Heimlich & Co.
Heimlich & Co. Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 game board
- 7 agent figures
- 7 scoring stones
- 7 agent cards
- 1 safe
- 1 die
A detective game for 2–7 people, age 8 and up.
Author: Wolfgang Kramer Design: Dietrich Lange
This game first appeared in 1984 in the Edition Perlhuhn, published by Karin and Reinhold Wittig.
Goal of the Game
In this crafty caper, the winner is the player whose well-disguised agent has collected all 41 pieces of information (= scoring points) about the construction plans of the new safe, and who is the first to cross the finish line with their scoring stone.
Setup
In our little town, where this whole story takes place, there are 10 houses, an old ruin, and a church. The house numbers, as will soon become clear, play a very important role.
Arranged around the game board, next to the start/finish space, are the scoring spaces 1–41, which continually show how much information each player has gathered.
1. Put the agents in the church. At the start of the game, the agents are all peacefully gathered in the picturesque church.
The number of agents in play depends on the number of players: with 2–4 players, there are always two more agents in play than there are players; from 5 players on, all 7 agents are always in use.
2. Put the scoring stones on the start space. The scoring stones in the matching colors of all the agents in play go on the start/finish space.
3. Put the safe in house no. 7. The mysterious safe starts out in house no. 7, and it sits there quite comfortably for a while.
4. Each player secretly draws 1 agent card. The cards of the agents in play are shuffled well. Each player secretly draws one agent card.
The colored border of the card shows each player which figure is their agent. For example, if a player draws the agent card with the red border, then the red figure is their agent.
The remaining cards must absolutely be left face down and set aside. These cards show the "extras" — agents who are running around in the game but do not belong to any player.
Now each player knows their own agent, with whom they will go hunting for details of the fiendishly tricky construction plans for the new safe. However, no player knows the agents of their fellow players!
So — the stage is set for the cheeky agent hunt, full of dice-rolling, moving, bluffing, and deception.
Rules of Play
The agents move through town from building to building, and every time a scoring occurs, the scoring stones are advanced on the surrounding scoring spaces.
The secret of your own agent must be guarded like a state secret right up to the end of the game, and must under no circumstances be given away.
How does it work?
Quite simply: every player may move any of the agents around town. This means you can cleverly leave your own agent standing still and only move other players' agents forward.
The oldest player begins the hunt for the most information and rolls the die first. The pips rolled may be split up among the agents however you like. And please, no cheating: the points must always be distributed completely.
You then move one or more agents, according to the points assigned to them, from house to house, always in a clockwise direction. Sometimes several agents end up in the same house at the same time.
This completes the turn, and the next player takes their turn.
Example: The first player rolls a 6, after which they may not roll again — after all, everyone should get a turn! They move any agent they like from the church into house 2, another agent into house 3, and their own agent into house 1 (rather sly, since they naturally want to keep the secret of their own agent for as long as possible).
The 6 pips could also have been distributed quite differently — for example, four different agents moving one house each and one agent moving two houses further, or a single agent moving six houses forward all at once, or...
Collecting Information
The house numbers indicate how much information is hidden in that house.
The old ruin is a dangerous spot: agents who end up there fall into a trap and lose three pieces of important information.
The church is neutral ground. No information can be found there.
Agents only actually find information once a scoring has taken place.
Scoring
Scoring works quite simply: if a player moves one or more agents — any agents — into the building where the safe is currently located, this triggers a scoring. At that moment, all the agents finally find information!
In our example, this simply means scoring points, which are tracked with the scoring stones. Each agent finds as much information as the house number of the house they are currently standing in shows.
Only now are the scoring stones of all the agents advanced by the number of scoring spaces matching their house number.
For example: the blue agent has entered the house with the safe (say, house no. 7). The blue scoring stone may then advance 7 spaces. The scoring stones of all the other agents are advanced by as many scoring spaces as the house number they are currently standing on indicates. So if the green and yellow agents are standing in house no. 2, and the red agent is in house no. 10, then the green and yellow scoring stones advance 2 scoring spaces, while the red one proudly advances 10 scoring spaces.
A tip: to avoid total chaos, only one player at a time should move the scoring stones.
