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نویسنده: BinaAli

  • Resistance Avalon – any strategy better than staying silent?

    Resistance Avalon – any strategy better than staying silent?


    I am looking for any game theoretical insights for the most basic form of The Resistance: Avalon. Specifically I am looking at a 5 player game, with just two added roles: Merlin and the Assassin. I am looking at strategies that can be executed without using psychology, tells, hidden messages (including but not limited to cryptography and signing) etc.

    Without the additional roles – ie the vanilla version of the original Resistance game – it is quite easy to calculate the winning chances for the rebels if both sides play optimally – for it is 30% (assuming the traitors can avoid double-failing missions with two spies). The good team basically has three chances to identify the spies (or the good team). And they have nothing better than chance to rely on, so they will choose each of the 10 possible teams with equal probability, for a total of 3/10 winning chance.

    When adding Merlin, things seem to be worse for the good guys! If he takes no action to help the good team, he just reduces their winning chances to 20% (since he has a 1/3 chance of being killed). If he does help the good team, he increases their winning chances – but he also increases his chances of being killed. Any action he takes, or statement he makes, which sways the other players to choose the right team, will also be visible by the bad guys. Assuming no hidden communication, they will see each of the statements made, and know who encouraged the winning team, or discouraged the losing ones.

    So is there any strategy for the good team which does better than 20% in this setup? The strategy must be known to all players ahead of time. Just to make it absolutely clear: I am not asking for ways to “hint” to your team-mates which team to pick, without the bad guys noticing or understanding what is going on.



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  • Play GMT Games Anytime, Anywhere! (Part 2) – InsideGMT


    More of GMT’s Digital Offerings that allow you to “Play GMT Games Anytime, Anywhere.

    As I noted in our first article, we have created, in cooperation with individual programmers and digital game platforms, numerous ways for customers to experience our boardgames on your digital devices. We’ve done this for one large, underlying reason: We want players to be able to engage with and experience the learning, fun, challenge, and historical insights of our boardgames with other players from around the world on digital platforms where they can play the games generally much more quickly than they can on their physical game tables.

    The Pyramid of Digital Game Options GMT Offers:

    • Computer Games. We discussed these in our last installment of this series.
    • Online Multi-player Games that enforce the boardgame rules but have no solo AI opponents. We’ll talk about these today.
    • Traditional VASSAL and TableTop Simulator Game Modules. We’ll feature these in our next installment of the series.

    Free-to-Play Online Games

    Today we’ll talk about all of the Free-to-Play Games that we have authorized to be published on Popular Online Platforms. First, a few notes about these games:

    • Most GMT Games on online free-to-play platforms look and play like the boardgame. You can play them multi-player with friends or multi-handed “hot seat” solo, but there is no AI built in, so there is no “against the computer” solo play.
    • A nice feature of Rally the Troops, one of the platforms listed below, especially if you want to familiarize yourself with gameplay before you play yourself, is that you can “Watch” a game in progress or “Review” a completed game.
    • All we ask for those of you who play our games online is that at least one of you who are playing owns the physical boardgame. That’s how it would be if you were meeting friends face to face to play – ONE of you would bring the game. But there’s no requirement that all players own the game to play online. We WANT you to use online free-to-play options to “try before you buy” our boardgames.

    Here’s the list of games we have authorized that are currently available on free-to-play online platforms:

    Rally the Troops.com

    GMT Games Available to play for free on Rally the Troops as of April 21, 2025:

    1989: Dawn of Freedom (2-player Card-driven game (CDG) set in Eastern Europe in 1989)

    Andean Abyss (1-4 player COIN series game on the struggle for power in Columbia in the 1990s )

    Nevsky (1-2-player Levy & Campaign series game about the clash between Latin Teutonic and Orthodox Russian powers along the Baltic frontier in the mid-13th-Century.)

    Plantagenet (1-2-player Levy & Campaign series game of the War of the Roses)

    Red Flag Over Paris (2-player Card-driven game on the Rise and Fall of the Paris Commune, 1871. )

    Time of Crisis (1-4 player Strategy game of Ancient Rome)

    Vijayanagara (1-3 player Irregular Conflict Series game of Medieval India, 1290-1398.

    Washington’s War (Strategic 2-player CDG about the American Revolution.)

    Wilderness War (Strategic 2-player CDG about the French & Indian Wars)

    BoardGame Arena

    GMT Games Official Implementations that you can play FREE on BoardGame Arena

    A Gest of Robin Hood (2-player game in our Irregular Conflict Series)

    Bayonets & Tomahawks (2-player strategic CDG on The French and Indian War)

    Space Empires (1-4 player 4X Space game. One of our all-time best-sellers.)

