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Feb 2nd, 2017 at 13:31:52 - Forty Thieves (Other) |
Forty Thieves: Monday, January 23, 2017 (Games one and two)
Forty Thieves is a single-player card game using the standard 52-card deck (no
jokers). More accurately, it uses /two/ standard 52-card decks. While this game
can be played in meatspace with two physical decks of cards, I elected to play
on my PC using Aisleriot. To better simulate how the game would be played in
meatspace, I avoided overuse of Aisleriot's undo function.
I attempted to record my sessions using ffmpeg's x11grab source, but only
succeeded in capturing footage of my terminal emulator. It was a silly mistake,
but a mistake I was not aware of until after playing several sessions, and I
currently lack the motivation to make another attempt.
= Rules =
- Ten tableau stacks are delt, four cards each, all visible and revealed.
- All cards remaining after tableau stacks are delt form the stock, which is
face-down.
- Space should be allocated for eight foundation stacks and a single waste
stack.
- The object of the game is to move all the cards to the foundation stacks.
- The foundation stacks are built up by suit from ace to king.
- The tableau stacks may be build /down/ by suit. Any single card may be played
in an empty tableau stack.
- One card at a time may be taken from the stock, to be played to the tableau
stacks, the foundation stacks, or the waste stack. Once the stock is
exhausted, it is not replenished.
- You may move the top card from the waste or from any tableau stack.
= Game 1 =
Out of the maybe thirty or so games of Forty Thieves I played since being given
a non-video game analysis assignment, this is the only one that I actually won.
In my experience, one ends up losing <95% of the Forty Thieves games they play.
I would hazard to guess that a given game of Forty Thieves is not guaranteed to
/be/ winnable, but a cursory Google search does not provide a solid answer one
way or the other.
= Game 2 =
After exhausting the stock, I was unable to continue. This is a losing state.
= Post-game =
At the end of the game, you have two decks of cards all mixed up that you then
must separate should you wish to play a different game with them. (Unless that
different game is Canasta or something.)
= Analysis =
There's not really a whole lot to talk about when it comes to analyzing
specific sessions, outside of maybe what my rationale was for performing some
actions that may seem disadvantageous to those unfamiliar with the game. Had I
been successful in capturing footage of my sessions, I would have annotated the
videos with this information.
It's a fun game with rules simple enough to easily keep track of, but complex
enough to still be a very entertaining time-waster. After playing for a while,
one begins to intuitively develop strategies for winning more often and getting
further before losing in games they don't win. An example of an obvious
strategy one might come up with would be to get empty tableau stacks as early
as possible, and maintain as many as possible thereafter. One also gains a
sense of sometimes being able to tell fairly early on that a particular session
will result in a loss.
Playing it in meatspace isn't the most enjoyable experience. I've never played
in meatspace but I can already tell how a session would go:
- Shuffle decks
- Deal cards
- Begin playing
- Acidentally get cards from different stacks mixed up because of how
unmanageable it is dealing with this many cards in this kind of configuration
- Give up
- Attempt to re-separate the decks
- Give up
- Set the house on fire
Alternatively:
- Shuffle decks
- Attempt to deal cards
- Realize you don't have enough room
- Give up
- Attempt to re-separate the decks
- Give up
- Set the house on fire
Suffice to say, this game is best played on a computer.
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