> From: Dale Sheldon <dales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > On Mon, 24 Sep 2007, David Artman wrote: > >> pylo > subd > zamb > geom > peng > moon > mart > trip > > In that case, congratulations to Pylon and its designer! Oh, right! HOORAY for Doug Orleans! Pylon has, apparently, been around since 2005, so it had a BIT of an advantage in terms of testing and refinement time. Further, (IMHO) it's a variation on IceTowers--with a board and a rule about adjacency--so it had a solid legacy from which to build. Also, I'd want a clarification of whether one may move a pyramid or a stack of pyramids onto an empty orthogonally adjacent square or ONLY onto another pyramid or stack? Yes, the rules state "choose... and place on top of a pyramid or stack"; but there's no 'denial of the opposite' (i.e. "you may not move a pyramid or a stack onto an empty square"), the inclusion of which would be a good practice to avoid potential confusion (in general, true for most games: error-trap everything!). But this now sounds like sour grapes, when it's really just a handful of observations I am making here on the fly. Congratulations, Doug! You bastard! ;) --- Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'd like to ask folks for commentary on Moon Shot, here or at its Talk page. For instance, from Andy's livejournal: "Unfortunately, while it all looks great on paper, it just didn't play very well, at least not for us. We tried it twice and in both cases the initial reaction was very positive but the group quickly became frustrated and lost interest before actually finishing a game." See, this I find a bit odd, because everyone with whom I've played it gets the hang of launching within about ten tries and then it's all Colonization timing strategy. I wonder if, perhaps, I need to speak more to "Launch Techniques" in the rules--perhaps my test group(s) were able to learn faster because they watched me do my own launches, while teaching, and copied my (highly refined and accurate!) style. :P Andy, did your group use a "tap to tip" method, whereby you use the nail of a finger to tap the small (or medium, if trying to Colonize) JUST hard enough to tip the tree? Basically, it takes very, very little effort to send a small skittering a tube-length (or more!) away; and it only takes a BIT more effort (and a lower tap point) to get the medium moving well. Of course, Cracking the Moon requires a fairly violent "punt" of the large out from under the rest of the tree, so it is (intentionally) quite hard to do. But I've done it in practice (after, oh, fifteen tries... it's a HARD way to win, only for the desperate). I will echo this at the Talk page for Moon Shot, if folks would rather discuss it there. (http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Moon_Shot) Thanks, all! Get on the IGDC Talk page to weigh in on the next competition's design restrictions (if any)! David