Pickomino
"Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck" (Pickomino) is a cult dice game for shrewd fowls that have smelled the “barbeque worm”.
Roasted worms are a bird’s delight. On one hand this is due to the fact that worms are the favourite dish of all poultry. On the other hand, the preference for barbecue worms is nobody else’s doing but of Johnny Rooster Roaster. His Uncle Sam, a native from Chickentown Kentucky, had the idea to open up a worm roasting house at each corner of town. Johnny didn’t hesitate to make this idea a reality and since their first days as worm-barbecue masters their roasting joints have found no lack of eager and famished customers. And the customers keep coming. All over the place, chicken folk have started to gather worms and supply them to Johnny.
Whether Curry Worm, Roast’n Worm or Frankfurter Worm: poultry of all sorts are standing in line to taste one of these specialties. For Johnny and his new found business the following stands: from worm hunter to millionaire!
User Reviews (3)
Add a Review for "Pickomino"
You must be logged in to add a review.
Note: I had previously written a review, but it was based on a massive misreading of the rules, so I figured I’d better delete it and write something more correct, even though it loses me some likes and XP.
This is a review of the German version of the game, which is entitled “Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck”. As far as I can make out this is identical to the English language Pickomino, and even comes with English rules. The components are simply eight dice (with the 6 replaced by a goofy worm picture) and some chunky, domino-like “worm portions” which are just scoring chips. (The theme is chickens having a barbecue and competing for the most barbecued worms, which is odd but cute and fits nicely into the “Zoch Chickens” range of games.)
The game is a pretty straightforward “push your luck” dice game, and works well. On each roll you collect sets of matching dice and attempt to get them to add up to a total that matching the number on one of the worm portions. After each roll you either settle for the total you have or push on and trust to luck. If you get the necessary score, you can either take a portion from the stock in the centre of the table, or from another player (classic chicken behaviour, as it happens). The portions also have pictures of a number of worms on them, and whoever has the most worms at the end of the game is the winner.
Now, initially we had been playing this all wrong and thought that we had to clear all the tiles to finish and so ended up with a house rule to limit the length of the game. However, on re-reading, we now realise that when players fail to take a tile, one of the remaining tiles gets removed as an option, thus dramatically speeding the game end. This actually means that the game can be quite quick and frantic.
Overall, I think this is a good, fun dice game. It’s worth playing as a filler game for adults (and then “just one more for luck”), and it works well with even young kids (my 5-year-old is doing well at the game with a little help with adding up the totals). It is also sufficiently different (due to the scoring) from other dice games that I have come across that it may merit a place in the collection even if you have games like Zombie Dice or Cosmic Wimpout.
I’ll add a little update here, having had the game for a couple more years and played it a load more: the game has really grown on me. The dynamic created by the claiming of tiles and how you can sometimes steal from other players lifts the game from the “normal” run of dice games and makes it a bit more interactive than most. Definitely a keeper for me.
Overview
Get the most worms of all players to win this game.
You are one of the few chickens fighting over a nice meal of worms.
There are a set of tiles placed at the center of the game,
each tile has 2 values,the first is a number and the second is the number of worms.
Game play
Players roll a handful of six sided dice which has faces from 1 till 5 and a worm.
The worm is also counted as 5, but players are required to roll a worm before they may pick one.
Each time players roll their die, they need to select a certain result and keep all dice with that result.
The rest of the dice are rolled the players can’t make unique sets anymore or decide to stop.
The added value of all dice should then be equal or higher then a worm on the field
or on top of your opponent’s stack of worms.
If so that player make take a worm of choice and add it to his own stack,
even if this means taking it away from the top of another player’s stack.
It the player only rolls duplicate results or his results are too low,
he needs to add the worm on top of his stack back into the field.
Would that worm be of lower value, the worm with the highest value shall escape.
The tile with the highest number will be flipped face down is counted out of the game, which helps progressing the game.
When the field is emptied, players count their number of worms they got
and the one with the most worms wins.
Content
This game exists of a pile of sturdy and hard plastic tiles and some wooden dice.
The overall quality is very nice.
Thoughts
While this game is mostly based on luck with a tad of strategy,
it is very fun and challenging to play together.
If you like dice games a good laugh is guaranteed 🙂
If I saw this game at a shop I’d probably ignore it. It seems to be aimed at children, the art is very cartoony and the theme is chicken on a worm barbecue. Boy, am I glad a friend invited me to play!
Beneath its childish appearance lies a dice game with player interaction and interesting choices. Finally a dice game where you don’t just pick up the highest numbers and re-roll the rest.
If you’re playing with competitive people it can be really intense and fun! I play this regularly during the lunch break.