No news is ... well, no news

Ack, sorry, real life has intruded and it may be hard to keep this up for the next week or so -- but I am quite interested in accepting submissions -- either positions that came up in a game that you found particularly interesting, or particular aspects of the game about which you have something to say, or about which you'd like to see if I have anything to say.

I notice, by the way, that Max has never played the Space Girlz buttons on buttonmen.com [except for the one game I am currently playing]. I think these could actually be potentially interesting games. For example: Max vs. Maya [which is the game currently going on] -- how do you think Maya should set her plasma die? and what about Max's Swing die? You can see the choices we are currently trying at the link above..

I still think Max is much stronger than his statistics give him credit for being (though I might not go so far as to call him "strong" in an absolute sense -- but way better than 30%). There are certainly specific buttons he can't possibly beat, and there are some buttons to which he can't possibly lose, but for most of the middle, he could do better than people think if he's played correctly -- but it's subtle!

[Not so subtle part] In almost every game, Max will sweep the other button's dice off the field, the real question is how much poison he can make it eat before it goes -- so the object of the game is to set the swings properly so the amount of poison is achievable, then, make moves to force a sufficient amount of poison to be eaten.

In some sense, this is no different than any other matchup -- Buttonmen is always about knowing your victory conditions, and making moves most likely to push the game towards those conditions -- but with Max, that tends to mean finding ways to force your opponent to take at least one large poison die -- and that seems very different than the usual buttonmen plan:
if you take his small dice first and his big dice roll LARGE, they'll have too much choice and can take your smallest poison before they die -- but if you take his big dice first, his small dice may roll too low and get to pass alltogether!

Almost always, you want to have at least one of your larger dice roll lower than at least one of your small dice. With so many big poison, there's a good chance at least one of them will roll moderately low; then it's a matter of forcing its capture.

But this is all pretty vague, illustrative game positions would help -- and I don't have time to construct them right now, maybe I should set up a lot of challenges with Max to try to generate a few.

another messy position

I don't think I can prove my next move right -- and I'm prepared to believe I'm wrong -- but I do think it's an interesting choice.

Button Men Game #591452
This game is 'for fun' and does not count for player rankings.
Arena Game: Random BM from Majesty

Skills in this game: X Swing

Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Yeti (10 20 30 30 X) Score: 36 (-16 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 2 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: None

10-sided die	20-sided die	30-sided die	X Swing (with 12 sides)		30-sided die
5	16	10	10		11 Captured last turn
4-sided die	4-sided die	12-sided die	X Swing (with 20 sides)	X Swing (with 20 sides)
4	3	7	9	9

Opponent: kleric *Ninja Boy* *Fanatic*
Button Man: Nerni (4 4 12 X X) Score: 60 (16 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 2 / 0
Captured Dice: 30-sided die

Once again, I'm in trouble...

Is there *ANY* way to win this round? What would have to happen? Is there something I can do to maximize even the remote possibility of it happening?

Skills in this game: Doppleganger, Poison , Shadow, V Swing, X Swing
Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Jellybean (p20 s20 V X) Score: -5 (-38 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 0 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: Doppleganger 12-sided die

Poison 20-sided die	V Swing (with 6 sides)		X Swing (with 20 sides)
12	5		12 Captured last turn
Doppleganger 4-sided die	Doppleganger 6-sided die	Doppleganger 10-sided die	Doppleganger X Swing (with 4 sides)
1	4	9	2

Opponent: devious
Button Man: Envy (D4 D6 D10 D12 DX) Score: 52 (38 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 1 / 0
Captured Dice: Shadow 20-sided die, X Swing 20-sided die

second friday quickie.

I'm in bad shape here; and I'm completely dead unless I reroll my turbo and capture one of his shadow dice... but to what size should I set the turbo?

Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Zeppo (4 12 20 X!) Score: 28 (-13.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 2 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: X Swing 20-sided die, 4-sided die

4-sided die	X Turbo Swing (with 4 sides)		20-sided die
2	1		18 Captured last turn
2-sided die	Shadow 10-sided die	Shadow 20-sided die
1	9	15

Opponent: theAlmighty *heavenly*
Button Man: Merlin (2 4 s10 s20 X) Score: 48 (13.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 1 / 0
Captured Dice: 12-sided die, 20-sided die

2 friday quick ones... #1

What do you think? should I take the speed-12, or the speed-X4. Is it worth it to increase the chance he
can take my 10-sided die (by only 10%) to eliminate the chance that his speed-12 will roll higher than 10?


Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Reaver (4 10 10 12 pX) Score: 12 (-11.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 1 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: Speed 12-sided die

10-sided die	10-sided die	Poison X Swing (with 10 sides)		4-sided die
10	10	1		1 Captured last turn
Speed 10-sided die	Speed 12-sided die	Speed X Swing (with 4 sides)
2	2	3

Opponent: Desdinova
Button Man: Morgan (z10 z12 z12 zX) Score: 29 (11.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 2 / 0
Captured Dice: 12-sided die, 4-sided die

OK, last post on that BMAI game

Though I did save one more position, it would wreck the continuity to put it here.
Again, maybe this one is too easy, it certainly yields to direct computation very quickly.

I have several possible moves, but one is much better than all the others.


Button Men Game #601416
Play the AI! You will be assimilated and stuff.

Skills in this game: Poison, Shadow, V Swing, X Swing

Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Lucky (6 10 p12 20 X) Score: 25 (18.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 0 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: Shadow 20-sided die, X Swing 4-sided die

6-sided die	Poison 12-sided die	20-sided die		X Swing (with 4 sides)
2	1	20		2 Captured last turn
Poison 20-sided die	V Swing (with 7 sides)
4	1

Opponent: bmai *AI* *111111101001000001100 as of 9-22-03*
Button Man: Jellybean (p20 s20 V X) Score: -2.5 (-18.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 2 / 0
Captured Dice: 10-sided die, X Swing 4-sided die

OK, a little later in the same round with bmai

Maybe this one's too easy --there's only one move with any chance of winning [a good chance of winning, in fact], and it's not too hard to see just by checking the score. But I didn't say they'd all be hard!


Skills in this game: Poison, Shadow, V Swing, X Swing
Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Lucky (6 10 p12 20 X) Score: 6 (-15.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 0 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: Shadow 20-sided die, Poison 20-sided die

6-sided die	10-sided die	Poison 12-sided die		20-sided die
1	8	2		6 Captured last turn
V Swing (with 6 sides)	X Swing (with 4 sides)
2	1

Opponent: bmai *AI* *111111101001000001100 as of 9-22-03*
Button Man: Jellybean (p20 s20 V X) Score: 29 (15.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 0 / 0
Captured Dice: X Swing 4-sided die, 20-sided die