Game Overview: Covet All the Onions in Heul Doch! Mau Mau

I've been away from the game previewing scene for a month, but it feels like forever, seeing so many games pass me by while instead I've focused on packing my house for a move in early April, i.e. this week.

Finally, at the last moment possible, I cleared space among the boxes and filmed an overview of Heul Doch! Mau Mau, a card game from Leo Colovini and Ravensburger that debuted in Germany in January 2019. (At NY Toy Fair 2019 in February, I asked the North American branch of Ravensburger whether it planned to release the game in the U.S., and they had not heard of it yet, so assume not.)

Heul Doch! features two of the defining characteristics of a Colovini design:

1. Minimal rules. Boiled down, the game is Crazy Eights with a couple of twists — but those twists are what make the game not Crazy Eights and therefore something more enjoyable. Each player has their own discard pile and a hand of four cards. To play on your discard pile, you must match the color or number of the card currently on top of it; if you have a face-down card on top of your discard pile, you can play (almost) any card you want on that pile. At the end of the game, you sum the numbers of the cards in your pile and score that many points. Simple!

2. Player interaction. Colovini's designs could never be mistaken for multi-player solitaire. Your actions in one of his games always impinge on the actions of whoever follows you and usually all other players. In this game, if the card you want to play could be played on the discard pile of your left- or right-hand neighbor, then you can't play it on your own pile. For example, if my L neighbor has a green 6 and my R neighbor a yellow 5, then I can't play a yellow, green, 5 or 6 card on my pile. I can play such cards on their pile instead, and I can always choose to play a matching card on their pile even if I could play a different card on my own pile.

Heul Doch! over dinner, with the special action cards included

Why would I give them points? Because you have to play a card, and if you can't play a matching card on your own pile and can't or don't want to play on a neighbor's pile, then you must play a card from your hand face down on your own pile. Your neighbors can't mess with that card, which is effectively a joker, but at the end of play, you count the number of face-down cards in your pile, then discard all of that number from your pile. Collect six face-down cards, then you must discard all 6s in your pile before counting your score. In some games, I've lost nothing and in other games I've lost more than thirty points. Good luck winning in the latter situation!

You have minimal control over your fortunes in Heul Doch! — or at least you might think that you do, but you have more control than you initially realize. I've now played thirteen times on a review copy from Ravensburger, all with three and four players, and I've grown better at realizing how to play to my advantage: when to play face down, when to give cards away, and when to give someone points in a situation that will hurt them more than help them. That said, you're still greatly affected by the luck of the cards, and sometimes you have no choice but to reach for the tissue included in the box to dry your tears before taking what you hope is the least worst option...