Also there appear to be some (so far) fairly strong alliances in the North, and appearing to defect first is probably a greater risk than any uncertain gain from vs-bugcat play (with the obvious exception of if it was discussed with the other alliance members first, of course, in which case they’d also want their slice).
One thing that might be interesting is if we might get a situation where a player is probably going to be eliminated soon, but they make a deal with a player in a better position to help them with whatever in exchange for being kept in the game for another elimination or two before letting the player they made the deal with capture their stones. If a player has a reputation for keeping their deals, this might enable them to gain a place or two via this means.
My current prediction: Martin and Sanonius will collide on D3, Piggy plays C5 capturing Martin’s stone. Then Martin and Sanonius will collide on E2 after that.
It’s interesting how Kingkaio, by playing L7 and going completely against the initial setup, has really shaped the game. If they had played in the lower left corner, le_4TC wouldn’t be in so much trouble getting some ground, and bugcat wouldn’t have gotten into a fight with Martin.
If we consider that all other players benefit from this chaos, e.g. Haze comfortable can get a large corner, Piggy easily got the whole left side, then it is difficult to find a way to punish people for deviating from a balanced opening. The only deterring factor would be that Kingkaio is about to die, being the player with the least liberties at the moment.
It’s looking like kingkaio wants to be replaced. I’m not expecting a move from them today. Sanonius also has not submitted a move yet. It looks like Martin and Piggy are closely working together to make it very sour for Sanonius. It’s almost cruel… I was really hoping for Piggy’s original plan, and Martin colliding on D3…
Haze made their first move a collision (L3), K3 is their second move. le_4TC is not going for kingkaio immediately, and sees a chance to take one of Haze’s stones.
Yebellz and Maharani slowly creeping downwards.
Unless Sanonius manages to block B3, it will be hard for the Cochineal to survive. Maybe the time has arrived to switch to a survival strategy, aiding other players in their kills. If Sanonius can help le_4TC to defeat kingkaio, they may get a better position. It’s an interesting kind of strategy: a player without a strong base more or less becomes a mercenary.
Update: got the move from Sanonius as well. Ai ai ai ai, looks like they’re falling into the trap…
Hi everyone! I’m a new kibitz here and I just wanted to tell you how much I adore this game variation. I read both threads and it’s better than game of thrones!
Another thing I find fascinating is the combined effect of synchronous plays and the game not being zero-sum for any smaller than universe set of players. Using the peculiarities of synchronous play was always strongly limited in 2-player cases but here they can bloom into insanity .
E.g. if two players are fully cooperative they can place 1-1 stones of their color, but they can place 1-1 nonstones as well, by submitting the same first and second candidates. And most of the time placing nonstones is more valuable. They can e.g. keep up 2 eyes anywhere which cannot be shut. 2 immortal groups for the cost of having a bit higher(~20% at random placing) chance of involuntarily passing.
Edit: the 20% is not even close, it is much lower.
Round 1 - plans for peace out the window with KingKaio’s first move I don’t think it was a bad thing, made it exciting. Martin in theory could have a chance to enclose a corner which could be a mini lead but everything can change with cooperation.
Round 3 - PiggyStardust, yebellz and maharani peacefully carving out a quarter (+) of the board (upper left). Bugcat not looking in the worst position, could possibly split Martins stones. Kingkaio very split up in terms of stones as is le_4tc temporarily.
Round 4 - Kingkaio probably in trouble. The fight in the bottom left could be interesting with some diplomacy. In theory bugcat could also try and just spend a move to play L3 if things are going south. Even if Kingkaio is captured le_4tc gets a cramped corner.
Round 5 - Expect KingKaios three stones to be captured unless there’s some help. yebellz is crawling all the way across the centre of the board, as is Maharani, kind of like a game of hex or something Piggystardust trying to secure the side. Haze takes the corner.
le_4TC PiggyStardust martin3141 Gia Sanonius Haze_with_a_Z yebellz Maharani
Round 6 - Lots of stones in 1 atari: c4, b4, m7. Martins stone at c4 saved for now. Actually Sanonius’ four stones could be captured next turn if D2 and E2 are played together.
There’s a few (groups of) stones in 2 atari that could be captured with teamwork from two players: D3, B3, M10, M6, J7, K7.
Well, that might be captured, because move collisions by the player in atari can possibly prevent it.
I’d love to see something unexpected, like C4 boing captured and Sanonius’ stones being saved, or Haze’s stones at J7 being captured by kingkaio and Maharani.
It’s interesting, since I feel like both dans (martin and le_4TC) are in pretty terrible positions, and some DDKs (Haze and Maharani) are doing quite well, so far.
Note that with an alliance, if Maharani plays K9, Kingkaio plays K8 and Haze plays N8, it is possible that le_4TC gets captured. Something like this:
I don’t think it’s a large difference, and probably a bit pedantic, but I think “might” is a bit better here since “A could be B’d with C from D” reads as an implied if-then. If C from D, then A could be B’d; nothing is preventing it.
Maybe we can do a quick recap of some key bits.
le_4TC
PiggyStardust
martin3141
kingkaio
bugcat
Haze_with_a_Z
yebellz
Maharani
