Dale Yu: Lots of reprints / Update on teaching the kids Dominion

Busy week at home this week – well, mostly it is distraction due to March Madness.  Good thing my column isn’t on Thursdays, or this wouldn’t be written at all!  Anyways, before I get back to my basketball preparations – I’d like to talk a bit about the rash of reprints / new editions that have come out in the past few months (or soon to come out)!  I’m quite excited at these new versions of older games.  Some of the games are “classics” that are getting a new print run to hopefully extend the life of the game, while other reprints are giving some lesser known gems a chance to shine in the mainstream.

Classics

En Garde – the classic fencing card game by Dr. Knizia has been re-done by Gryphon Games.  The first release of this game was in 1993, and it was getting hard to find on the secondary market.  The new release has beautiful art, and two nice pewter fencing figures to boot.  This is a great little card game with three different versions of play to keep everyone interested.

Code 777 – this classic deduction game by Robert Abbott and Alex Randolph took on almost a “grail” status due to its relative unavailability.  A few years ago, I saw a copy of this game in shrink go for $125.  The quality of the production remains to be seen as Stronghold is a new company, but with Kevin Nesbitt as part of the leadership group, I’m fairly certain that the quality will be high.

Borderlands – Fantasy Flight acquired the rights to this classic game about 3 years ago, and though there hasn’t been much news made public about it – there appears to be a growing rumor stream that FFG will come out with this one in 2010.  This always was the game I pushed to play when others wanted to play Diplomacy because it still placed a high value on negotiation without causing people to hate each other for months afterwards.

Big City – When this game went out of print, suddenly there were people everywhere looking for it.  This more modern version of Metropolis is a great strategic game of urban planning.  Valley Games has announced a 4Q 2010 release of their reprint - and it appears to be anticipated by many folks out there who are looking for a chance to play this gem from the late Franz-Benno Delonge.

Newer Games

#58 (Age of Scheme) – Samarkand: Routes to Riches – though there was certainly some debate over the subtitle of the original game – this David V.H. Peters game is incredibly complex for the 45 minutes it takes to play.  The original version possibly had fewer than 100 copies made.  Queen Games acquired the rights to the game, and has plans to have their version available by Spiel 2010.  I have had a chance to play the new version, and I must say that it has been improved and made a bit more accessible to the general gamer (mostly a simplification of the mathematical calculations that one needs to mentally do).  I believe that this has a chance to do very well in the mainstream market come the fall.

Baltimore and Ohio – Another Winsome title which has been picked up by Eagle Games for publication later this year.  B&O is a no-luck auction game which was part of the 2009 Essen Set.  I’ll be curious to see if the game undergoes any further development.  The two games that I’ve played so far each ran at least two hours, and I don’t know if that length of game is something the modern market is looking for.  But I hope that it is!  Because it’s a wonderfully done game, and with a graphic update – it should appeal to those looking for a challenging economic game. 

Factory Fun – Zman is going to reprint this great little puzzle game originally done by Cwali.  Like most of the Cwali games, the initial print run was fairly small, and once sold out – no more copies were to be made.  Now everyone will have the change to struggle over how to connect their different goo machines together.

Filipino Fruit Market - this wonderful card game (well, actually two card games) is being re-done this year by Indie Board and Cards.  I’m actually trying to get my review of this done for next week - so more details then!

Again, I think it is great that all of these games (and many others that I don’t have the time or space to mention here) are getting another chance to see the light of day.  I certainly know that there are many gamers that took the incredible time and effort needed to make their own copy of these hard-to-find games, but I think that most gamers will be more likely to purchase a well done, professionally produced version of the game.  And, I hope that these games are commercial successes as this will possibly spur on other companies to look at reprinting other games that deserve a chance for a wider audience.

Update on teaching Dominion to the kids

Well, last week I spoke a bit on my plan on teaching Dominion to the kids.  I must say that so far, their aptitude for picking up the game has far exceeded my expectations.  Of course, it probably helps that they have each watched at least 200 games as I’ve been playtesting at home over the past 2 years!

The kids learned the basic rules very well.  Again, I have no idea how much they had absorbed from simply watching the adults play.  But, we started out with 12 cards decks – 7 coppers, 3 estates, a smithy on top and a village on bottom.  The Supply was set up for a regular game – and I just let the kids take about 7 or 8 turns going thru the A/B/C progression.  By seeding their decks with the action cards, the kids got a feel for how to play an action (the Smithy) on the first turn.  The Village on the second draw let me show them how/when to shuffle and to show them that they might not be able to play all the Actions (if they had no other actions in their hand).  We did this a few times until the kids were proficient at the three phases of each turn.  I took the time at this step to make sure they understood where to place cards just purchased (the discard pile) as well as the appropriate time to shuffle their deck (only when they needed to draw a new card).

After that, we spent a little time going over the 10 Action cards recommended for a starting player.  I again gave them starting decks and seeded them with 2 different Action cards, and then had them play a few rounds with those cards.  Giving them a chance to practice the Actions a few times helped them quickly learn the abilities of the card and to remember them.  I also managed to sneak in a few other cards (Feast, Laboratory, and Festival) along the way.

Once I felt that they were comfortable with the Action cards, we moved on to a “full” game.  Well, not quite full – right now they are playing with only 6 cards in each Kingdom card pile and 8 in each Victory card pile.  I figured that this would give them enough chance to try to buy different cards while ending the game in a shorter time period (always with 3 piles thus far).  I have actually tried to not give them any advice on what cards to buy as I wanted them to develop their own strategies, and within about 5 games, both of the boys have learned to buy a few Silvers at the start of the game so they don’t slow down later on.  (Way to go kids!).  They’re not quite good at knowing when to switch over from deck development to victory point gathering quite yet, but they improve with each game.

The kids have improved to the point where they can play on their own – and I think the highest testament to their ability is that they have managed to teach two other 8 year olds in the neighborhood how to play – without my help.  I think that I’ll likely leave them with the smaller pile sizes for a while longer, and take this chance to introduce them to the other 12 cards that they haven’t seen yet.  Once they are comfortable with all the cards, I’ll likely move them onto full 10 card stacks.

But, as a father (and developer of the game), I’ve been really proud at how the kids have taken to Dominion – once they were interested in learning it.  I feel good that I didn’t try to force it on them in the past because they’ve managed to learn it on their own terms, and hopefully it’s a game that they will continue to play through the summer!

So – it’s time for me to burrow into my basketball cocoon… Games start tomorrow at noon!
Go Vanderbilt Commodores – men play Thursday 2:30pm against Murray State, the women play Sunday 12:11pm against DePaul – played here in Cincinnati!  And I’m still pulling for the Cincinnati Bearcats in the NIT.  Game tonight at 7pm – hopefully I’ll be at the game!

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

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