Hi Todd! Thanks for giving my less-than-perfect game a try. It's true that the game is prone to draws if both players are of about the same skill level. Unfortunately it only takes a few games to get up to get up to "know what you're doing" level where the draws start happening, and I don't know if anybody's played enough to get to "good at it" level where draws might be avoided by some kind of long-term strategies. > Forbid backwards movement-- but this would change the overall > character of the game too much; and seems a sort of > cadilac-as-flyswatter solution. Also, it introduces a new type of draw situation, where both players have passed each other and wind up pinned against the opposite wall. > Disallow movement of the same piece twice in a row-- putting > a small'marker' of a different color on top of the piece last > moved; this would allow someone to set up a set of 'traps' > for a piece which is likely to be moved, but I'm not sure of > the knock on effects in the game. Hmm. This means that if you only have one movable piece, you lose. That moves the bar significantly. On the other hand, it might force you to move pieces that you *can*, but don't *want* to move, which I think is good for this game. > We gave the latter a shot, and it doesn't seem to hurt, but > I'm wondering if anyone out there has come across this, and > if there were perhaps some creative solutions to it. I haven't heard of any solutions before yours. I'm averse to modifying established games, but if you find this change really does help, perhaps adding this restriction to the Move rule might be for the best. For the most part, when a draw occurs, one player can usually see that the other has the upper hand, and declare honorable resignation. That ending is pretty "squishy" though. I'll have to try out this suggestion the next time I find somebody willing to play this game. Coming to Origins? =^> -- Elliott C. "Eeyore" Evans eeyore@xxxxxxxx