[HN Gopher] Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost un... ___________________________________________________________________ Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe Author : Kharacternyk Score : 14 points Date : 2023-11-30 11:44 UTC (11 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.paper-tactics.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.paper-tactics.com) | Kharacternyk wrote: | Hi HN, I played this game a lot in school over here in Ukraine | and was surprised that there is almost no coverage [1] of it in | English. So, I built this tiny website where one can read the | rules and play the game online. There is also an optional game | mode that is impossible IRL on paper (with the "fog of war"). | | The game is usually known as "virus wars", but I didn't feel like | registering a domain name with the word "virus" in it, so Paper | Tactics it is:) | | [1] https://www.iggamecenter.com/en/rules/viruswars is the only | English source I know, there is also a Wikipedia article in | German: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampf_der_Viren | gus_massa wrote: | I had to play a few games to understand the rules, but I'm wining | most games. How good is the bot? | | It's strange that you can make a few moves in each turn. With 1 | move the strategy is too easy. Which is the standard lenght of | the turns? | Kharacternyk wrote: | The bot is not very good, unfortunately. It's mainly useful to | help understand the rules, as in your case. If you're | interested in playing with an experienced player, ping me at | nazar@vinnich.uk :) | | > Which is the standard lenght of the turns? | | The usual setup is a 10x10 grid with 3 moves per turn. More | moves means more interesting manoevres are possible. I like 7 | moves on 12x12. | gus_massa wrote: | > _It 's mainly useful to help understand the rules, as in | your case._ | | I agree. | | [spoiler alert] | | I tried with 2 or 3 moves per turn. My strategy was to advace | in diagonal to have a lot of space in tha back, and keep some | distance from the oponent. When it advances, I wall the | pieces. If it doesn't advance I fill my backshard space. With | 2 or 3 it's humanly learnable in 10 minutes. I imagine that 7 | moves would be much ore complex, but sadly I have no time | now. | | Perhaps you can progem the bot to advance more in the first | few turns. (Assuming my strategy is good.) | Kharacternyk wrote: | Your strategy is definitely good -- capturing territory to | fill it later when advancing doesn't make sense is | important. 7 moves are more complex, but much less so when | playing against the bot. | | Your suggestion about making the bot eager to advance makes | sense, thanks. Hope you'll play a few times against a human | opponent in the future:) ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-11-30 23:00 UTC)