My Take on Wyatt Earp - The Quick and the Dead

There are lots of games people blame for turning them into game addicts. Before I knew what a Euro was I had played and been disappointed by Tikal, Settlers and Knizia's LOTR. But a friend of mine bought Wyatt Earp just because the box looked cool (perhaps the fact that we live in Southern Arizona had something to do with the choice) and thus began my love of the Euro.

In Wyatt Earp players try to capture outlaws for the reward money. Wyatt Earp makes an appearance as a sort of uber-sherriff to provide help.

The Components:
Wyatt Earp is mainly comprised of a deck of cards. Cards are either Outlaw cards (complete with bullet hole) or Sheriff cards. There are seven Outlaw cards for each of the seven Outlaws in the game. The cards are small, but not as small as the normal HiG card, and somewhat thin and flimsy.

There is also a Wanted Poster for each of the seven Outlaws and money chits. The Wanted Posters have a biographical overview of the life of the Outlaw which is nice. Also, all the art in the game is black and white period art including facsimiles of actual pictures/drawings of the various Outlaws.

The Game:
Wyatt Earp is a Mystery Rummy game despite the fact that it was published by Alea. As such the game bears similarities to the game Rummy. On a turn players draw cards, meld Outlaw cards by playing them down in sets, can play one Sheriff card, and finally must discard.

A hand typically ends when a player discards the last card in their hand. Reward money from each captured Outlaw is distributed and all the Outlaws are set free so players can try to capture them in the next hand. If any player has over $25,000 at the end of a hand, the game ends and the player with the most money wins.

The first meld of cards for an Outlaw must include at least three cards. From then on out, players can meld any number of that Outlaw card they want. Melding an Outlaw adds money to that Outlaw's Wanted Poster and adds Capture Points. An Outlaw needs at least eight Capture Points against them combined from all players at the end of a hand to be captured. But a player has to be within 5 Capture Points of the player with the most to be eligible for any of the reward.

Some Sheriff cards require "taking a shot". To take a shot a player turns over the top card of the draw pile. If it's an Outlaw the shot is successful (hence the bullet hole on the card).

Sheriff cards allow players to add money and Capture Points to Outlaws, steal cards from other players or even cancel out all the cards a player has played toward a particular outlaw.

Game Play:
The player with the most Capture Points against an outlaw will get more of the reward money. At the same time getting a finger in a bunch of different pies can also produce a lot of reward money. This is the central dilemma of Wyatt Earp. This aspect combined with the timing of ending a round makes for plenty of choices.

There is also a lot of subtlety about when and how to use Sheriff cards. Additionally only one can be played a turn so if a player has a pile of them in their hand then need to be channeling them out through play and discard if they want to be able to discard their last card.

The Shooting mechanisms adds flavor to the game. The deck is mostly composed of Outlaw cards so the chances of making a shot at the beginning of the game are better that 50%. However, after a reshuffle of the draw pile, most of the cards will be expended/discarded Sheriff cards making shots much less likely. The fact that there are only seven of each Outlaw card and Outlaw cards are played face up makes card counting relatively easy.

My Take:
I'm a fan of a good card game and Wyatt Earp has a wonderful level of depth and excitement. It's one of my favorite card games, period. I like the majority element of getting Capture Points. I like the give and take as players vie for Capture Points relative to each other. I like how certain Outlaws become marked men (or woman in the case of Belle Star) by accruing large rewards and encouraging players to fight over them.

Sometimes a big reward will stick with an Outlaw into the next hand. This can make luck a larger part of the game if one player happens to get dealt a lot of cards for that outlaw. On the other hand the luck element in taking shots is perfect for this game and fairly predictable.

The rules can be confusing and we've played incorrect interpretations of the rules for years. Funny thing is Wyatt Earp has been a favorite despite such errors.