Tab's dominance in Settlers

Ever play a game against a group of friends, and find that one person seems to win far more than their share of contests?

Some games it's easy to see why they win:

1. They play it way more than anyone else they play against

2. Everyone else they play against stinks

3. They whip out unusual rules or tactics that others are not aware of

4. They arrange games against opponents that fit poorly against their style of play

5. They play very aggressively and psych everyone else out

6. They cheat

7. ???

My brother Tab falls under rule 7. He seems to never lose at Settlers, winning maybe 12 out of 15 games he's played. He tries to explain how he does it, to me and... I still can't figure it out.

Maybe we can get him to post a strategy article for us.

What are the reasons that you've see why some people dominate some games? Post COMMENTS below (click the '# comments' link next to the time listed after the post).

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Gaming Ethics, the post from 6/16/05 was edited tonight, with some minor changes and highlights made after a discussion with Tab tonight.

Fischerandom/Chess 960

There's been quite a stir in the chess community lately with Bobby Fischer coming out of hiding, and ending up in the pokey in Japan, then eventually being taken in by Iceland. Now, there are rumors that he may come back to competitive chess. I'm a fan of Fischer's play (although he's a bit of a nut job outside the game), and especially the new form of chess he designed (and made public in 1996):

Fischerandom Chess, or Chess960.

The basic idea is that pieces are randomly sorted on the back row, so that there are 960 different possible starting positions, making a lifetime study of opening moves impossible. It's starting to be taken seriously by the chess community apparently, and there's even a computer world championship being staged in August.

Check out this random board position generator. Then, would you like to play a game?

Through the Desert Camel w/Rider

Through the Desert

Picked this up over the weekend, Through The Desert. A Reiner Knizia creation, it's very clever. Played with Grayson 3-4 times, and we really enjoyed it!

Power Grid: Can you count to 17?

Lack of Power Grid

Well - lost two games of Power Grid this week. Kevin was nice enough to host two games at his new home, and the hospitality provided was excellent (thank you Marci!).

Learned a couple of interesting lessons about Power Grid, the excellent Friedmann Friese, Rio Grande game (released in originially in German as 'Funkenschlag'). We played two 3-player games, with newcomer Jared, Kevin and myself.

Firstly, never underestimate the n00bie effect. Jared, native of South Africa, has never played a German-style game before (and claimed little knowledge of gaming in general). This 'brain-buster' as I have referred it before, proved to be very easy for him. He defeated Kevin and I soundly both games!

Second, there are a few tricks in this game. That should have been obvious, but Kevin and I were sucked in by the system, and overlooked a simple point in the game: the victory conditions. With three players, the game requires 17 points worth of power production to win, and with a cap of 3 plants, maximum value of 7, there are only a finite number of combinations available to meet this goal. For example, plants of 5, 5, and 7 would total 17. Kevin and I had something like 3, 6, 7 = 16, or 5, 5, 6 = 16. Both games, Kevin and I had very efficient systems, plenty of cash, but failed to simply buy plants that would equal 17 points of power.

After our final loss, we began to realize that mid-game plants are a red herring - they are not necessary, and can even distract from the important endgame goal of positioning oneself for the final production of energy.

I realize that this probably means nothing to someone who hasn't played the game, and I don't want to oversimplify all of this, but the effect this experience had on us was something like the effect that happens when you play a game of Settlers: build nothing but settlements, have no access to ore, and despite having the longest road, peak at 7 points. You can't grow any further, or buy development cards, so you lose to a guy with three cities, largest army, and a couple of victory point cards. It stings, and when you lose to someone who's never played a real boardgame in his life, it's extra painful!

Saying all this with a smile, it was pretty funny, as clever as Kevin and I thought we were, to get beat so soundly twice at a game that we would typically dominate in.