Watch Out for the Trap!
If a scoring is triggered and one or more agents are standing in the ruin, those agents have fallen into a trap. Instead of finding information, they actually lose some: the scoring stone of their color is moved back 3 spaces — though never further back than the start space.
Moving the Safe
After all the scoring stones have been advanced, the player who triggered the scoring must move the safe into any building in which no agent is currently standing. The new building may also be the ruin or the church.
When an agent enters this building, the next scoring is triggered there.
If the safe is in the church, an agent entering finds no information there. If it is in the ruin, the agent who enters loses 3 pieces of information. In both cases, however, a scoring is still triggered.
An agent may pass by the building where the safe is located at any time. In this case, no scoring takes place (which would be a bit much, after all!).
From here on, the hunt for information continues following the pattern already established:
- Roll the die
- Move agents
- Trigger a scoring when the "safe building" is entered
- Advance the scoring stones
- Move the safe into an empty building
End of the Game
The agent whose scoring stone reaches or crosses the finish space first has won the game.
If several agents reach the finish at the same time, the player whose scoring stone has moved furthest past the finish has won the information hunt.
And who is behind which agent?
Now, at last, this secret is revealed. Each player turns over their agent card, which has been kept secret for so long, and reveals themselves. It has been known to happen that an "extra" — an agent belonging to no player — wins the game. That certainly calls for a rematch, doesn't it?
Tips and Tricks
This crafty caper is the most fun when you try to fool your fellow players for as long as possible, all while talking a lot and bluffing cleverly. How about voicing a few suspicions and giving advice that leads your opponents astray? Cast suspicion here, advance a lagging agent there. Use cunning and guile to keep all the clues in doubt. That's what makes this an incredibly fun game for all secret agents.
Expert Rules
For all the especially secretive secret-keepers
This game is not for the faint of heart! The following exciting and consequential additions apply on top of the basic rules:
Goal of the Expert Game
The winner of the game is the player who, with their own agent, manages to collect as many of the safe's secrets as possible, while at the same time unmasking as many opposing agents as possible.
Rules
Play follows the basic rules with one exception: the safe may be moved into any building whatsoever, including one where agents are already standing. It may also be left where it is, unmoved.
However, a scoring only takes place when an agent is newly moved into the building where the safe is located.
The Special Secret-Keeping
Over the course of a game, every player must figure out which agent belongs to which fellow player. The "extras" must also be unmasked.
To help with this, each player may make notes during the game on their "secret dossier." We have shown on the last page what such a sheet might look like.
We recommend that Scots make their notes in our pattern on a separate sheet of neutral paper. Rockefellers, on the other hand, may simply photocopy the page and comfortably leave their devious notes right on the copy.
Turning In Your Guesses
Once the first scoring stone reaches or passes scoring space 29, things get serious: now all players must submit their guesses in writing and in secret.
Based on the notes they have made during the game, each player draws their conclusions and writes down, for each agent, on their "secret dossier," the player they suspect of being the mastermind behind that agent. For the "extras," a single mark is enough.
Once the first scoring stone has reached or passed the finish space, the agent cards — and even more importantly, the "secret dossiers" — are revealed. Only now does the fog lift and the true winner become clear:
Each player receives 5 additional pieces of information for every opposing agent they correctly unmasked (naturally, not for their own!), and may advance their own scoring stone 5 scoring spaces — sometimes carrying it well into the second lap of scoring spaces.
End of the Expert Game
The player whose scoring stone is furthest ahead on the scoring spaces after the "secret dossiers" have been evaluated has definitively come out on top and is the true champion — the Super-Agent.
Final Tips for Super Sleuths
Anyone who wants to have the sharpest nose for clues should note the following important information during the game:
- Who pulled which agent out of the ruin?
- Who put which agent into the ruin?
- Who does not put an agent into the ruin, even though they could have?
- Who is advancing which agent?
- Who triggered a scoring, and which agents benefited from it?
- Who could have triggered a scoring, but chose not to?
And now, have lots of fun with the secretive goings-on surrounding the construction plans of the safe belonging to the firm of Heimlich & Co.
Ravensburger Spieleverlag