here for comparison.
Everything is super high quality and really well made. I spent a bit extra to get the deluxe version but the normal version is readily available.
Overall the game is one of my favourite simple dice games and I really recommend it.
