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It's always exciting when a new CLUEDO appears even when it only appears at the beginning in the USA. A search of the internet produced a toy firm who would supply this game to the UK, and so, here it is!
I've read a couple of reports of this game on various toy/game web sites and it has been compared to MYSTERIES OF OLD PEKING. However, as I had never heard of or seen that game before this is a new experience for me.
The game comes in a cover with a flap you can lift. The box claims. WHO STOLE MRS. PEACOCK'S DIARY? Lift flap for a sample mystery. This is just a brief description of how the game works.
The board depicts the village of Hampshire and features Open Road spaces, 8 Building squares and 4 Motor Car squares. Landing on one of these 4 squares enables your character to move to any space of their choice.
The 8 Buildings are Scarlet Theatre, Mustard Lodge, White Cottage, Hampshire Church (Reverend Green, Vicar), Peacock Residence, Professor Plum's Castle (What experiments has HE been doing!!), Tudor Mansion & The Police Station. (N.B. Unusual for an American CLUE game to finally regard the Green character as Rev. and not Mr. Green).
The idea of the game is to discover who is the guilty party in one of 50 cases. Each case is listed in the Instructions and Case Book .
All 12 characters from CLUEDO SFX are used in this game including Prince Azure, Lord Grey, Lady Lavender & Miss Peach who this time are suspects and not sleuths. The cases in this game pre-date the Miles Meadow-Brook murder from SFX by a few months and take place in the summer of 1925. A brief summary of the suspects appears on the inner box.
The detective notes for this game are given a folder to be hidden in. The suspects are shown on the left each with a number from 1 - 12. There is a corresponding list of numbers on the detective note sheet which you cross through as you learn facts about the suspects. Although only the normal 6 suspects have residences and can answer questions, all 12 suspects are under the same suspicion.
On to the game - Players first choose one of the 50 mysteries to solve. The synopsis is read out and the character wheels are set.
CHARACTER WHEELS
Each Residence, Tudor Mansion & The Police Station have wheels inside the
standing figures. The casebook informs you the number setting of each of the 8
wheels for each mystery. The wheels have spokes with numbers on one side and
messages on the rear. You must visit all 6 Residences to question the
characters. When you land on one you read the message on the back with the aid
of the special magnifying glass. This will show you that character statement.
For example, Miss Scarlet may tell you that the criminal was definitely a woman.
You can then cross off all your male suspects - but beware - she may be lying!!
The only way to check this is by visiting The Police Station and, by using the special mirror, read his message on the back which will tell you which suspects, if any, are lying.
After you discover the culprit you must discover where they are hiding to win the game. To do this you must visit Boddy Mansion where Mr. Boddy's wheel will tell you where the suspect is hiding. For this you use the special key to read the message.
At the start of the game you place 4 location markers at four corners of the board. These are The Bus, The Parade, The Fair and The Cart. You may never move over these markers and may only land on them when you are making your final accusation. These locations move throughout the game and can be placed strategically to block your opponents. The culprit will always be hiding at one of these 4 locations.
After rolling a dice the players move along the open roads. If they land on a normal road square they draw one of the CLUE cards and follow the instructions.
If they land on a car square, they can use the car to move to any space on the board. Players must move all the spaces indicated on the dice unless they enter one of the 8 residencies or move on to a location marker to make a final accusation.
So basically, that's it. Not so much an elimination game between players, more of a race to be the first to find all the clues while trying to block your opponents. Easy to play, but a lot of fun.
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