I surfaced from a recent spelunking expedition through boxes in our garage with “Cathedral, The Game of the Medieval City,” a strategy game that I discovered at a Renaissance Faire somewhere between 25 and 30 year ago, bought, played, loved and eventually stuffed into a box during a move… probably to my first year in college.
So when I had a couple hours with afternoon with W, my 7-1/2 year old game-obsessed son, I distracted him from Lego Batman and other video games by introducing him to Cathedral.
Similar to Blokus in game play, Cathedral is for just two players (Blokus is ideal with four and bores with two). It has an urban metaphor in which space is constrained by a wall and the two competitors each try to commandeer as much space as possible. Good strategy calls for ruthlessness and spatial reasoning– both of which W has in spades. And, if I remember correctly, like Tic-Tac-Toe once two players get good at “Cathedral” you wind up stalemating every time. (We’re not there yet.)
W lost the first few games while he got used to the rules. After a stalemate at game five we decamped to the local fro-yo joint, then came back for a three game tournament.
He won, the little rat.
Rematch tomorrow after his play date.
Imagine the sound of my knuckles cracking.
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