I love playing Max!

But not, in general, against Sailor Moon style buttons -- getting that first win can be very tough, since they're only going to capture 4 dice at best (and maybe only 3 if they don't get the initiative, which is a distinct possibility.) [And, of course, even if you GET that first win, some people are clever enough to avoid taking any reserve dice.]

I think I picked the right swing die to maximize my chances of winning a round -- and here, on the second try, I think I have a pretty good shot at it. What should I do to maximize the chances of winning this round -- and what are those chances, approximately?


Button Men Game #677915
Tournament Legal challenge, copying communication from game 677673

Skills in this game: Poison, Reserve, X Swing
Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Max (p12 p12 p20 p20 p30 p30 pX pX) Score: -104 (-67.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 1 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: 20-sided die

Poison 12-sided die	Poison 20-sided die	Poison 30-sided die	Poison 30-sided die	Poison X Swing (with 16 sides)	Poison X Swing (with 16 sides)		Poison 20-sided die
7	13	26	5	14	12		3 Captured last turn
8-sided die	8-sided die	10-sided die
1	5	10

Opponent: alaric *Sci-Fied* *Silver Medal in Men's Boxing* *Silver Medal in Men's Marathon* *Silver Medal in Men's Synchronized Swimming* *Gold Medal in Men's Wrestling*
Button Man: Sailor Moon (8 8 10 20 r6 r10 r20 r20) Score: -3 (67.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 0 / 0
Captured Dice: Poison 12-sided die, Poison 20-sided die

Beginner's puzzle

What's tabby's best move?

Viewing Game #675464
This game is 'for fun' and does not count for player rankings.
All BM challenge, copying communication from game 541012
This game was last modified on Mon Aug 3, 2009 01:55:32

* Next Turn * Player: tabby * Next Turn *
Button Man: Kith Score: 22 (-11.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 2 / 0 (out of 3 round(s))
Captured Dice: 6-sided die, 6-sided die

Dice	8-sided die	12-sided die
Value	7	7
Dice	6-sided die	6-sided die	6-sided die
Value	3	4	5

Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Button Man: Rold Score: 39 (11.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 1 / 0
Captured Dice: 12-sided die, X Swing 12-sided die, 6-sided die

uses of the trip die

one thing that's striking about the trip die skill is how infrequently one uses it -- about the only time you see trip attacks made is when there's no other possible attack available. There are, however, rare occasions when a trip attack might be better than other possible attacks.

Is this such an exception? If i. doesn't force my 10-sided die with value 10 to reroll, he's *almost* certain to lose.

Viewing Game #669808 

Tournament #13753: Chastity! Current Round: Round 2. (organized by alaric)

This game was last modified on Mon Jun 1, 2009 06:28:34

* Next Turn * Player: irilyth *Poisonous Turtle* *Silver Medal in Men's 100 Meter Dash* * Next Turn *
Button Man: Chastity    Score: 24 (-15.3 sides)   Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 2 / 0 (out of 3 round(s))
Captured Dice: 10-sided die, 6-sided die

Dice	Trip 6-sided die	10-sided die
Value	4	8
Dice	Trip 6-sided die	10-sided die	X Swing (with 10 sides)
Value	5	10	5

Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic* 
Button Man: Chastity    Score: 47 (15.3 sides)   Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 2 / 0
Captured Dice: X Swing 18-sided die, 10-sided die, 6-sided die

Has it really been a month?

What do you think? Should I take the poison, and keep my 12-sided button safe for another turn; or should I take the Plasma{Chance} and reroll my 12-sided die? you can even make a case for taking the Place{Focus} with a six-sided die. What about the morphing die -- is there a case for taking that?



Button Men Game #671344

Tournament #13739: revenge on the stats tournament for lephantman13 Current Round: Round 2. (organized by glassonion)

Lephantman13's ten worst buttons using which he has played at least 4 games. If you are lephantman13, join this tournament immediately and choose your button as you like. Other players: please hold off on joining until Monday night (U.S. Eastern) so the named player has a chance to join. When you do join, you *must* choose your button randomly.

Skills in this game: Twin, Option, Mood Swing, Chance, Stealth, Focus, Stinger, Morphing, Null, Plasma, Poison, Trip, X Swing, Speed
Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Farrell (10 12 6/20 6/20 8/12) Score: 24 (-1.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 1 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: Plasma {Trip} 12-sided die

12-sided die	Option 6/20 (with 6 sides)	Option 6/20 (with 6 sides)		10-sided die
10	6	6		7 Captured last turn
Plasma {Chance} 12-sided die	Plasma {Focus} 12-sided die	Plasma {Poison} 12-sided die	Plasma {Morphing} X Swing (with 4 and 4 sides)
7	5	3	4

Opponent: Dribbleflop *Kernel Panic'd*
Button Man: inundator (P{c,d}12 P{f,z}12 P{t,g}12 P{p,n}12 P{m,?}X) Score: 26 (1.3 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 0 / 0
Captured Dice: Option 8/12 12-sided die, 10-sided die

Select an attack: Power Attack Skill Attack

what should jocke do first?