    Talon (1-2 player game of Tactical Space Combat)

    Unconditional Surrender (1-3 player game of WWII in Europe)

    TableTopia

    GMT Games that you can play FREE on TableTopia:

    A Gest of Robin Hood

    Down in Flames

    Paths of Glory (just released!)

    Red Dust Rebellion

    Tank Duel

    The Plum Island Horror

    GMT Games that you can play FREE on 18xx.games

    I should note that we also have a couple GMT Games that you can play as PREMIUM experiences on TableTopia (these are not free):

    Dominant Species

    Thunder Alley

    I hope this article and “all in one place” listing of games gives you insight into what’s available to you for our free-to-play digital games offerings. We want all of you to have plenty of options to find your favorite ways to “Play GMT Games Anytime, Anywhere.”

    Next Time: VASSAL, TableTop Simulator Module, Cyberboard  for almost all of our games, plus Solo Apps!

    Enjoy the games! – Gene



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  • This March In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This March In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    March 2, 2023Tom Brewster

    Tom: MARCH MARCHES ONWARDS, IT’S KIND OF COLD BUT GETTING NICER. Here’s what’s happening in Shut Up & Sit Down this month!

    Very, very, very soon you can expect a video from Quinns on the fabulous indie RPG ‘Alice Is Missing’! If you’re a fan of ‘SU&SD Videos Persuading You To Buy Something’ then boy howdy, it’s a good day to be you. Following that, I’ve got a review in the works covering a smattering of Word Games I’ve been dabbling in recently – and only one of them is a board game! That’s right, we’re getting WEIRD with it!

    We’ll see what else March holds, though. I’ve got a little holiday booked, Matt is making his new house have such luxuries as this thing called ‘Electricity’, and Quinns is getting on with what sounds like a very interesting video over on PMG. So we could be in for another slightly slower month whilst we find our feet in 2023. Some hurdles have been cleared already – I’ve moved into my new flat, and had the first good night’s sleep in about a year and a half! Such joy! But there’s still a few things to sort before we can get the schedule back on track. Thanks so much for your patience with this more comfortable schedule whilst we get everything in order.

    Podcasts-wise, we hit a small hitch where one member of the team deleted an entire podcast by accident, so we’re one pod down! I won’t reveal the human responsible, but their name starts with a T and ends in an M. But fear not – we’ll work to keep the games flowing! This month, we’ve got what should be a really interesting podcast where myself and Quinns chat about our time playing Mahjong for review, and the reasons that Quinns didn’t want to proceed turning that script into a full on video. There’s potential for a podcast about John Company 2e, if I can find 3 more fools who might want to take on that journey, and I’m thinking about the potential for a Brass: Birmingham retrospective episode now that the game has ascended into the top spot on the BGG top 100. I’m also about to start gathering people into my nice new living room to work through the stacked in-tray that I’ve accrued, which should fill in the gaps.

    That’s March! What have you been up to, everybody?



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  • All in question [duplicate]

    All in question [duplicate]


    The small blind is 12,000, big blind 24,000. First player goes all in with 10,500, Second player goes all in with 22,000. Small blind folds. The big blind did have the 24,000. There are three players left in the hand. What are the pots?



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  • Men of Iron Historical Look – Battle of Bosworth 22 August 1485 – InsideGMT


    In William Shakespeare’s Richard III, the eponymous character is described as physically deformed and a psychopathic villain. Was this the truth or Tudor era propaganda?

    Shakespeare has these lines in the play depicting Richard as deformed in body:

    “To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-backed toad.”

    “O, thou didst prophesy the time would come that I should wish for thee to help me curse that bottled spider, that foul bunch-backed toad!”

    “Look how I am bewitched! Behold mine arm is like a blasted sapling withered up”

    Old Bill is clearly saying that Richard is a hunchback, much like Quasimodo from the Victor Hugo novel, or the Disney movie, take your pick. And that one of Richard’s arms was withered and wasted. In 2012, archaeologists found and exhumed King Richard III from a car park (parking lot in America) in Leicester, England. The site was formerly part of Greyfriars Priory where the fallen King was buried after his death at Bosworth. An analysis of the skeleton showed that Richard had a severe case of Scoliosis, which at most would have caused one of his shoulders to lower than the other. There was no evidence of the “withered arm” mentioned in the play.

    As far as Richard being a psychopathic villain that murdered his brother George, Duke of Clarence, his nephews (the infamous princes in the tower), among others. Richard had served his brother, Edward, well as the Duke of Gloucester, helping him win his crown and become King Edward IV. George was executed for treason and likely “deserved” it, for turning on both Edward and Richard several times. As for the princes, there is much debate about what became of them and who ordered what. The designer of Blood & Roses, Richard Berg, clearly believed that his namesake was a not responsible for their disappearance. There is some evidence that the bones found in the Tower of London were not those of the princes. Politics in England during this time period was a little rougher, to say the least, than it is today. More on par with Soviet Russia, where people suddenly disappeared and were erased from history.

