tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post5485782540855795848..comments2024-03-27T15:59:11.066+00:00Comments on Prometheus in Aspic: The Man Who Killed Pythagoras – and other talesMSFoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-81429481104891754542013-06-10T05:05:57.681+01:002013-06-10T05:05:57.681+01:00Four-times Scrabble is very good. Like it a lot.
...Four-times Scrabble is very good. Like it a lot.<br /><br />I was making this morning's coffee when I started thinking about the board, and I have to ask. I'm so ignorant about Scrabble I don't know how many squares there are on the official board, but I do recall that it must be an odd number each way, because there is a "star" square in the centre for starting the game - first tiles laid must include one on the star (and, I remember, I'd been playing for years before I discovered that the star, being pink, is a double-word bonus square).<br /><br />A straight 2 x 2 giant board will give an even number, and thus no central square. How do you start the game?<br /><br />Now look what you've done!<br /><br />I'm still hoping to find my old photo of the hexagonal tri-chess from the 1970s, but I guess it may have gone for good. I could bash up a diagram though...<br /><br />You must promise to post a photo of your Big Scrabble when it's ready. It will also give Hasbro some hard evidence for the court case.<br /><br />Oversized games are super - I've always loved those giant chess games in the public parks. I've also seen giant draughts (checkers) in Princes Park, Liverpool when I was a nipper - 1950s, I guess. I have long fancied the idea of putting a big Nine Men's Morris game in the garden - (aka Merrelles, Mühle, Mill etc...). I believe they had them on village greens in Tudor times?<br /><br />Thanks, Hugh - inspirational comment!<br /><br />Tony MSFoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-19619949840533223782013-06-09T23:43:08.785+01:002013-06-09T23:43:08.785+01:00Don't know how I missed this post? I started t...Don't know how I missed this post? I started to design a triangular Chess game a couple of years ago (2008/9), but unlike the one pictured I set my 'start-lines' two rows off the pictured board, so they were two conventional lines of squares, the middle was similar to the one illustrated but the bit in-between was a little different, I keep meaning to finish it, it was as far as I know unique, in that I had Google to reveal all the other designs! Not something available in 1970!<br /><br />The main fault with 'set-back' start lines seems to be getting pieces 'trapped' in corners in a way you can't with a conventional or the the posted version? Siege warfare!<br /><br />I'm also working on a four-times Scrabble board, which involves buying all the boards I can find at car-boots or charity shops, then cutting the margins off two sides of four of them, re-mounting them together, then steaming the playing areas of a few more and pasting various individual squares onto the bigger board until the ratio of pink and blue squares equates to the original board...then getting sued by Hasbro!<br /><br />HughHugh Walterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10689023221814673819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-10702687210293008962013-05-27T09:20:31.662+01:002013-05-27T09:20:31.662+01:00I had a couple of interesting emails in response t...I had a couple of interesting emails in response to this post, for which I am grateful.<br /><br />Martin sent some tales of Pythagoras, who seems to have been more odd than I thought. Apart from the well-known story of the Squaw on the Hippopotamus, it gave some details of Pythagoras life - it is widely believed that he died during a rebellion at the city of Croton in about 500 BC, when he was caught by the rebels as a result of his refusal to cross a field of beans, a vegetable to which he had a religious objection. Seems perfectly sensible to me.<br /><br />The worthy Prof De Vries did a very nice little treatise on the shortcomings of 3-sided soccer. He points out that a triangular pitch is tricky, since every throw-in would be someone else's corner, and it would be hard to decide to whom it should be awarded. Thus he suggests (you guessed) a hexagonal pitch, with touchlines alternating with goal lines. He agrees with the idea of winning by conceding the fewest goals - if a shot from a red forward brushed against a blue player's jersey on the way into the green team's goal, the only fact that we cannot argue about is that the score was AGAINST green. There is a fair amount more of the same, much of which I hadn't thought of, and it adds up to the fact that we are not likely to see triangular football in the Olympics anytime soon.