Wednesday 19 September 2012

The Tsuro Challenge

Sam has left twenty-one games at my flat, ready to be collected on our way to the Big Weekend. One of them is Tsuro, and I started thinking about whether there could be a one-player version. Then I thought I could set up a start position and an end position, and see if I could get from one to the other.

An early failure

To that end, I decided to see if it was possible to guide four dragons from a square in the centre of the board, each to a different side of the board. Each dragon taking a turn, as if in a real game, and every square being used.

Success!

It took a few attempts, but in the end, I did it. And very happy I was with myself afterwards. Now, however, I keep thinking up new challenges for myself. Such as starting with four dragons as above, but guiding them each to the opposite side they started nearest. Or maybe longest possible route for two players at once, or maybe something with all eight dragons. Or is that crazy?

UPDATE: 20/09/2012

Since the game's just sitting there doing nothing, I thought I'd try a new challenge. This time, four dragons from a square on the board, each to a different side, but all of them passing through the same square at the same time! Red Arrows, eat your heart out!

The moment of extreme excitement!

Unfortunately, I couldn't quite pull it off. It was quite a lot of fun getting the dragons to syncronise like that, like real barnstormers of the early history of aviation. Shame I didn't manage to land them all safely, but there's always another day...

Oooh... so close!

9 comments:

  1. You need to post those single player variants on the geek - you'll get lots of thumbs.

    I could hardly call you crazy, since I've played castles of burgundy solo three times in the last week. It is the best solo game I've played - got my highest score yet last night, 191.

    Why don't we all just play games on our own on Tuesday night from now on - we can text in the scores...

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  2. Those pics are great. When I play Tsuro I'm so immersed in it (ie consumed by fear) that I forget how pretty the game is.

    If you want a change from Tsuro you could read the rules of Nautilus. I'll play that with ya! ;-P

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  3. Can you make a route that uses every single tile?

    You're still crazy though.

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  4. Yes. I just did it. It seems quite easy. But a real challenge would be to get that path to go through one tile four times (ie, use all of the routes on a tiles). Or maybe two tiles. Or more!

    I'm going to have to buy a copy when Sam takes his back. :/

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  5. There's a new version with Hokusai style wave artwork and ships instead I think...

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  6. Can't paste into comments from my phone, but it's called Tsuro of the Seas. Has a few extra bits and a bigger board, but you can play the original on it too. Looks quite pretty.

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  7. Oooh. Tsuro with monsters and dice. I like.

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  8. Wow! Imagine the one-player challenges you could come up with!

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