Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft

About this board game

Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft is a two-player investigation game with a 30-minute play time, released in 2015. Across seven days, Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft Holmes compete to uncover the truth behind a bombing at the Houses of Parliament.

In February 1895, a young laborer is arrested near the scene of the explosion. Mycroft, serving the crown, is tasked with investigating the suspect’s connection to anarchist groups. Sherlock, hired by the boy’s parents, seeks to prove that he is innocent and may be a scapegoat in a darker conspiracy.

At the start of each day, famous characters from the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle appear in London. Each player has three action tokens, which they move between characters to use their special abilities. A player cannot have two tokens on the same character, so a character must be freed before it can be used again.

• Investigate over seven turns, representing seven days of inquiry.
• Move action tokens between characters to activate their abilities.
• Obtain Evidence Cards and gain Investigation Tokens in multiple ways.
• Adapt to a changing cast of characters whose arrival day is unknown.

The available characters and their abilities create a different investigative challenge each time you play. A useful character might appear on the first day or only during the final day, making timing and planning important throughout the case.

With its changing lineup and focused two-player format, Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft offers a tense contest between two of London’s brightest minds as they pursue competing explanations for the attack.