<br /><br />The Prof mentions that there are some interesting features of strategy in games (or wars) with more than two participants, and it may be that a defensive posture is the best one. He proposes to read further on this - he thinks there may even be stuff in Napoleon's Maxims on it. I wouldn't hold your breath for further developments - I'm pretty sure that someone out there already understands all this anyway. There is probably a degree course available at the Open University.<br /><br />Regards - MSF<br /><br />PS - I am kind of diappointed that Pythagoras didn't escape by taking a diagonal path across the bean field, and thus becoming a Stealth PythagorasMSFoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-58547255167494512422013-05-26T05:46:34.350+01:002013-05-26T05:46:34.350+01:00By the way - did you ever see Peter without a tie?...By the way - did you ever see Peter without a tie? I can remember him wearing a tweed sports jacket once, for a Saturday morning wargames convention/demo in Adam House, Edinburgh, but as far as I recall otherwise he always wore a suit - even at home. He was definitely a gentleman though.<br /><br />MSFMSFoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-85574032808422584712013-05-26T05:40:49.193+01:002013-05-26T05:40:49.193+01:00Hi Lou - I hadn't thought of it before, but yo...Hi Lou - I hadn't thought of it before, but you may well be on to something there - using measuring sticks and so on made wargames a scientific pursuit for gentlemen, not at all like draughts or snakes & ladders.<br /><br />Peter was an amiable chap - I liked him a lot, and learned a lot from him - but could be argumentative and very single minded. I once helped him to redraft his Napoleonic rules for 5mm Minfigs blocks, and he refused to correct a couple of arithmetical errors I found in them. Someone once said to me that he never was defeated in an argument, precisely because he didn't listen. If it was you that said this, please excuse me.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Tony MSFoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-36053660821154582272013-05-26T05:31:14.656+01:002013-05-26T05:31:14.656+01:00Hi Lee - the chief reason I mentioned the hex ches...Hi Lee - the chief reason I mentioned the hex chess games was because I have a photo of my original 3-sided hexagonal game. The bad news is that I can't find it! A pity. If people are commemorated in the long term by unhelpful one-liners (King Alfred famous for burning cakes, Isaac Newton for being hit by a falling apple) then I would not object to being remembered as a man who invented a fantastic variant of chess which didn't work.<br /><br />One of my better failures.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Tony<br /><br />MSFoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-40009260409761489412013-05-25T22:29:40.091+01:002013-05-25T22:29:40.091+01:00Interesting post. Like you I think, I became inter...Interesting post. Like you I think, I became interested in boardgames because they worked well, which was not always true for miniatures games however much I would like it to have been.<br /><br />Peter Gouldesbrough and a couple of other older wargamers I knew in the 1970s were dismissive of boardgames to an extent which I thought was unreasonable. It was once explained to me that a game with free measurement (and incomplete rules?) was a proper pastime for grown men - games on boards with squares and hexes were just that - slick games for kids. The implication, which is still a bit scary, is that miniatures wargames were sort of scaled down real warfare, and thus to be taken seriously. The other implication was that we only played with officers and gentlemen, who would never cheat, thus the weaknesses in the rules were OK.<br /><br />I told Peter I was sure that all grown men who played with toy soldiers were guaranteed respect anyway, especially if they carried a ruler, but he didn't see the funny side. For myself I would prefer to play without a grid, but the grids often make the game work better. A game which does not work is not a good game unless you are very lucky. <br /><br />Cheers - LouCec Rhodeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17313215648551374718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-3300434344791537952013-05-25T17:58:16.973+01:002013-05-25T17:58:16.973+01:00Great read Tony - 'squexes' indeed! Enough...Great read Tony - 'squexes' indeed! Enough to give anybody the 'buzzings'. I myself spend far too much time with my head full of hexes, they trouble me, but they work, it's a love- hate relationship. They have me in their grip, I have upstairs wooden hexes in at least 3 different sizes, where will it stop? <br /><br />Those chess sets are just insane! I thought the same of the 3 dimensional version played in Star Trek..... but God, they intrigue me!'Lee.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02728400013024811279noreply@blogger.com