Richard III:

Thanks for the game idea Gary. Does this mean you'll come play me at dweebo's soon? Take me down Gary PUUUULEEEEZZZZE!

pentejr:

Yes, player one sets up the 1st 4 stones (2 of each color) then player 2 gets to chose which side to play. The rest of the game is pente. The point is that if player one sets it up right player 2 will have a real difficult time determining which side has an advantage, making the game play from that position very interesting. the shapes of the 1st 4 stones and the resulting game can be extremely varied.

Gary Barnes' solution was D-pente. I tend to like that setup for deflating P1's advantage, even though i don't play it that much.

Don't get me wrong. Pente is a wonderfully fun game. I am as addicted as anyone has ever been, or i would never have played it as much as i have.

maybe i need a 12 step program.

redfrog: No, I enjoy turn based pente. It’s just that when both players have the skills and spend enough energy they could play a 2 game match forever winning as P1. Alex Nosovski and I faced this problem together in a recent tour at iyt where we went 9 rounds before one of us prevailed. It’s just too easy to win as P1.

redfrog: real-time is the only real challenge. P2 has such a disadvantage that in turn based no one should ever lose as P1 if they spend the exorbitant time they have available with their moves to play the best available option. No one ever spends that much time, I know I don’t, so it remains possible for P2 to win. All p2 ever really has is tricks, traps, smoke, and mirrors, if P1 can avoid those P1 will win every time.