[HN Gopher] Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost un...
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       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:)
        
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       (page generated 2023-11-30 23:00 UTC)