If I had more on the ball, I would have saved the position before my last focus die maneuver -- it was one of the Crab positions that I love so well, where one has the option of either getting initiative or leaving the 20-sided die safe [at least for the first turn]. Do you think I did the right thing?

But the question now is what Jocke should do. Do you think he should take my die with value 10? or should he go for the 20-sider with value 1 right now?


Viewing Game #666572

Tournament #13584: L5R vs Samurai Bash Current Round: Round 2. (organized by Jocke)

8-player single-elimination tourney

This game was last modified on Tue Mar 24, 2009 01:06:46

Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Button Man: Crab Score: 35 (2 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 0 / 0 (out of 3 round(s))
Captured Dice: None

Dice	8-sided die	10-sided die	12-sided die	Focus 20-sided die	Focus 20-sided die
Value	2	2	10	16	1
Dice	6-sided die	Focus 8-sided die (dizzy)	Focus 10-sided die (dizzy)	20-sided die	20-sided die
Value	5	1	1	5	13

* Next Turn * Player: Jocke * Next Turn *
Button Man: Mantis Score: 32 (-2 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 1 / 0
Captured Dice: None

Results from last turn:
The Focus 10-sided die showing 10 is turned down to 1.
Jocke turned down his focus dice.
Jocke gained the initative with his Focus Dice.

didn't we do one like this a year ago?

Again, it's not too hard to do the math explicitly here, but the intuition is what I'm after.

irilyth has a choice; he can take my 4-sided die, or my 12-sided die. Which is better? If they both were showing the same value, it would be a no-brainer,but since the 4-sided die has a slightly higher value, there's some tradeoff here. is it enough? What if the 12-sided die had value 2, instead?


Viewing Game #662681

Tournament #13769: Scorpion! Current Round: Round 1. (organized by alaric)

This game was last modified on Mon Mar 2, 2009 14:01:06

Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Button Man: Scorpion Score: 28 (-8 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 1 / 2 / 0 (out of 3 round(s))
Captured Dice: Focus 12-sided die, Focus 4-sided die, 4-sided die

Dice	4-sided die	Focus 12-sided die
Value	4	3
Dice	4-sided die	20-sided die
Value	1	20

* Next Turn * Player: irilyth *Poisonous Turtle* *Silver Medal in Men's 100 Meter Dash* * Next Turn *
Button Man: Scorpion Score: 40 (8 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 2 / 1 / 0
Captured Dice: 20-sided die, Focus 4-sided die, 4-sided die

Results from last turn:
ElihuRoot is performing a power attack with a Focus 12-sided die showing 4,
targeting irilyth's 4-sided die showing 4.

The Focus 12-sided die is rerolled and the new value is 3.

ElihuRoot takes irilyth's die.

Is the answer obvious? [fighting rikachu]

We all know -- or at least should know -- that, in most situations in which you can't afford to lose anyANY more dice, (and all your dice are safe before the reroll, there's no shadow dice involved, etc,) you're best off rerolling the largest one -- i.e. the probability it will roll high enough to be safe is best.

But what if you can afford to lose ONE die and still win. This just came up for me today in the game below. If I lose any one die, I win, but if I lose any two dice, I lose.

option 1: roll the 10-sided die first. its chance of survival is best, and if it does get captured,
the smaller die (the 8-sided die, no doubt) will at least be rerolling in a safer environment with fewer 1-sided dice to capture it.

option 2: roll the 8-sided die first. it's more likely to get captured, but at least then, the 10-sided die will be left for the last roll or two, with relatively the best chance of survivial.

option 3: it doesn't matter, the chance of success is the same either way. [of course, assuming you aren't so foolish as to reroll the 6 sided die]

it's actually not too hard to do the math on this -- but it's worthwhile to try to intuit the answer first, and THEN do the math (if you think it's necessary) .

Tournament #13739: revenge on the stats tournament for lephantman13 Current Round: Round 1. (organized by glassonion)

Lephantman13's ten worst buttons using which he has played at least 4 games. If you are lephantman13, join this tournament immediately and choose your button as you like. Other players: please hold off on joining until Monday night (U.S. Eastern) so the named player has a chance to join. When you do join, you *must* choose your button randomly.

Skills in this game: Option, Y Swing
Player: ElihuRoot *Dead Dude* *Fanatic*
Your Button Man: Farrell (10 12 6/20 6/20 8/12) Score: 32 (8 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 0 / 0 (Out of 3 wins)
Your Captured Dice: Y Swing 20-sided die

10-sided die	Option 6/20 (with 6 sides)	Option 8/12 (with 8 sides)		Option 6/20 (with 6 sides)
8	6	7		3 Captured last turn
1-sided die	1-sided die	1-sided die	1-sided die
1	1	1	1

Opponent: irilyth *Poisonous Turtle* *Silver Medal in Men's 100 Meter Dash*
Button Man: Rikachu (1 1 1 1 Y) Score: 20 (-8 sides) Rounds Won/Lost/Tied: 0 / 0 / 0
Captured Dice: 12-sided die, Option 6/20 6-sided die

Select an attack: Power Attack Skill Attack

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