Head of Mousehold card game review

Tom & Jerry was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. Jerry would antagonize Tom to no end in every episode with lots of slapstick antics.

No matter how hard he tried, Tom could never get rid of Jerry.

For some reason, playing Head of Mousehold by FoxMind took me back to those simple, lazy Saturday mornings.

Head of Mousehold is a fun family card game where players are the mice trying to grab as much cheese as they can during the game. But since they’re competing with all the other mice, it can be a bit tricky to get away with it.

Player need to choose wisely each round to determine which mice they’ll send out for the cheese by guessing which mice the other players will be sending out.

The simultaneous selection and guessing what others players are going to do makes for a very fun family game.

 

How to play Head of Mousehold

Head of Mousehold is a very straightforward game to play. In the game each player controls their own mouse clan trying to capture the most cheese over the course of 5 rounds.

To begin the game, every player receives their own deck of mouse cards. They also get 5 mouse meeples – one of each color.

A number of mousetrap cards are set in a row equal to the number of players. The Daily Event cards are shuffled and 5 are drawn and placed facedown in an event draw pile.

At the beginning of each round one random Cheese token is placed face up on each mousetrap card. Then the Speed cards are shuffled and placed face up on the table to form a column. The order of these cards determines how fast each color mouse is for the round. The color at the top of the column is the fastest.

Play proceeds through 4 steps:

1. Choose Mice

All players simultaneously choose 3 cards from their deck and place them face down in front of them. Once everyone has chosen their cards, all players place mouse meeples matching the color of their chosen mouse cards in front of them. By doing so, players are giving a bit of information about which cards they’ve chosen to play.

If a player chooses 2 or more mouse cards of the same color, only 1 mouse meeple of that color needs to be placed in front of them.

For example, if I choose 2 blue mouse cards and 1 green mouse card, I only place 1 blue and 1 green mouse meeple in front of me.

2. Reveal Daily Event

Once players have chosen which mouse cards they’re going to play, players reveal the top card from the Daily Event pile. The effect described on the card will be in play for the duration of this round.

The events include things like:

• Play all mouse cards face down.
• The fastest mouse becomes the slowest.
• Add extra cheese to each mousetrap.
• Squeakers don’t wake up the cat.
• Before mouse placement each player may change one of their mouse cards.

3. Place Your Mice

Starting with the first player, players take turns placing one of their mouse cards below a mousetrap. The first card under each mousetrap is placed face down. The second card is placed face up. The third card is placed face down and the fourth face up, etc. However, the Daily Event for the round may change how the mouse cards are placed.

Once all players have placed their mouse cards, the face down cards are revealed.

4. Claim the Cheese

After all the mouse cards are revealed face up, the cards in each column are rearranged according to speed. The fastest mice are placed nearest the mousetrap with the others following in speed order.

Then players determine which mice get the cheese tokens on the mousetraps.

The first mouse to reach the mousetrap gets caught by the trap!

Each color of mouse in a player’s deck also includes a Squeaker version. These are noted by the Squeaker icon in the upper left corner of the card. When a Squeaker mouse is caught in a mousetrap, it makes a lot of noise when it’s caught and the cat wakes up and captures the next mouse in line!

Any mouse card caught by the mousetrap or cat is discarded from the game.

After any caught mouse cards are discarded, the next mouse in line gets the cheese on that mousetrap.

Any mouse cards that didn’t get caught by the trap or the cat are returned to their owners.

Any cheese tokens not claimed in a round are left on the mousetrap (which will get even more cheese next round).

End of Game

At the end of the 5th round, players add up the value of all the cheese tokens they’ve collected. The player with the most points wins!

 

Can the whole family enjoy Head of Mousehold?

Head of Mousehold was clearly made for family play.

The theme, the cartoon artwork, and the simple game play all fit very well for families.

Young players will enjoy sending their mice out to get cheese. They’ll understand that playing cards that match the color of the fastest mice will get them to the mousetraps (and cheese) first. And in a similar manner, they’ll quickly understand that being the fastest isn’t always the best – since the first mouse gets trapped.

It’s a great way for young kids to learn simple strategy and get them thinking a bit further than just picking the matching color card from their deck.

Older players will look over the simplicity of game play and completely focus on what the others players are going to do. For them it becomes a game of trying to outsmart each other.

The artwork and icons are the cards are also helpful during game play. It’s easy for players to differentiate their own mouse cards from others by the icons on the backs of the cards as well as the upper right corner on the front. So getting the safe mouse cards back at the end of each round goes very quickly.

Even though the mice in Head of Mousehold do get snapped in mousetraps and captured by the house cat there’s not a morbid feeling to the game. Sure we know that means they met their demise, but kids won’t be traumatized by a death of one of their mice. The cards are simply discarded from play.

We received a copy of Head of Mousehold from FoxMind games many months before we actually played it. It taunted me from our game shelf for a long time. And when I was gathering games to take to SaltCon this past Spring, I decided to take Head of Mousehold along with me. I figured it might be a quick game I could pull out and play with buddies sometime during the convention.

When I mentioned it to my buddy Daniel from Mayday Games, he told me the designer, Adam Wyse, was at SaltCon and would be happy to teach us the game for our first play!

And that’s exactly what happened.

Daniel introduced me to Adam and we found a table to sit down and play. It’s always fun to play a game with the designer and this was no exception. Adam was great to play with and I hope to play more games with him if he’s back in town again for a future SaltCon.

Since then we’ve played the game as a family and with friends a number of times. And every play has been a lot of fun as we compete for the best positioning to snag the most cheese.

 

How does Head of Mousehold score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Head of Mousehold scores well on our “let’s play again” game meter.

It’s a nice light game with quick set up, simple rules, simultaneous game play, and plenty of player interaction.

We also like the variety that pops up in the game from the random Daily Events that change the way each round plays out. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out and you’ve chosen the right mice, the Daily Event throws a twist at you.

We definitely recommend Head of Mousehold as a fun card game for your family.

We’d like to thank FoxMind for a review copy of Head of Mousehold.