Game Night: 221-B Baker Street

My wife absolutely adores Sherlock Holmes and this game is a particular favorite of hers. Even though I quite enjoy it, I am often loathe to play it because the game has limited shelf life, at least in terms of the number of cases available to solve.

She overcame my reluctance last night, however, and we tackled the case of the murdered inventor. We both "rolled and moved" about London and as we did, it occurred to me that, at least in two player games, starting with one each of the Scotland Yard and Skeleton Key cards is less than interesting. Because your opponent already has a Skeleton Key card, there is little incentive to place a Scotland Yard card... your opponent will, with a faint smile upon her lips, simply breeze through it as if it weren't there. You then laugh mirthlessly as you realize that you must go back to Scotland Yard if you want to try blocking another location. Why bother, you ask yourself, since your opponent will surely have the mystery solved by the time you get it. It might be an interesting variant in two player games to start off with 1 Scotland Yard card and no Skeleton Key. Or perhaps skip the cards all together.

But the game was afoot... I had scarcely entered my 4th location when I noticed that my wife was headed back to 221-B Baker Street. Good God, had she solved the case already? In fact she had, in just 4 clues!

In the post game discussion, she said that she'd taken a page out of Holmes' book and been bold with her accusations... often, in "Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective" we'd spend hours looking for proof beyond a reasonable doubt... a signed confession, a self published book by the murderer entitled "How I Did It", etc. Anybody who's read Holmes, however, knows that he will trot out the old j'accuse on the slightest scrap of evidence. Her boldness also paid off, it seems, because she had it all: motive, weapon and killer. Drat!