Thanks for the feedback, Doug. I am going to copy it to Chicken Run, and I invite you to expand upon it with a suggestion or two as to what would reduce the "dice-off" aspect and amplify the strategy.
I'll confess that the core notion of the game began with opposed dice, but perhaps a simple change would work: BOTH players are allowed to move, whatever they roll, and the ties let each player move a Spectator or Chicken. The highest roller moves first; and in a tie, the lower roller in the previous un-tied roll moves first.
I'll noodle around with a few other options.
David
On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 3:56 AM, Doug Orleans <
dougorleans@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Chicken Run - 2. This game is similar to Timelock (and backgammon),
but it has the same problem: higher rolls are always better. In fact,
you only get to move at all if you roll higher than your opponent,
which makes it boil down to a series of dice-offs, rather like
War [5]. The only interaction comes from moving neutral pyramids to
block your opponent or unblock yourself, but they can only be moved if
both players roll the same number, which only happens one sixth of the
time on average. This means they play a very small part in the game,
and in fact the first time I played I think we only got matching rolls
once before the game was over. I won't go so far as to say this game
is broken, but it would need some significant changes before it would
really work.