Weekend Gaming

Gaming

Tal asked to play Scrabble in the evening, which is odd, as she is not strong on vocabulary or spelling, yet. But she wanted to play without points, just words. I played for style.

The next day we played Colossal Arena, because she was bored and because I wanted to try it out. It was a first play.

Knizia has made yet another simple game of choices. Do you play a card for a secret bid or use it for the battle? Do you play early and risk having your creature's strength lowered, or play later and risk the round ending before you play at all?

The game didn't seem to work so well two players; it ended in a tie, and most likely would do so again. The problem is that there are not enough bidding and scoring opportunities in the game; only five bids per person. That's probably ok for a four or five player game, but not so much for a two player game.

It's hard to tell if there is any strategy in the game or if it is all simplistic tactics. Definitely worth a few more tries. Also, we screwed up on the spectator cards; these should really say "Spectator" on them, somewhere, but they don't. I don't know why not.

In the afternoon I also played Puerto Rico with Rachel, and then we played another game later at night. I won the first game 54 to 53, and she won the second 63 to 59. In the first game I got out a strong Large General Workhouse/Factory combo; it doesn't always work, but when it does, it works nicely. In the second, I didn't get the LGW, and I'm still not sure how I lost, although Rachel's Large Business definitely hurt.

Simchat Torah

So many Jews go to shul only one day a year on Yom Kippur. I definitely recommend that if you only go one day a year, go on Simchat Torah. ST is a great combination of singing, dancing, wildness yet holy joy, everyone getting called up to the torah, kiddush in the middle of davening, and a fervent yet beautiful prayer for rain.

For our sixth hakaffah, we all dance out of the shul and down the street to the Sephardi shul. Some segments of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews have had their differences over the course of Israeli history (none violent, thank God), but on Simchat Torah we burst into their shul with our torahs, singing and dancing. They carry ours (cloth covered and held by stick rollers), we carry theirs (covered by a large wooden round box), and we dance and sing together. We kiss each other, shake hands, shout our songs (e.g. "The Holy One, Blessed be He, we love you!" - repeat x 60), and then return to our own shul again.

It's a sweet thing. While we carry the torahs back and forth in the street, we dance and sing around them, as King David danced and sang when the holy ark was first transported to Jerusalem.

Yehuda

P.S. Havel Havelim is a blog carnival about Israel and Judaism, and the latest one is up here and here. Some nice links to other blog posts of Jewish and/or Israeli interest.

Followup on an Old Thread: Luck

Follow up to an old thread on Gathering of Engineers:

1. Dave Wilson, like me, distinguished between "after" and "before" luck. This follow-up is meant to clarify this.

Consider the following two games:

A) Each player tosses a beanbag onto a rectangle with ten squares numbered 1-10. Then a card is drawn from cards numbered 1-10. If your beanbag is on the square picked, you win.

B) A card is drawn from cards numbered 1-10. Each player tosses a beanbag onto a rectangle with ten squares numbered 1-10. If your beanbag is on the square picked, you win.

Game A is entirely luck. Game B is entirely skill. What's the difference?

In Game A, players have no information on what card will be drawn, nor any control over what card will be drawn, nor any ability to plan probabilistically for the card draw. After the card is drawn, there is no opportunity to respond. The game is already decided. Your initial toss, therefore is not the result of any meaningful decision.

In Game B, the randomness only serves to vary the game each time, after which each player can react as they like; the randomness does not determine any hardship or boon for any player. The game is entirely about meaningful decision and skill.

Now consider the following games:

C) As in game A, but the deck contains 1 of each card numbered 1, 2 numbered 2, and so on.

D) As in game B, but the field is large enough so that some of the squares are closer to some people than to others.

In game C, the results are still luck, but enough probabilistic information is given that players can make a meaningful decision to try to hit areas 9 or 10. As a Eurogamer, I would then be happy to end the game after the bags are thrown and just say that the players who hit 10 are the winners. Nevertheless, many games then require you to flip the card to determine the results (e.g. Louis XIV).

In Game D, the random draw has hindered some people and has helped others, but each player still has the opportunity to win. It's just that some have an advantage. If the advantages and boons are slight, and the game were extended to a long series of such draws, and the determination of exactly who benefited and who didn't were more hazy, the game would still interesting to the players (e.g. Puerto Rico).

2. Greg Aleknevicus said about the possibilities for cards vs dice:

Much better are the games in which no single card can be said to be better than another. Consider Titan: The Arena. Is the 10-Titan better than the 5-Titan? Not absolutely; in some circumstances it will be better but in others it will be worse

Consider the following Game X: A player must draw one of ten cards. After drawing the first card, the cards are shuffled together and the player must again draw the same card in order to win.

In Game X, each card is of equal value, but the value of a card depends on the circumstances. Yet, Game X is entirely luck.

It makes no difference that some cards are better than others in certain circumstances. All that matters is that you do or don't get the cards you need when you need them due to luck of the draw, and whether you can do anything about it; either by planning to increase your odds of success, or by reacting to the draw without undue advantage or disadvantage.

To be fair, I know nothing about Titan: The Arena, but I assume a mitigating fact is that you can draw the cards and hold onto them until you need them, so that it is less a matter of which cards and more a matter of timing.

Yehuda

Previous post by me on this topic: Dice, Luck, Bah Humbug

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