Re: New Game: Cell Management - Playtesting Needed

["Mark Goadrich" <richm@...>]

> You comment in the rules that some starting positions may not be 
> playable. (I have NOT encountered one yet)
> 
>  Is it possible that say two or three rounds/turns later that the 
> player does not have a playable position -outside of a circular 
> repetition trap? (The only move to make an escape with one coin, 
> causing another coin to be returned, which causes another coin to 
> be returned, and because of the third coin being returned, the 
> first coin never escapes, and is returned to its cell... causing 
> the rest in turn to be returned.

Good question...

In an earlier version, I had the number of friendly/hostile hideouts
determined randomly, and I know you can't solve it when every hideout
is friendly, since no-one ever gets to move.  So I put that in there
as a blanket clause, but now that it's three friendly, three hostile,
I'm not sure if there's any unsolvable in this more limited set. 
There's probably a logical proof out there, or at least an exhaustive
search, but I haven't taken the time to try either yet.

I haven't found an impossible setup yet in my testing, either. If you
DO manage to find one, please let me know the setup so I can try to
solve it or prove it's unsolvable.

I find the first numbers to escape are generally those in cells
attached to a hostile hideout, which I then have to add back in later
to trigger an escape from a friendly hideout, and then repeat my
earlier step to escape the first numbers once again. 

Thanks again,

Mark