High Society. Game over!

[dethwing]

Technically Lex could bid everything at this point so I'll wait before going on.

[lexprod]

pass
_________________
I'll have a P please...

[dethwing]

Card 15 is the last doubler, so the game is over.

[Scurra]

Good game everyone. I think my coin toss was worth the gamble even though I lost it.

Like one of Reiner Knizia's other classics, Ra (one of my favourite games), this is far more of a gambling game than an auction game, especially in this forum version where everyone's status can be seen at a glance and analysed.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[MatthewV]

Whew! Good thing Scurra didn't win the 3

[MatthewV]

Oh and I curious what Scurra would have done if I was Zag when the 10 came up. I would have bid 45.

[Zag]

MattV was sort of right, Scurra, that you should have bid on it, but that wouldn't have made any difference because I would have outbid your only correct bid. It was correct strategy for you to bid $3, but no more. Here is where we were:

[Zag]

[Scurra]

Well, I think I knew you (Zag) would bid 4 for the three, so it seemed silly to do anything really. I had missed the tiebreak scenario, but it still seemed better for me to play for the 9,10 instead and hope that none of the other players wanted to commit suicide, and so I had already concluded that 3 was the highest I could go.
That's why I thought Lex should perhaps have bid 25 for the fire: it would have pretty much finished me off regardless of what then came out without affecting Lex's position in the slightest...

For such simple games, both this and For Sale! are distressingly clever. If I ever come up with a game that is twice as complex and half as good I'll be happy.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[MatthewV]

[referee]

Zag was 3rd.
_________________
Jan 21st, 2008: The pillaging continues.
Mar 4th, 2008: Rest in Peace, Gary Gygax. May your dice always roll a natural 20 wherever you are.

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

[MatthewV]

At the time it was

13 MatthewV
2x3 Zag
5 Referee
0 Scurra
4 lexprod

So when the 10 came up...
If Zag had bid 45 and Scurra had passed, Scurra's position would be the same. If he had bid 46 to take the ten, he would be in 2nd.

[MatthewV]

But the question remains... what would Scurra have done in this bind?

(And by the way, this is seriously what I would have done if I had been in Zag's position)

[Zag]

Excellent point. I should have taken that approach.

[Scurra]

If Zag had indeed bid 45 then I think that all I would have done was to congratulate MattV on the win.
Because to me, the last coin toss suddenly becomes entirely irrelevant. Either I outbid Zag now (and can't win) or I don't (and can't win.)

So it would seem easier and less stressful for me to simply let Zag suicide, as my final position becomes irrelevant either way (the coin toss gives me 2nd or 4th.)

Now of course Zag has no real way of knowing that I'm not going to care about my final position in that circumstance (other than, perhaps, inferring it from the digression into kingmaking!) so playing for the coin toss instead would indeed seem worthwhile. It would, however, have been a losing play.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[MatthewV]

If people behaved as they were supposed to, the game wouldn't be very interesting

And the interesting side point, the only way for Zag to win was have you bid more than a certain amount on the 10. And because of this, I felt the only way for Scurra to win was winning the 3 and 10 and beating me on a tiebreaker.

[dethwing]

Would anyone like to try it again?

[MatthewV]

Maybe in 2 weeks.

[Zag]

sure