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Strategy

Page history last edited by jiego 13 years, 8 months ago

Strategy

Played the game and figured out some sort of strategy? Share it here!

 

White Lotus Gambit?

Question: Does anyone know what the White Lotus gambit could be? How would it be tempting the other player to do something?

 

Answer: I have been working on a set of rules that is different from the one on this page in which harmonies can be created by pieces any number of spaces away from each other as long as they are in a straight line.  In order to win, a player must make a complete ring of harmonies around the center point. In my version, if a player has captured fewer pieces for The Pot, they may use their White Lotus tiles to form harmonies with any other flowers on the board, even if they belong to the opponent.  This allows a strategy in which a player could purposely sacrifice tiles to gain the White Lotus advantage and use the harmonies set up by his or her opponent to form a complete circle, thus winning the game due to the other player's aggressive style.

 

Also, I haven't played the game, but, just from reading the rules, I see a big problem.  If you immediately score a point after forming a harmony, it would be very easy to just move one of the pieces away from the other and back again each turn.  This would allow a player to score one point a turn until the other player stopped them. By then, the player doing the "back-and-forth" move could have built up enough points for an insurmountable lead. The game as it is written now just seems like it is built to be stagnate. That's why I prefer the rules described above. I could write the rest of my rules down on this site if anyone is interested.

 

 

Comments (15)

Mace said

at 12:36 am on Jul 25, 2008

The generating points thing is a good one. This is why I tend to like games that count points at the end (like go) and I think this should be the same with Pai Sho.

Anonymous said

at 2:42 pm on Jan 28, 2009

Ditto.

Caroline said

at 3:13 pm on Mar 5, 2010

Yeah that is a great point. I would love to figure out a White Lotus Gambit, but I'm not that kind of strategic person. I thought, when reading the rules myself, as I intend to make a board to learn how to play, that the point of the harmonies is that you would keep them there as long as possible, because at the end, you could have an option of making the winner be whoever has the most harmonies. I may have misunderstood however. Your idea makes sense, but I don't really understand how it would be a challenge to make harmonies if they could be any number of spaces away from eachother. It seems like it would take the challenge away from the game.

Caroline said

at 8:11 pm on Mar 6, 2010

Another thing- there could be 2 ways you can choose to play the game, I suppose. You can:
1- whoever has the most harmonies at the end (You would therefore not that the generating point problem) wins, or
2- you can choose to play the way they have on the home page.

This is just a suggestion I'm throwing out there. Anyone agree?

Cyril said

at 12:20 pm on Mar 22, 2011

Good point. In fact, in my rule set there are four conditions to win, so you can choose the way the game is played by choosing one or two of the conditions before starting.

Yi Chen said

at 1:39 pm on Mar 22, 2011

Please could you give some more details.

Cyril said

at 2:45 pm on Mar 22, 2011

There are four main winning conditions:

1- by Points: Both players set a number of points, maybe 80; whoever reaches 80 points first, wins.

2- by completing a complete ring of own harmonies around the center of the board

3- one player loses when he has only three tiles left because all others are taken

4- a player wins if he can complete a ring of harmonies around the bord center while having more points than his opponent.

Most of the games I played up to now were 1-3-games, so you can win by condition 1 or 3.

I hope this was helpful
Cyril

Frank said

at 10:04 am on Sep 8, 2011

i have a document in the file frank's stuff on the side bar about the white lotus gambit. it's prety much the same. i also have stuff on order rank

Frank said

at 10:33 pm on Oct 15, 2011

@Cyril i think the harmony ring should only be used to win the game like he said. the game shouldn't be able to ba won by normal ways or else it's not a special variation. i also came to the exact same conclusion as jiego, even before i found this page. wierd, huh?

michielewiel said

at 12:48 pm on Feb 23, 2012

hmm for a strategy in a basic game well i loved to begin with the Lily or the Chrysanthemum cause they have a greath moving patern which can easlly get out of a dangerous situation there down side is that you need to plan ahead with them or you'll get completly lost with them and i woud recommend out of own experience that the with lotus is very good in the midle of a game but you always need to protect your lotus with an other tile a White Jade or for example they have a greath moving speed and i use them as sacrafice pieces mostly cause they have a greath disadventage with the boat restriction --" anyway then up to the last piece the rose or the jasmine i use them as an attack i don't use a time like mid game or anything like that i use them when i need support for other pieces or want to do an attack. this strategy works best for me
this is my vision o f what works best (i din't do non flowers cause i use them diffrent according from against who i am playing) anyway i hope i helped you a bit and i hope you enjoy your game don't be impatient don't make haste do it right and patient and you'll win ;p

Cyril said

at 11:06 am on Feb 26, 2012

Thanks for the explanation; by which rules do you play (tile movement rules I mean)? The various tiles' roles are heavily dependant on that after all.

You are right about the elemental tiles, they are difficult to characterize. I hardly use them at all.

michielewiel said

at 10:47 am on Feb 29, 2012

i played with the basic's i got from Frank don't know if that is a variation by now ;p

Cyril said

at 12:30 pm on Feb 29, 2012

I was confused. I have played with Frank, so I know his rule set (it is a "variant" indeed), but you said that you have to plan ahead when using the Chrys/Lily; I didn't quite understand that.The other ideas are clearly explained though ^^

michielewiel said

at 10:55 am on Mar 1, 2012

yeah if i over read it again i see that i was not that clear xD what i meanth is that if u use the Lily/Chrys u need to know ecatly where u are going with it cause it has the L movement. With this movement u need to see how you can reach the tile u want. (note it is best to use the lily as a piece for harmonie rather than attack ) hope it is a bit more clear what i meanth now xD

Jared Russell said

at 10:02 am on Dec 13, 2013

I just update the harmonies after each turn, that way you only get points for current harmonies.

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