Mice in a Maze

Somewhere outside your safe nest there is a tasty cheese. The catch is that the stupid humans have not only placed it in a maze but also that the maze keeps changing. Nevertheless, you want that cheese, even if it means that you have to face dangerous traps. Beware, there are other mice in the maze as well and they may trick you to leave the cheese in their nests instead.

For each cheese that you take to your private nest, you score 1 point. For each cheese that you take to a shared nest, the players of the adjacent private nests score 1 point each. The player with the most points when all cheeses have been taken or no more actions are possible wins.

The game starts with 7x7 maze tiles, of which only the central one (the Cheese Chamber) is turned face up. The players start with 1 maze tile each. Each turn, a player does the following:

1. Move your mouse as far as you can along the path. In a nest, you may choose not to move, and in the Cheese Chamber, you may choose through which exit you move.
2. Move marbles as far as they can along the path. Marbles are traps that return mice to their nests and cause them to lose 1 turn.
3. Replace a maze tile anywhere in the maze by placing the one on your hand face up. If the maze tile you replace is turned face up, the next maze tile you replace must be turned face down.

When you leave the Cheese Chamber, you take a cheese, and when you enter a nest, you leave the cheese there, even if it is not a nest of your own. If you are hit by a marble, the cheese is left in the maze, and if you pass another mouse, you exchange whatever you carry. If you move out of the maze, you return to your nest and loses one turn while the cheese is returned to the Cheese Chamber. If the path is a loop, neither mice or marbles move.

The combination of free placement of maze tiles and forced movement through the maze creates a strong take that mechanism. Not only can you prevent other mice from finding the cheese but you can even force them to take it to your own nest. When you place a maze tile, each other player gets to place a maze tile so you must be very careful when moving in the maze!