Wilmot’s Warehouse Review – How Much Do You Remember?

Disclaimer: Wilmot’s Warehouse was provided for free by CMYK, although the writing and opinions of this article are my own.

Like a lot of the board games CMYK delivers, Wilmot’s Warehouse is like nothing you’ve ever played before. It’s a cooperative memory game where your team attempts the absurd: to remember 35 odd-looking image tiles. Each abstract enough to be up for interpretation—one tile could be a pig’s snout or a power socket… depending on how hard you’re squinting.

After reading the rulebook, I was convinced the whole thing was impossible. But by the end, I was genuinely stunned—not just at how doable it was, but at how much fun I had along the way.

How to play

Welcome to your first day at Wilmot’s Warehouse, a strange little factory that seems to manufacture everything. We’re talking toothbrushes, traffic cones and mysterious blobs that may or may not be fruit. Your job for the week is to organise and itemise this chaotic stockpile. Put things in memorable places so that when the orders roll in on the weekend, you can fulfil them all and maybe, just maybe, get paid.

Set up the game by creating five piles of seven randomly drawn tiles from a bag—one for each day of the working week. From Tuesday onward, you’ll also add a Mandatory Idea card on top of each stack.

Then, starting with the boldest player (however you choose to define that), they draw Monday’s first tile, show it to everyone at the table, and place it face-down in the middle of the warehouse. Be sure to get a good look—because that tile won’t be flipped over again until the very end of the game.

The next player draws the second tile, shows it off, and this time the table can discuss where it should go. As long as it’s adjacent to a previously placed tile. To help everyone remember, the team is encouraged to create a story or memory hook for the placement—something weird or specific enough to stick. Then that tile, too, goes face-down into the warehouse.

Repeat until all of Monday’s tiles are placed.

Before Tuesday begins, flip the Mandatory Idea card and brace yourself. These are your manager’s bright ideas for “efficiency”—like rotating the board 90 degrees, describing tiles as if you’re on a cooking show, or limiting all communication to grunts and mime. Totally normal office policies.

Push through the rest of the week and eventually, you’ll hit the weekend. Time to relax? Ha. No.

Now comes the real test.

Deal out a second set of cards featuring all the item images in the game (even the ones that didn’t appear this game). Start a timer, and as a team, try to place each of these cards on top of their matching face-down tile in the warehouse. Once you’re feeling confident, stop the timer and flip over all the tiles to check your accuracy.

Add five seconds to your final time for every incorrect placement, then compare your score with the table in the back of the rulebook—and enjoy a custom victory (or encouragement) video from Shut Up & Sit Down’s very own Matt Lees.

Remembering the Impossible

I remember reading the rulebook for Wilmot’s Warehouse and thinking, wait, is that it? Okay, that was my second thought. My first was: There’s no way we’re going to remember 35 different items. I couldn’t even remember what I’d had for breakfast that morning. So as far as memory games go, I am terrible.

Yet, is Wilmot’s Warehouse just a memory game?

It is. But what we found (and what the rulebook encourages) is that remembering isn’t really about raw brainpower. You start telling stories, grouping things together in ways that make sense to your group. And the more you place, the more you build out these ideas so by the end you’re not just remembering isolated tiles but this woven tapestry of stories.

Thankfully, the items you’re placing on the board are vague enough to be interpreted in any way you need to fit the tale you’re telling. That green circle? Could be a bowl of pea soup. Could be a tennis ball. Could be a wheel of mouldy cheese. It’s up to you.

The end result is your table crafting this weird, shared mythology of stories, categories, and inside jokes. It’s surprisingly fun. Especially when the Mandatory Ideas start messing with you just as you’re getting the hang of it. In one of our games, we got hit with the rule that we could only speak in one-syllable words. It was really—damn it I failed!—tough. But it totally changed how we played, and every time someone slipped up, the whole table cracked up.

That said, not every game of Wilmot’s Warehouse was a hit. When people weren’t fully on board with the concept, the game kind of fell flat. Therefore, maybe check the group and vibe of the table before bringing it out.

Additionally, it’s mentally exhausting. By the time we were watching the ending video, I could already feel and see the brain fog settling in on other players. Even during the games that had us laughing and totally engaged, no one ever suggested playing twice in a row.

Which pretty much sums up how I feel about Wilmot’s Warehouse. It does something kind of incredible—it shows you your memory is way more capable than you think—and it can be an awesome, laugh-filled experience. But it’s definitely a ‘right mood, right group’ kind of game. A special-occasion pick, not a weekly staple.