Today we are looking at a board game called Pinched! This game is about being a thief. The game was made by David Gordon and Jonathan Gilmour-Long. It is published by a company called Mighty Boards. You can play this game with 2 to 5 people. It is made for ages 10 and up. A game usually takes about 60 minutes to finish. I played a copy of the game that the publisher sent to me.

The idea of the game is simple. In the game, there are rich people who have lots of nice things. They have a lot of money. But you are not rich. You are a thief. Your job is to take some of their wealth. You call this “wealth redistribution,” but really you are just stealing. In the game, you and your friends are all thieves. Each round, one player gets to be the leader. This leader is called the Mastermind. The Mastermind plans a big heist. The other players try to guess where the Mastermind is going. If the Mastermind goes alone, they keep all the loot. But if the other thieves guess right, they can show up and steal some loot for themselves. The winner is the person who steals and sells the most valuable items.

Setting Up the Game

To start the game, you need to pick which locations you will use. The number of locations depends on how many people are playing. There are four main locations based on card suits. These locations have two sides you can choose from. If you have 5 players, you must also use the Bank location. Every game must include the River location. In every location, there are slots with cards placed face up. Each player gets a Stash board. You are dealt three random cards to put in your Stash. You must put cards of the same type into the same slot on your board.

How to Play Each Round

The game is played over several rounds. In every round, each player gets a turn to be the Mastermind. On your turn, all players choose a location card secretly. The Mastermind chooses where the heist will happen. The other players are trying to guess that same location. The game encourages you to talk to the other players. You can try to convince them to go to a certain place or lie to them to trick them. After everyone has picked a card, you reveal them all.

The location that the Mastermind chose is where the heist happens. First, the Mastermind picks any one card from that location and puts it in their Stash. Then, going around the table, any other player who guessed the right location gets to take one card from that spot. Finally, the Mastermind gets to take a second card. If there are no cards left at that location, the Mastermind gets a random card from the deck. Before the next round starts, the location is filled back up with new cards.

Selling Your Stolen Goods

After the stealing is done, the Mastermind can sell cards from their Stash. The cards tell you how many points you get based on how many you sell. You flip the cards you want to sell into your score pile. Each card is worth one point. The rest of the cards are discarded. Then, every player who is not the Mastermind gets to pick one of the three face-up cards from the River. The River board is then refilled.

Winning the Game

The game ends after a set number of rounds. If there are 2 players, you play 5 rounds. If there are 3 or 4 players, you play 4 rounds. If there are 5 players, you play 3 rounds. When the game ends, all players can sell any cards they still have in their Stash. Depending on which locations you used, there might be bonus points available. You add up all your points to get your total score. The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the player with the most points from gold bars wins.

My Thoughts on Pinched!

Pinched! is a new version of a game where you try to guess what other people are thinking. It is not just guessing, though. You have to use logic to figure out what cards the Mastermind wants. Then you have to think about what the Mastermind thinks you will do. You have to ask yourself: Will the thief go to the obvious place to get the one card they want? Or will they go to a different place hoping to get all the cards there if no one else shows up?

Some locations have special abilities that make you make unexpected choices. One location gives you extra points if you go there alone. Another location lets you take a card from any other location. Each location also has two different sides with different abilities. This means the game feels different every time you play.

The storage system in the game makes for interesting choices. You can only hold three different types of items in your Stash. You cannot just collect everything. You will have to throw away things you don’t want or sell things early to make space. This is usually bad for you because you get more points if you sell a larger set of items.

I usually have to make two or three hard decisions every game. I have to decide if I should stop collecting one type of item so I can start collecting something else. A lot depends on what is on the board, what I think other people are doing, and where I sit in the turn order. There is a lot to think about here.

The production quality is very good. The art is clean and uses bright colors that are easy to see. The tiles are color-coded well, and the scoring rules are easy to read. The rulebook has lots of pictures, but I found it a little hard to follow at first. All the rules are there, but they were not easy to understand just by reading. Once we played a round or two, it made sense. The game is actually easy to play. If the rules are confusing, you can watch a video online or just play a practice round. It will click together nicely.

Like in most games about being crooks, it pays to be on your own. This game reminds me of an older game called By Hook or Crook. It feels like a modern version of that game. I think this game plays best with more players. More players means more interactions and makes it a bit more challenging.