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Hickory Dickory is a worker placement and pick up and deliver game for 1-4 players designed by Sawyer West. You inhabit the world of nursery rhyme as your nest of mice aim to collect the best treasure for Lord Cuckoo who presides over the clock.
The game comes with a solo mode that I’ll be reviewing. The basic idea of the game is that you’re trying to deliver the best items to score the most points. You make deliveries (and do everything else) by using the minute hand of the clock to travel. You usually have to compete with others for the space on the minute hand but in the solo mode you’re aiming for a high score.
Time Goes By
You do the usual set up for a multiplayer game in Hickory Dickory except you only use your set of mice. You place them on the clock based on what your hunt board says and you work from there. There’s no automas or rival opponents so the usual interactions you have on the clock are just not possible. In a multiplayer game, your plans can go astray with lots of creatures jumping on the minute hand, but that’s just not going to happen here. Like with a two player game, you put the blockers on the minute hand to make it more congested. You’re really only competing with yourself for space on the clock.
The half moons on each number of the clock determine what the space does, there aren’t any differences compared to a multiplayer game. The spaces include:
- Delivering items
- Searching (which means you can draw a tile from the bag)
- Gaining favour (draw a favour card which can give you a one time action or can be used as an item during a delivery)
- Exchanging an item for something else (your Scamp, a trip to Itsy Bitsy’s market or a search)
- Scaling the clock chain (if you reach the top first you get the largest point bonus, every subsequent time someone reaches the top they get fewer points)
It’s definitely a good way to learn the game before playing with other people. You learn the characters’ special abilities and all the different ways you can score points. Your hunt board is definitely much fuller as you don’t have anyone to compete with for tiles so you can do some mega deliveries. The scarcity in the multiplayer game is not something you need to worry about here. You can also be a bit more intentional with trying to complete quests and using Itsy Bitsy’s market to its full potential.
The key difference of the solo game is the cat paws, which you already use in a multiplayer game but there are a few more stakes with the cat paws this time round. Normally when you get hit with a cat paw you just move back a space. However in solo you roll for the cat paws each time you hit them (instead of just moving on) and if it rolls on the number you’re currently on, you lose a tile, which isn’t great. However this is still pretty low stakes as I have easily gone through games without getting hit with a cat paw.
Like in a multiplayer game, when the minute hand hits 12 you reset the clock, moving the hour hand forward, all the mice go back inside the clock, you refill the resources and roll the cat paws. You have the opportunity to be more strategic given that no one can mess with your plans. You continue this process until it’s midnight and you see how high of a score you’ve achieved.
So Slowly, Slowly
There unfortunately isn’t lots here for solo gamers. The rulebook says to aim for 100 points and I reckon you’ll be able to get that quite easily. While trying for a new high score can be fun, in solo Hickory Dickory it can feel quite repetitive and there’s limited things to explore. There is a charm and kitschy element to getting your mice to hop on the clock hands, climbing the chain and delivering golden relics to Lord Cuckoo, but it’s more fun when you’re competing with other people.
The game is lovely to look at regardless. I think most people would unfortunately get quite bored after a couple of tries of the solo variation. However I definitely think it’s worth trying at least once, most importantly to learn the game so you can try it with other people. It’ll definitely help with the flow of the game when someone is confident with how to play.
