Comment by dayjaby
8 months ago
On beginner level this might work, but if people are more competitive they begin to realize the benefit of not only playing the own game, but reading the enemies plan (e.g. scouting in Starcraft/AoE2) to counteract it as much as possible.
Chess against humen is different. Usually, there is no path to victory, only to remis. People just follow strategic plans that people told them would be slightly beneficial later on. Along following that strategic plan people mess up and the first one to realize that the opponent messed up usually wins. Like having a piece advantage of 2-3 is usually considered a win already.
I agree with this. My default approach to board games is basically to maximize victory points early. This usually works; when 4 people are playing a new game for the first time, I usually win. This doesn't really work when people know how to play the game specifically, though.
I think this algorithm is better than many other algorithms that people come up with, however.
(As an aside, when I play a card game I sort my cards with a merge sort instead of an insertion sort. People said you would never use these algorithms in real life, but you can if you want to!)
This comment got me thinking about how I sort my cards. I scan the whole hand, then make the biggest changes first (e.g. consolidating suits/card types), then sort the subgroups.
Huh, guess I'm doing a sort of human heuristic version of Quicksort
The interesting thing about sorting cards for a trick taking game is often standard algorithms don't directly apply, because you don't have a fixed end state. I choose the order of the suits based on how the cards are currently laid out, as long as I end up with red and black alternating.
Common advice to beginners:
"Improve the position of your worst placed piece."
For better players, determine which is most effective:
1 Improve the position of your worst placed piece.
2 Exchange or minimize the potential of your opponent's best-placed piece (e.g. trade off their bishop on a long diagonal)
3 Maximize the potential of your best-placed piece (sometimes by a sacrifice)
4 Prevent your opponent from developing some pieces
This is over-simplified, of course, but the balance of the position must be taken into account.