Lately, I’ve been lazy, not playing many board games, but not playing video games or anything else either. I don’t know if it’s work or because I’m enjoying learning about podcasting and video editing. I recently got a Macbook Pro and have revived my interest in audio and video broadcasting - they were taking over. But last night I decided to stop procrastinating on a game I’ve been wanting to play, Richard Borg’s Wyatt Earp. I hope you’ll find this review interesting. I know the game is a little older, but unlike the latest technology, board games have a life all their own and can sustain many game technology transitions - the benefit of being non-digital, I suppose.
For those who don’t know, Richard Borg is one of the “big names” in the board game industry. He’s made some other board games you may be more familiar with like, Memoir ‘44 and Battlelore. In fact, I had no idea he had made any other games until I read a recent issue of Knucklebones concerning his board game design history. In that article Wyatt Earp is mentioned as one of his “best games.” I liked the look of it and bought it.
Now when I classify things, I like hard and fast categories, but that’s a little difficult to do in board games. On the other hand, I’m not sure it it matters for board game enthusiasts. It seems that players simply put all “analog games” that you play on a table as a board game. I agree, but my point here is simply to point out that Wyatt Earp is primarily a card game. It consists of 78 cards which contain Outlaw sets and Sheriff action cards, with Outlaw placards used as place holders for bounty money. If you’ve never seen the game that won’t make much sense, so let’s look at the pictures below:
The Outlaws surround the money and the draw and discard pile, contents, and rule book:
The gameplay is simple. You each have ten cards and attempt to create sets of outlaws. When you create a set, depending upon how big that set is, you place a certain amount of money, measured in thousands, on the Outlaw’s set you just collected:
Here’s an Outlaw up close:
Here’s the money up close:
At its heart, Wyatt Earp is a set collection and hand management game. Here is a picture of a set, which must contain at least three. Also notice how the game is color coded, each outlaw with their own color:
But up till now you may be asking, so what? You collect sets like Rummy and whoever gets the sets gets money, right? No. Actually, sets only place money on that Outlaw’s wanted poster. You have to get something called “Capture Points” to get the money. And the money is just as liable to go to your opponent, or a share of it. The money distribution is based upon how many capture points there are total between all players and the difference between your score and the other players. First, look again at the picture above of a set. See the numbers in the upper left? That’s a capture point.
Now, I’m not going to go into the math of the game, but essentially there are three scoring tests to figure out who gets the money on an Outlaw wanted poster, using simple addition and subtraction. Of the three posibilities, the money on an Outlaw is either left until the next round (hand), taken completely by a single player, or divided/shared amongst players who have a common set. Here a picture of money on an outlaw to show what’s at stake:
In the scoring phase just described, the players move to each Outlaw, scoring sets and determining bounty money distribution. The object is simple: Whoever gets to $25,000 first wins. When I played a two-player, this took two hands. That may not sound like a lot, but it took over 20 minutes. Hand’s don’t end until one person discards the last card (with a few exceptions.)
But to break up the set collection into something more fun, Wyatt Earp has something called Sheriff cards, what I called action cards. This allows for more interesting hand management and adds a risk factor to gameplay. In addition, there are several actions one Sheriff card may have, and based upon a random draw from the deck, some actions may be worth more. Consider the Wyatt Earp card (hey, it had to be in there somewhere). It has three possibilities:
Notice the last one action, “after successful shot.” To make a shot, you draw a card from the supply. If the card has a bullet hole, that’s a successful shot, you get that action. Notice the bullet hole on Jesse James, which makes a successful shot:
Other action cards add to the capture points of an opponent or can keep an opponent from using capture points in the scoring phase of the game. Here are all the cards types together:
In summary, the ease of understanding set collection, the monotony breaker of Sheriff cards, the risk factor of successful shots, and the nice western theme of bounty collection, creates a game that will not be placed on your boardgaming shelf for very long. It’s packed with strategy and tactics and sure to get great reviews from your family and friends, and while I consider it more of a filler than not, it’s not so lite that I put it in the For Sale category (another great game I hesitate to call a filler.) Enjoy!
And, and, this drew me out of my board game fog. I think I was just lazy.
John Marchant
Georgia Boardgames Association©
“Together time all the time…”™
