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I am fascinated by Japanese grid puzzles from Nikoli ... and in this spirit I am sharing with you my new invention for 2 players.
1. For this game we use 9x9 grid (or board if you wish). 2. There are 9 categories of numbers : 9 ones (111111111), 9 twos (222222222), 9 threes ... and finally 9 nines ... 3. Software randomly distributes these digits on the board ... 4. Players in their turns cross outs 3 (they have to touch each other) digits either vertically, horizontally or diagonally ,,, 5. Below and above the board software displays how many of each category members players collected ... 6. Digits already crossed out cannot be used again ... 7. Players try to win as many categories as possible ... to win a category it means to have more digits than the opponent in a given category ... let's say player A collected 6 fives and player B only 2 fives ... the winner in this category is player A . 8. Game continues this way until there are no more 3 consecutive digits to be cross out ... 9. Digits in each category are compared and the player who won more categories is the winner ... in case they won the same number of categories, there is no winner and the games ends as a draw ... *** Remarks: If players secures 5 digits in any category, he/she wins this category ... Try to develop your own winning category(ies) ... sometimes only 4 or even 3 digits secures your winning category ... you can do this by careful play and eliminating some digits and areas on the board ... Do not be discouraged when the opponent collects many digits in one or two categories ... it's almost certain he/she forgets about other categories ... This game is very easy to play but as usual very hard to outsmart your opponent ... Cheers Andy.
Herlock Sholmes: This game is very easy to play but as usual very hard to outsmart your opponent ... So, you have play tested it?
BTW, it seems that the player going first has an advantage, as he'll have a chance to have crossed out more numbers than the second player (second player will never have crossed out more numbers than the first). Perhaps the first players last turn shouldn't count if that doesn't leave the second player a turn.
AbigailII:I tested it ... look, natural human tendency will be to jump into crossing out those sets that have 2 or even 3 same digits ... this way many other categories would be left behind (undeveloped) ...in this case the second player will have a chance to open many more categories , and force the first one to run behind him/her ...if the first player chooses to open 3 different categories at the very start, the second one can immediately try to find a set that gives him/her advantage in one of those freshly open categories ... Running for 5 secured stones can be risky since it can requires ca 3 moves ... running as a first player for different categories is also risky since the second player can immediately follow you and double and even tripple you scores in new categories ... As you can see there is more into the strategy than it may look ...as the game develops there are other strategic moves like blocking certain areas of the board, imprisoning certain digits etc ... You see Abigail, the more categories you open (getting more different digits) the more shallow your score will be in each category ... the second player can easily control those numbers and a) run for 5 secured stones or b) tie with your low score in other categories ... even if the first player is on attacking side, the second one is on controlling side ... every board will be different and it would be impossible to predict anything ... I know you would have fun with this one. Thanks for your input. Andy.
Herlock Sholmes: But there's the classical strategy stealing argument. If there's a winning strategy for the second player, the first player can just pretend to be the second - he plays a random first move, as getting numbers is never a disadvantage.
Saying "if the first player plays an attacking strategy, there are chances for the second player if he plays defensive" doesn't mean the first player doesn't have an advantage. After all, if playing defensive is a winning strategy, there's nothing that prohibits the first player to play defensive.
AbigailII:and you are right Abigail ... but luckily we are humans and we play human created games ...and 99 percent of those games are not perfectly balanced ... and you know what ? thanks God ... this is why we also created tournaments and matches and every player has a chance to play as player A ... look at Horde Chess , Maharaja Chess, Reversi, Gomoku, Halma, Checkers, Chess and about any possible game ... first player has an advantage and if not, Lady Luck shows her teeth (backbgammon and the whole family plus card games) ... do you quit playing ? no, you enjoy them despite all these flaws ... Cheers, Andy.