Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] [Zendo] Rule clarification [Mondo]

  • FromBuddha Buck <blaisepascal@xxxxxxxxx>
  • DateFri, 1 Apr 2011 23:37:16 -0400
Are you talking about this section?

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When to Call Mondo:  Don't call mondo unless you have at least one whole-pattern that works for everything on the table.  The best time to call mondo is when you're about to spend a stone on a guess, because if the mondo supports your guess you will win a stone to pay for it.  If you have no guessing stones and are desperate to take a guess, you should still perform an intelligent mondo that attempts to test your theory.  If your theory is correct, you will win the stone that you need.  If you don't win the stone, that means that your theory was incorrect, so you no longer have a desperate need for the stone.  If you choose to do an "easy" mondo which guarantees you a stone, you'll be providing free stones for everyone else as well, and you'll be forced to state your theory out loud (since you've made no attempt to test it with your play).  If your theory is correct, this won't matter, but if it's not correct, this is the worst possible outcome of a mondo.
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What this advises is to make your mondo count (to test your theory) if you are using the mondo to get a stone to guess.  If you guess wrong, now everyone knows that particular theory was incorrect and can adjust their own thinking accordingly.  If you used your mondo to test a corner-case, and your rule gave the wrong answer, nobody needs to know exactly what you were testing or thinking.

As far as calling mondo on every turn, there are two rules which work together to make this a bad idea:  (1) During a player's turn, it is possible to make multiple guesses, assuming you have the stones to pay for them; and (2) when someone calls mondo, everyone guesses and everyone potentially gets stones.  If you call mondo every turn, I have at least a 50% chance of getting a stone every turn.  After a few turns, I'll have a cache of stones for "free" and the ability to do a guessing barrage and win on my turn.  If you only call mondo when you've got a good theory, I'll have far fewer stones and less of an opportunity to get a lot of guesses in.

Does this help?

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 10:45 PM, Nathan Grange <nathan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sorry if this has been dealt with somewhere (I did try searching for it)
 
In PwP, there's a paragraph in the advanced rules section that advises not to call Mondo if you're not sure (or something... Sorry - I don't have it in front of me), because if you do, you'll have to reveal your guess.
 
Is that a mistake? Because my understanding of Mondo is that you just reveal a black or white stone and you're either right or wrong (and get a guessing stone or not).
 
Why is it not a good strategy to call mondo on every turn - you've got a chance of getting a guessing stone each time and no penalty. (Unless i'm wrong and that's not a mistake...)

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