Re: piecepack design workshop #2: Stations v1.2 by Michael Schoessow

["Clark D. Rodeffer" <clark@...>]

Whew! I took the printout of Stations to lunch with me what -- a week
ago now? And I'm only now getting a breather to post my comments.

In short, I have to agree with others that corner spaces should count
when measuring distance. Even though I didn't see it explicitly stated
as such, I assume that since you're not allowed to completely block
off a station from the rest of the grid, diagonal moves (such as
between two tiles that touch only at a corner) are not allowed, so
that path can't be used when calculating shortest distances. In your
rules, maybe an easy way to say this would be to measure the distance
in terms of square quarter tile spaces between the shops, with only
orthogonal turns allowed. This seems simplest to me, and since
everyone would be operating under the same rules, it would be fair for
everyone, even if the scores are somewhat offset by counting the
corners. The diagrams should be easy enough to update.

Stations might be most easily played on top of one of those Chessex
grids to make counting easier. With the VASSAL module, using the
snap-to grid works great. This seems simplest to me, and since
everyone would be operating under the same rules, it would be fair for
everyone.

I like the variants numbered 1, 2 and 3a, but am less fond of variants
3b and 4. In variant 1, playing for the highest score instead of the
lowest greatly changes the game, both in how stations are claimed and
in how tiles get shoved around. Very nice! In variant 2, not only does
this make the game more abstract (which is a bonus for some of the
players I play with), it generally makes the game much closer, and as
a result, players have to take more care when pushing tiles around. It
makes the tile pushing much more of a strategic part of the game than
when the coin values are hidden. Variant 3a, gives a nice bonus for
matching suit, which can sometimes really help a player who is behind
catch up. Variant 3b doesn't really add anything new to the game, just
shifts the scores downward. Variant 4 seems much too open to me, and
seems to reduce the importance of good position. I also like the
suggested variant where coins are drawn from a stack and played (I'll
call it variant 5). This introduces a nice but small random element
into the game. So far, I've only messed around with playing turns via
the VASSAL module, but after doing that, I have a hunch that my
favorite ways to play (provided I can find players) will be the
standard game or variant 1, possibly combined with 2, 3a and/or 5.

Nice game! I may include standard plus variant 2 (only) as part of my
abstracts tournament next month!

Clark