If you want to try and go for one of those "win a pond with more than xxx players" achievments, then this is the way to start: Charco para Façanha

This rain pond is just getting more and more interesting...

Now what to do?

(edited link)

Vikings: I still don't know exactly what has happened between those two (clearly something has) but just a short reminder that the game isn't finished yet. Either of you can still win depending on how you three play the game... focus on that first!

rabbitoid: It says so on the rules ;) And I think it has happened before

Walter Montego: If the Pond game is down to five people and this person was to move right after the start of the next round thinking they'd have almost two days before they'd need to make a move they'd be in for an unpleasant surprise if the remaining players were to all move right after the player had logged off and the round started right away.
But isn't this what happens on other games too? In a chess game with a one day limit, if my opponent moves immediatelly after my last move, I also only have 24h to move again...

There's a difference in ponds though: holidays and weekends don't count, so this may be a better explanation... but the "what if everybody moves right after you" kind of thing just won't be enough to convince me...

grenv: If he hangs up for at least 10 rounds, he's still a better player than those who have fallen behind him. In a 16 player pond, that would mean he got over half his opponents in the water before going for the swim himself.
Shouldn't he be rewarded for that?

Looks like she's asking for a way to win less round bonus

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't that what happens on all other board games here? If someone moves immediately after you, on a 1 day game, you risk timing out within 24h of your own move...
All you'd have to do was to avoid 1 or 2 day games if you think the timing was to tight... I understand why it was set like this when The Very First Run was just a test case and things needed to go smooth for people to adjust the new reality... but now, it seems that most people are on track already and they just want the possibility to play fast games just like it happens on every other board game at BK. And besides, most people won't even notice much of a difference, because most games will still take about a day to be moved, with people playing from all over the world :)

But then again, I don't play Ponds (though I'm counting on doing it someday).

more: if diogenes had played all his points, then he'd be the sure winner... these pond endings look very interesting :)

Looks like this game already has a sure winner.
If Pedro knows how to play it right that is...

It's probably a reflex of the very first run. Having so many players, low bids were almost mandatory to make it to the end.
As more and more pond games are played I'm sure the initial bids will start to go higher and higher. At least for a 20000 point start

BBW: well, since that has been assumed, if anyone plays less than 19000 they are risking getting wet, since they must assume that most everyone else will be playing over 19000.
So one troublemaker won't make a difference ;)

looks like in the "Very First Run" someone has decided to take the bonus away from alesh and make in go swim earlier :)

grenv: About the points: I don't know. I didn't think about it. It was just a number thrown at random while trying to explain that the number of points you start with doesn't have much impact on the length of the game... I guess that in my example, if the bonus was still 500 points everybody would go for the prize, place a bet of 30 and then the pond would finish in the next move... problem solved :)

I would suggest you didn't keep your totals throughout the tournament. It wouldn't be fair for the players that had to place high bets to survive their rounds and ended up with just a couple thousand points to have to face the player whose opponents never played and so he finished his round with the whole 20000.

By the way: there would be the option for more than one player to go to the next round. If, for instance, there were three rounds to start with, the best 4 or 5 players of each round would get to go upstream to the final so the final pond would still a fair amount of players.

Czuch Thanks. I've been told one too many times that I can only be an idiot from all the ideas I have . Looks like you just confirmed it :D

The thing is: too many players don't make the game boring... it just makes it take longer for it to get interesting (unless they're all players of the same level).
I think that limiting the number of starting players might be an option. Another one could be handling it like a tournament: whenever the number of players goes over a certain threshold (30-40?) several ponds will be created each with about 20 players or so. In the end, the winner(s) of each section dispute the final round...
So, for this 249 pond, there would have been 13 sections and the winner of each section would play in a final pond, lasting the wholw thing a maximum of about 40 turns instead of the expected 200 (now less) that happened here...

I just noticed alesh has now reverted back to a pawn. Is he still able to play or will he be stuck with autoplay until he runs out of points?
Just curious...

*Runs to hiding after mentioning the A word *

Summertop: The fewer starting points is a false question... the number of rounds (and hence the game length) is determined by the number of starting players not the number of points you start with.
Since one player is eliminated each round you have at most n - 1 rounds (being n the number of players) even if you start with just 30 points.

Come to think of it, a 30 point game with 20 players might be something fun to watch... this would really need some guts to place a bet

I don't agree with the 4th option... The rest of the players would all have the same rating then which probably wouldn't be fair...

So they'll get wet on the next turn :)