    Bosworth, one of the more important battles in English history, wherein, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, defeated King Richard III and gained the English crown for the House of Tudor (political descendants of the House of Lancaster) as Henry VII.

    Battle of Bosworth, as depicted by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740–1812)

    But more than that, Bosworth is interesting for two reasons:

    • It is the only battle on English soil in which an English king was killed (if one starts counting from the reign of William I)

    • It is a rather interesting situation, with each side waiting to see which way the political and tactical wind will blow, and two “Battles” of Stanley’s sitting athwart the field, like soccer fans, waiting to weigh in for whoever looks good.

    Richard Berg was a Ricardian, meaning he was pro-Richard amidst all of the Tudorian propaganda out there, much of it thanks to Shakespeare (doing a spin job for the Tudors). Richard, for one, was a most stalwart and capable battlefield commander and fighter, and was unfairly smeared as a hunchback because of his scoliosis of the spine… and a pretty good king while he ruled.

    Some of the historical text above was lifted from the Men of Iron Battle Book’s Historical Background for the Battle of Bosworth.

    You can learn more or pre-order the Men of Iron Tri-Pack 2nd Printing here.



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  • This April In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This April In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    April 1, 2023Tom Brewster

    Tom: April! The month of my birth. In it we shall surely make some videos, some podcasts, and some streams! Here’s what’s happening this month on Shut Up & Sit Down.

    Coming soon, we’ve got a few great video reviews. I’m just about to embark on playtesting a chunky box with a robust community around it to see if a video springs forth – but I’ll be coy about exactly what game that is, just to keep things exciting. Myself and Quinns are working on a ‘Top 10 Small Games Video’ that’ll hopefully be done this month – a rapidfire assessment of a bunch of little boxes we’ve been digging into that’ll hopefully capture some of the energy of the 10 Oink Games video we made all the way back in 2019. We’ve got some other ideas simmering too – one incredibly large box in particular finally getting a full script from Matt – but I will not over-promise!

    Podcasts! We’ve got some great games to cover on that front too! If the right boxes arrive on my doorstep at the right time, a ‘Retrospective Special’ on a few old favourites in shiny new jackets might appear somewhere on the podfeed – and we’ve also got a plump stack of new games to natter about too. I’ve not quite sorted out the schedule for such delights – a week of holiday was followed by a week of video… which was then followed by a week of ILL! Rubbish.

    Stream-wise, things should be really fun. I’m going to play some Slay The Spire: Downfall on Tuesday – a wildly impressive fanmade mod to one of my favourite deckbuilders! We’ll also probably squeeze some more King Of The Castle in at some point, alongside any suggestions thrown out by the general Twitch public. I’m not sure what to do on my birthday – as it does fall on a stream day! Do I go out and enjoy a nice meal with my partner, or do I use the occasion to force Quinns to play Fortnite in front of you folks? We’ll see.

    What have you been up to, everybody?

     



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  • pokemon – Pokémon TCG Battle Academy as starting point

    pokemon – Pokémon TCG Battle Academy as starting point


    The Pokémon Battle Academy box set is a reasonable starting point for a younger child, under 10. It is indeed standard cards, and follows the standard rules.

    I would only use them for that purpose though – learning. The decks aren’t remotely competitive, so don’t think of them as something you can take to a league and play with other people playing other levels of decks. They’re well tuned for each other though, and are great if you are playing with your child or with others with the same decks.

    For higher level play, there is the ex Battle Deck, which is still not “win games in a tournament” level but is somewhat higher power/difficulty level. I would start at this level for an older child (10+) honestly, as they can pick it up fast enough (but obviously this depends on the kid to some extent).

    To get to the “win games in local tournaments” level, you want the League Battle Decks, which are competitive level decks – not “win a regional” level, but absolutely good enough to win games/tournaments at the local level, and the changes needed to make them “win a regional level” are pretty small realistically – just tuning mostly.



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  • Galactic Cruise – A Slow & Steady Kickstarter Race to the Stars — Pine Island Games

    Galactic Cruise – A Slow & Steady Kickstarter Race to the Stars — Pine Island Games



    Edward “TK” King and co-designer Dennis Northcott started their publication journey for Galactic Cruise around the same time I started our journey with Nut Hunt. I remember fondly the early days of us on the Board Game Design Lab Facebook page talking design tips, sharing prototype pictures, and learning the ins and outs of bringing a game to market.

