Animals: Worms

Da ist der Wurm drin

In the dice game Da ist der Wurm drin, players want to be the first to have their worm poke its head out of the compost heap at the end of the garden.

To set up the game board, attach a smaller game board with two slots in it to the larger game board on which the worms will crawl. The first slot has a row of daisies by it, while the second slot has a row of strawberries. Each player chooses a color, and places the worm head of that color in the appropriate track on the game board.

On a turn, a player rolls the die, then places the appropriately colored worm section into the track holding his worm. The worm sections come in six colors and range from 1 cm to 6 cm long. On any turn, a player can place her daisy (or strawberry) tile above the worm that she thinks will reach the daisies (or strawberries) first. If that worm does indeed poke its head into view through the slot before any other, then that player can add the daisy (or strawberry) tile to her own worm. (Choose wrong, and you discard your tile.)

The first worm to poke its head out from under the far edge of the smaller game board wins. For a longer game, players can keep their worms going until one stretches its head off the edge of the larger game board.

Pickomino

Two to seven players, ages 8 and up try to obtain fried worms for their chickens, so that they don't go hungry. Of course, anyone who doesn't manage to grab a worm off of the grill can help himself to those of his opponents. This fast-paced game by Reiner Knizia is, like Hick Hack im Gackelwack, a gambling game in the finest chicken tradition."

Each turn players roll their dice and set aside all those matching any single value. The remaining dice are rolled and any value is set aside again until the player stops and takes a tile or busts and puts their last tile back. When a player busts and fails to take a tile they must also turn the highest tile face-down.

Interestingly, the German edition from Zoch has English rules in the box.

The Dutch edition is part of the Jakkie & Bak Collection
The German edition is part of The Chicken Family of Zoch.