Man I wish he would post that tutorial so I could play too. TBsr On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Joshua Kronengold <mneme@xxxxxx> wrote: > Don Sheldon writes: >>statistically insignificant. Trying to fix it with this new house >>rule introduces the lightning attack strategry you mentioned >>(something I've been itching to try out in a normal game but have thus >>far been too scared) and way overcompensates for the slight (if even >>real) advantage of The Banker. > > I agree. > >>But since your one of the most experienced Homeworlds players out >>there, I think you probably already know all this, so I feel a little >>weird trying to preach it to you. > > Heh. Lack of authority doesn't hold much water when you're right > (iow, if you're right, it doesn't really matter if you don't have the > "right" to argue). > > Basically, the first player advantage in Homeworlds consists of: > 1. You make the first real move. > 2. You get to establish a position -- and -because- you get > the first real move, your opponent may be forced to follow your lead > (eg, small universe isn't necessarily a great idea when you're going > second, as the 2nd player disad is magnified by proximity). > > The 2nd player advantage is: > You get to decide, once the first player has announced their > homeworld, what game you're -really- playing, picking the best > homeworld to respond to your opponent's pick. > > The proposed house rule gives all three advantages to the 2nd player, > instead of distributing them to both. The 2nd player now gets the > first real move, gets to decide what game is "really" being played by > picking their homeworld second, -and-, when there really is an opening > that is auto-lose in small universe (or much stronger in SU), gets to > choose said SU and win rather than their opponent getting an option to > take the best of a bad set of alternatives. As such, I think it's a > misrule. > > I do think that banker is overestimated -- I'm pretty good in either > goldilocks or banker start (I've done the third start, but not often). > > I don't see a good way to deal with 1st player advantage in BH -- the > turn-taking nature of the game makes this difficult, and the fact that > the 2nd player gets to pick a countering opening does fix things > somewhat. > > One possible houserule to play around with things, though I don't know > that it's necessarily a better solution to 1st player advantage, is > that the first player sets up both homeworlds. The 2nd player then > either: > 1. Picks a homeworld, and the 1st player makes the first real > move. > 2. Passes, forcing the first player to pick a homeworld. The > 2nd player then makes the first real move. > > That would certainly be an interesting variant, at least. > > -- > 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." '---''(_/--' (_/-' > _______________________________________________ > Icehouse mailing list > Icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/icehouse > -- 01010100011001010111001001110010011110010010000001000010011000010110100101101100011001010111100100100000010100110111001000101110 or 5465727279204261696C65792053722E00 or 124145162162171040102141151154145171040123162056