[Board/Tactical Game]: Tuchulcha, reviewed by ShannonA (4/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10538.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

A new Backgammon-like game that's nicely produced and has some innovative ideas related to changing goals.

Go to the full review for more information.

Post originally by Ralph Mazza at 2004-08-04 07:36:06
Converted from Phorums BB System

Is there a valid chance of The Tuchulcha player winning?

It would seem to me that with 3 players and 8 pieces each that the goal of preventing ANY of the pieces from making it home would be nearly insurmountable even with the extra die rolling power. Does the Tuchulcha player have to rely on the other players continuing to hit each other? If all of the other players agreed to cooperate until at least 1 pawn made it home thereby knocking one of their opponents out of the game before settling things amongst themselves it would seem to make the Tuchulcha position untenable...what am I missing?


Similiarly, the Vecuvia player. While the normal players have the basic backgammon strategy to work with, it would appear that Vecuvia is 100% purely random. Either the die rolls allow you land on the seal spaces, or they don't. Is there really any strategy to Vecuvia deeper than trying to position a pawn 6-8 spaces away from a passage so that eventually the odds of rolling that number lets you move there?

Post originally by BlackSheep at 2004-08-04 10:13:23
Converted from Phorums BB System

<i>Is there really any strategy to Vecuvia deeper than trying to position a pawn 6-8 spaces away from a passage so that eventually the odds of rolling that number lets you move there?</i>

I think you may be slightly confused here. With a roll of, say, a six and a one, I'm pretty sure you can move any pawn one space and another pawn six spaces, or move one pawn seven spaces. So it's probably not going to be too hard to land on the passages.

Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-08-04 11:30:23
Converted from Phorums BB System

<i>Is there a valid chance of The Tuchulcha player winning?</i>

Well, keep in mind that if you choose Tuchulcha it's because you're in a losing position. You probably already have two pieces in the Woods very early in the game. I definitely think that choosing to play Tuchulcha improves your lot in life, though you're still the underdog.

As for whether they can win: I think so. If you look at the picture at the very top of the review, it shows the game just as Tuchulcha (black) was eliminated when blue slid into the central altar. As you can see, red was already eliminated, blue had just two pieces left, a full quarter-turn from home, and yellow (Vecuvia) was down to its last piece. Black had successfully been fending off red from getting home and also yellow from getting toward its last seal, but it just hadn't remained positioned well enough to deal with blue as well.

In any case, it felt close enough that I had no objections to playing Tuchulcha (which I was).

(Vecuvia eventually won that game, because with black out there was no one close enough to stop him from putting down his last seal.)

<i>Similiarly, the Vecuvia player. While the normal players have the basic backgammon strategy to work with, it would appear that Vecuvia is 100% purely random.</i>

I'd agree that the Vecuvia player has a very high degree of randomness, and less opportunity for strategy or tactics than the other players. There still is some, primarily in keeping your pawn far enough from the passage that multiple dice can take you in (e.g., 1 space from the passage is clearly worse than 6 because for 1 space you only have 1 in 3 die rolls that can carry you in ["1-X" or "X-1"] while the number is slightly higher for 6 ["6-X", "X-6", "1-5", "5-1", "2-4", "4-2", "3-3", "3-3"], or about 1 in 2 if my quick calculation is right.) And, there's still strategy in trying to make sure you're not hit by the other players through good positioning. But, yes, less.

That might make him less fun to play for, say, me, but I'm sure some folks won't mind, and I also think his presence makes the game a lot more fun for all the others players.

Shannon

Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-08-04 11:31:45
Converted from Phorums BB System

<i>So it's probably not going to be too hard to land on the passages.</i>

And indeed, it wasn't. Vecuvia was a madman once he got on the board, though I think he won only because he started off in a very strong position (no pawns in the woods).

Shannon

Post originally by BlackSheep at 2004-08-05 11:10:54
Converted from Phorums BB System

Chance of rolling a one is 11/36.

Chance of rolling a six (including combinations that add to six) is 16/36.