    We took different routes with our games – where I spent about 18 months developing Nut Hunt and bringing it to market, TK, Dennis & team (Koltin Thompson who I haven’t interacted with as much) have had a much more measured approach and expects to launch Galactic Cruise on Kickstarter in the first quarter of 2024.

    I’m extremely proud of what Ed and team have accomplished. A solid 6 months ahead of launching the Kickstarter they already have over 3,000 followers on the page, the game was a hit at Gen Con, and they’ve built a great game with a great community.





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  • This May In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This May In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    May 1, 2023Tom Brewster

    Tom: MAY! The last month of the year you can count on one hand! Unless you’re my uncle Terry, who can only get up to March on account of a freak bobsled incident. What have we got planned for YOU, though, this month? On our little site? Called Shut Up? And?? Sit Down???

    First up, let’s talk about videos. We’ve got a bumper Frosthaven video from Matt very soon – undoubtedly an exhaustive guide to our feelings on one of 2022’s biggest games that, if you’re anything like me, will be an accompaniment to your next few ‘Waiting For My Pasta To Boil’ sessions. I’ve started writing a script for Guards Of Atlantis 2, a game I’ve played a bunch of recently and developed all kinds of complicated thoughts about. Look forward to that in a few weeks, I should hope! Outside of that, Quinns and I are stewing on whether or not to take a leap into the world of Nine Men’s Morris for a video that’s being formed ‘Title-First’, but also thinking about a format for a few classic Reiner Knizia games we’ve been playing recently. Lots to think about!

    On the podcast front, you can expect the “Gerding’s Game Gulag” Special mentioned on the last podcast, alongside some chats about what we’ve been playing recently. I’ve given Findorff a couple shakes after reading its frankly ridiculous blurb. We also played some Mobile Markets, Amun-Re, and Mogul just the other day – all of which will no doubt get a slice of coverage – and I’m still gradually trying to pull groups together for a Brass Birmingham Revisited podcast, and, gulps, John Company. 

    Nothing much changing on the streams front, continuing to pursue a schedule of ‘Whatever We Fancy’. This week we’ll return to King Of The Castle after some balancing changes have made it so I’m less likely to continually ‘Get My Ass Beat’, which should be fun!



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  • From Prototype to Publication – The Bazaar Diaries Part 3: Preparing to Playtest

    From Prototype to Publication – The Bazaar Diaries Part 3: Preparing to Playtest


    [Read our full Froggy Bazaar series here: www.pineislandgames.com/bazaar-diaries]

    As I wrote about last week (in a regular blog post), as a game evolves through the development process the goals of your playtests, as well as the target playtest audience will change.

    We’re now at the point for Froggy Bazaar where I need to broaden our play tester base (beyond my immediate circle), and so have a few important questions to answer.

    1. What is the medium of playtesting?

    2. Who is playtesting?

    3. What are our goals for playtesting?

     

    Playtesting Medium

    We enlisted the help of Tabletop Simulator wizard Alexei Menardo to script our Froggy Bazaar mod. Alexei is great at getting TTS to do what you want including what could otherwise be fiddly set up [if you’d like to commission Alexei to build a mod for your game, you can reach him at pixelandboard@gmail.com].

    As such, most of our playtesting in the near term will be online through Tabletop Simulator. That said, if you’d like to print out your own version of Froggy Bazaar, we have PNP materials here, and very rough written rules here.

     

    Playtesters

    Since we’ve been through this process a couple of times, I am fortunate to have an audience of Pine Island Insiders who are excited to play our upcoming games. Over time I’ll be reaching out on the various forums to source an even broader audience.

    If you are looking for playtesters for your game, check out last week’s article Playtesting & Playtesters.

     

    Playtesting Goals

    These first rounds of playtesting are aimed at tightening up the game mechanically, finding pain points, and making sure every inch of the game is fun. Since this series focuses on a specific game, I’m going to go into a little more detail of my primary goals for this round of playtesting

    1. Make sure that the BIG HOP action is balanced.

    2. Figure out if we have the best end of game trigger (a player filling their rucksack).

    3. Balancing group bugjectives & figuring out whether we should separate them into separate color and number bugjectives.

    You can check out my full playtesting feedback form here. What I also love about these early rounds is that I run the playtesting, so can talk with players in real time about how they feel about different aspects of the gameplay.

    While I think each playtest should have a focus, it’s always helpful to have some level of consistency in what you are asking your play testers. JT Smith over at The Game Crafter put together a pretty decent starting point for a playtesting form. You can download a free pdf or buy printed booklets of it here.

    The Game Crafter Playtest Form

    I prefer to come up with my own forms rather than use a template, as the specifics of the playtest and game will determine the kinds of questions that are relevant. But, JT’s form is definitely a good starting point for inspiration.

     

    Do you want to playtest Froggy Bazaar?



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