Board Game - Elementary. Murder on Independence Day

Elementary! – is a cooperative detective game where you need to solve a crime together using the information on the cards. Analyze the obtained information, reveal the necessary cards, and discard those that you think are not relevant to the case. 

A terrible discovery. On July 4th, after the festive fireworks celebrating Independence Day, the body of an unidentified man was found at the Rokwall family estate. Could it be that someone from this wealthy and respected family in the area is involved in a terrible crime? Investigate the estate thoroughly and uncover the truth! 

Get oriented in the area. In the cooperative detective game Murder on Independence Day from the “Elementary!” series, players must gather all possible clues related to the case of the unidentified corpse found in the grove. Information from the victim's examination, testimonies from the estate's residents, the situation in and around the house, and even maps of the surroundings – who knows where an important lead will be discovered... However, since there were quite a few people in the estate on that fateful night, the main difficulty is determining which of the established facts truly relate to the committed crime. 

Share your observations, colleague! As in other games from the “Elementary!” series, players taking on the role of detectives gather scattered information to later combine all that has been discovered and together build a plausible version of what happened. Each player has 2 or 3 cards (depending on the number of players) with facts, and during their turn, players must decide which of these facts to share with others and which to discard as irrelevant. However, reading the text from the cards in hand is not allowed; only mentioning specific, particularly highlighted words is acceptable.

The challenges of police work. In the board game Murder on Independence Day, players must strive to avoid mistakes: only those facts that truly build the picture of the crime should be displayed for everyone, while any extraneous information only distracts the team from the correct version, meaning excessive enthusiasm can ultimately cost points. But it is difficult to predict in advance which seemingly insignificant clue will suddenly turn out to be the one that will change the course of the investigation. 

Is the butler the murderer? So, all the nooks and crannies of the estate have been inspected, all the facts studied, and all the witnesses interviewed. There remains a mere trifle – to establish what really happened at the Rokwall estate on the night of the Independence Day celebrations. For this, players will need to answer several questions, some of which may seem quite unexpected… But for Sherlock Holmes, it’s elementary; what about you? 

One in the field is not a warrior. The board game Murder on Independence Day from the “Elementary!” series can also be played solo: in this case, the player has a total of six cards in hand and a pile of temporary discards that they will need to review one more time. Perhaps making decisions alone with all the information is easier, or maybe discussing the investigation details together will help you get closer to the solution faster. 

Difficulty level – challenging.

Game duration: up to 60 minutes
Number of players: from 1 to 8