Thrift Treasure: Deduction Board Game

When we spotted this week’s Thrift Treasure on the shelf at our Goodwill, it instantly reminded us other other games we’ve enjoyed. Deduction by Ideal had a visual similarity with both Mastermind, a childhood favorite, and Battleship. It also advertised itself as “The Game That Makes Thinking Fun”. Corny tagline aside, it actually wasn’t half bad.

Deduction is a two-player game where each person is trying to figure out the color pattern created by their opponent. Each player begins the game with 36 plastic pieces, nine each of four different colors. After assembling the board and placing the divider between them, each person will create a colorful pattern on their side of the screen.

There are enough pieces to exactly fill the entire board and there are only a couple limitations to placement. All colors must be connected together. Pieces of the same color must be orthagonally adjacent to another of the same color (diagonal doesn’t count). You can place all of one color in a large blob or string them out like a snake. Or a combination of both. Once both players have completed their pattern, the game begins.

On a turn you will take one of two actions. The first is to simply call out a grid coordinate and your opponent will give you the piece on the corresponding space on their board. You’ll take their piece and add it to your secondary board, which is the one you are trying to fill up first. That would end your turn.

Your other options is to call out a coordinate AND name the color you think it is. If incorrect, your turn ends. If you deduced it correctly, you receive the matching piece and are allowed to take another turn. Again, you may either call out another color on a different spot or just name a coordinate and receive the piece from your opponent.

There is no limit to how many you may collect on a turn as long as you guess correctly. Players take turns trying to discover the pattern, taking into consideration that there are only nine of each color and how they must connect. The first player to completely fill their board with their opponent’s pieces wins Deduction. Games are pretty quick and should be completed in under 15 minutes!

You’ll find a number of inexpensive copies of Deduction on eBay, some as low as a few dollars (but lots more with shipping). It doesn’t seem to be one that shows up at thrift all that often. Probably because of the quantity of plastic pieces – lose just one and the game is unplayable!

Have you ever played Deduction? How about Mastermind?