by Eyefink
My son, who is six and prior to this has played few games of any real depth (his go to's are, or were rather, Uno and Candy Land, occasionaly Connect Four) has a new favorite game, and he's not half bad at it.I bought King of Tokyo (and Power Up!) because it seemed like a great light time filler game, complete with fun overpowered cards, awesome randomness and general merriment. But mostly it was to play with my wife and maybe possibly other friends (Alas, I've not been able to have any real game nights yet), with an eye toward my son dabbling in it and pretty much just rolling the dice araound. I, like many adults I think, underestimate kids' ability to comprehend complex situations and develope strategies. Not that King of Tokyo is hugely deep, but it's complex enough to have some modicum of strategy in what to do and how to roll.
We played two games back to back, and I had use all my parental power to get my son into a bath and then bed, with him begging all the way to play more, more, more--and he didn't even win! I have a thing about letting him win (at least without a fight). Thing is, he picked it up so fast he almost won both games easily. He decided to go for points and managed to roll five threes on his first two rounds, before I went into Tokyo. I ended up winning on points, but we were neck and neck and the only reason I did was he didn't grasp--or I didn't explain well--trying to kick me out of Tokyo. To be honest with two players it's not as obvious. He kept going for points and energy to buy cards but I edged him out in the end.
The second game started out more evenly, with him taking Tokyo first. I laughed when I told him he should try healing and he reminded me he couldn't because he was in Tokyo. When he got down to two hearts I realized I hadn't explained yielding very well and he got out as soon as he could. He had managed to buy Big Brain (one extra reroll) and when Ultimate Destruction (gain nine points when you shoot the moon) came up he was insistent that he get it, like any good gambler. At ten points he would have been 1 point away from victory and he knew it. Amazingly he went on to almost get it three turns in a row only missing it by one die. Meanwhile I climbed back up but started playing a little softball just to see if he could do it and get a crazy win. Eventually, after two more almost wins for him, I had to end it by taking his last couple hit points. He was so focused on getting that run that he pretty much left me alone, but I can't say I would have done any different; with an extra reroll why wouldn't you? Even then he loved it and I had to drag him away from the table.
I had surprisingly little input on what he should reroll, only mentioning a couple suggestions when he got tunnel vision. He's informed me that we're playing ten times tomorrow when he gets home from school, so I think it was a success; we both have a favorite new game and all that's left is dragging my wife into it as well.
