Comment by jrockway
8 months ago
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.