Scoring System to Be Added!

We are good to go with a scoring system suggested by Gregg Jewell. This applies to the two player 4x4 game (the standard way to play). At the end of the round, the winner earns 1 point for each card still face-up on the board. This includes the cards that the player pieces are sitting on. Use the 8's from the deck to keep score. Once the score has been recorded, collect and shuffle all of the cards from the board for a new round. Alternate who deals and goes first each round. Play rounds until one player reaches a score of 16. The first player to do so wins.

Scorekeeping for a three or four player game is a little simpler. This is what I have drafted up for the rules doc:

Player 1 deals and goes first. Each round, the deal and who goes first should rotate around the table.

When a player is unable to move on their turn, they are out for the round. Remove their piece from the board. The card they were on remains open. At the end of the round, players earn points based on the order they were knocked out. The first player out earns 0 points, the second player out earns 1 point, the third player out earns 2 points, and the fourth player out earns 3 points. Once the score has been tallied for the round, collect the cards and deal out a new board. Once each player has dealt and went first, the game is over. Whoever has the highest score wins. If there is a tie, follow the same order for dealing and going first and continue to play rounds until there is a winner.

User gpoquiz on Itch was kind enough to run a few hundred thousand simulations for the standard game to determine how many cards are remaining face-up on average. Here is the data:

The number in the first column represents how many turns ahead the computer player can think (assuming perfect play). 16 being the ability to see the entire game's result. I think that most people are going to be playing in the 1-2 move range and more skillful players possibly in the 3 move range. The simulations showed an almost perfect 50/50 win rate between player 1 and 2 which is awesome. We also see an average of 5.9 cards being left face-up at the end of the round across all three player abilities (which is also awesome)! I think playing to 16 and expecting the game to be played for 3-5 rounds is fair.

This scoring system will become part of the standard rule set and not part of the variations section. The focus of the game will shift from simply winning to winning a round as quickly as possibly to gain more points. I love the focus this will provide to players.

I will do one big update to the rules document with a bunch of changes. The scoring system for the standard game can be checked off the to-do list. Here is what's remaining:

- establish a scoring standard for the shift variation of the game if I can get help with simulations or if I can generate reliable data through play testing
- create a video for the 3 & 4 player game and 6x6 board
- continue development of the 3d print
- solo mode!