From: shoham@ll.mit.edu (Daniel Shoham)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Winning isn't everything
Date: 13 Jan 93 02:47:08 GMT
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

In article <1ivk8qINNj30@life.ai.mit.edu> joltman@raisin-nut.ai.mit.edu (T. Andy Frakes) writes:
>opponents will seek revenge rather than try to win, if "injured."  [Someone
>used the analogy of a titan vs. titan battle in Titan.  One should not be
>surprised if his opponent attempts to strip his attacker's stack if he deems
>his chances of winning to be too low (as oppposed to going for the throat and
>the remote chance of winning while hopelessly exposing himself).]  I believe

An interesting case. Our gaming group play several hundreed Titan games per
year and about 1/2 the Titan ellimenations are in a Titan-on-Titan battle.
About 2/3 of those are such that the one side (almost invariably the defender)
has little hope of survival. Striping the attacker stack thus become a
motivation ("I might as well have some objective in my shortened life"). 
Usually, the attacker is nearly strip-proof (by having too much firepower for
an effective strip, or by allready being a lords/warlocks stack) since
otherwise he would not have attacked so enthusiastically. Nonetheless,
sometimes the possibility of a strip is quite realistic. Sometimes, it is
nearly unavoidable for a promissing Titan-stack to be stripped as the price
for elliminating an opponent.

This is when the "sporting chance" play is used.

In that play, the attacker provides the defender with a 5-10% of chance of
VICTORY in return for not attempting to strip. This is not done via 
"negotiated" deal, but by the battleland set-up. Usually such play involves
allowing a small opening at your own Titan that would require the use of the
balk of the opponent fire-power to pry, or an early Titan-on-Titan duel. For
example, if you have an 8 point Titan, and the opponent a 6-point Titan, and
the opponent has no other skill-4 creature in his stack; then a set-up that 
allows his Titan to engage your Titan would provide him with a "sporting
chance". By accepting this engagement, the opponent loses all hopes of a
major strip (as the battle would end after only 1-2 battle phases).

"sporting chances" are offered because the attacker consider the liklihood
of him winning the overall game with an unstripped Titan stack to be improved
by more than 5-10% (or whatever). In fact, under some circumstances, "sporting
chance" as high as 50% (!) can be provided. (In the mountains, I was attacked
by a Titan stack that included two Dragons and was generally much better than
I was. I proceeded to attempt to strip his Titan and look for an - unlikely -
opening toward his Titan. At one point, one of his Dragons was engaged with my
Titan with mutually assured destruction in two rolls. I had one heavily injured
Giant free. Normally, I would have used that Giant to finish of my
opponent's also-injured second Dragon. However, my opponent - realizing that
his game would be hopeless if he lost both Dragons [the only non-lords
left in his stack], even if he wins the battle, provided my Giant
an opportunity to attack his 4-hits-to-go injured Titan [50%]. If I try - of
course I try - to go for the Titan, then I am giving up the on killing his
2nd Dragon. Well, I failed to get 4 hits, and my opponent recruited a second
Dragon, an Angel, and and Archangel at the end of the battle, and went on to
win the over-all game.)

In our group, refusing to accept a serious "sporting chance" (i.e. 5% or more)
is considered un-game-man-ship-like. (But un-game-man-ship-like plays do not
prevent us from inviting the "offenders" back or encourge us to retaliate in
future games.


Dan Shoham               shoham@ll.mit.edu
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