Ross Andrews writes:
>That was the first IIT that I had played in where I really knew the
>rules of the game, so things I did may not have made any sense at
>all.
That said, I found your play quite challenging.
Don't sell yourself short.
>> I distinctly remember thinking that if Ross had tried restructuring
>> the other piece, he would a) have been able to more easily and b)
>> would have had just enough to win the game and tournament.
>I remember looking at this afterward and thinking "eh, it didn't
>matter, there was nothing else I could have restructured". At least,
>not without crashing horribly.
I think you could have saved both of your iced pieces in that region,
but it would have required slightly precisient play during the rush.
IIRC, you had just a large before the rush, and traded it for a medium
and a small during it.
After the rush, you had two savable iced pieces -- a medium, iced by a
large (the large prisoner you traded it for those two pieces), and
near it, a 2 or 3 point piece, iced by at least two pieces.
If you'd played the large more of a distance from the medium when you
traded, you'd have ended up with the same material, but could have
tail-blocked the large (saving the medium) while over-icing the other
iced piece -- then restructure, ideally ending by tip-blocking
multiple pieces (thus squandering all the attackers and saving the
other iced piece as you ended the game). This would have given you
five more points, and put most of the other players down a few points,
making you win that game and putting you in a strong position going
into the final game.
(by contrast, as I mentioned earlier, if I'd played out icing
Timothy's pieces in the final game rather than just dropping a
defensive forest, I'm pretty sure I'd have had enough points of
difference to be able to win the title. 20-20 hindsight is a fine
thing!
--
Joshua Kronengold (mneme@(io.com, labcats.org)) |\ _,,,--,,_ ,)
--^-- "Did you know, if you increment enough, you /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;'
/\\ get an extra digit?" "I knew," weeps Six. |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\
/-\\\ "We knew. But we had forgotten." '---''(_/--' (_/-'