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Re: [pbmserv] New game: Marque

Nice observations, Karl. I'm looking forward to the answers from Cameron.

My understanding is that a stalemate is possible. For instance the black player might connect three bases including the center one and form two eyes (as in go). Could a rule be added that makes stalemates impossible? Some ideas:
A. If both players pass (as in go) without the connection condition being met, then some kind of live group area scoring happens (like in go). This might be great not work, but if it did, then a nice tension between connecting for the win, blocking connections, and grabbing area is created. Maybe squares and triangles are worth different points for area counting (or maybe not since triangles already have a special rule) --- could provide another way to tweak the balance between the two types.
B. If you connect 3 non-adjacent bases then your loose. I don't think this is a viable rule, since there are other ways to stalemate and there is no way to remove your own stones.
C. Anyone go other ideas? I think A is fairly reasonable.

Cheers,
Russ

On 29/11/2008, at 4:27 AM, Karl von Laudermann wrote:


On Nov 28, 2008, at 8:59 AM, Cameron Browne wrote:

Hi,

A new game Marque has been added to the server. This is a connect- the-bases game with Go-like capture played on a fancy tessellation.

Official rules:   http://www.cameronius.com/games/marque/
PBeM help page:   http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/marque.html
Graphical web UI: http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/List.php?Marque

Needless to say, it's much nicer played via the grahical web interface!

Nice! I actually have a copy of an old board game called Kensington (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2197 ) that uses this tessellation, except that the 7 hexagons are not subdivided into triangles. In that game, pieces are actually played on the line vertices instead of in the spaces, like Go.

Aim: Players occupy bases (hexagonal areas labelled 'A'..'G') by having
three or more consecutive pieces within them, and win the game by forming a
path connecting three non-adjacent occupied bases. Both players may occupy a
base if both have three consecutive pieces within it.

Just to clarify: if the goal is to join three _non-adjacent_ bases, then the center base can never be used as part of a win, correct? In which case there is no value in occupying it (as opposed to merely passing through).

For example, the following board shows a game won by O who has occupied
bases A, E and F and connected them with a single group. X actually occupies
more bases (B, C, E and G) but has not connected three of them.

To my eyes, X *has* connected three of them: G, B, and E. But since E is adjacent to B and G, this does not count as a win. Is my understanding correct? If so, I think that last sentence should be reworded for clarity.

--
               Karl von Laudermann
               karlvonl@rcn.com
               http://www.geocities.com/~karlvonl/



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