Standard Hazard Hand rules in Solitaire

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Nellistos
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:01 pm
Location: Greece

The optional solitaire hazard management rules in the official booklet seem to be vague.
I noticed that usually there are custom rules that dictate the behaviour of the hazard hand that go with each scenario,
( posted in the forums or in the official ICE books ).

Is there a standardized / accepted way to simulate hazard drawing and discarding?

Specifically:

1. What if a company does not move? Draw 0? Draw 2, treating that as a base?
rules wrote:During the movement/hazard phase, for each
company, you draw hazard cards equal to 2 plus twice the number of
hazard cards normally drawn for that site.
2. Except playing hazards in the most disadvantageous way, have there been other, less subjective and more deterministic rules to handle this automatically?
rules wrote:You should play the hazards in the fashion that is most disadvantageous for your companies.
3. End of M/H phase. What happens to the hazard hand and the cards that were not played?
Discarded? Reshuffled? The rules mention to save cards that require Doors of Night. Save them where?
Last edited by Nellistos on Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
Grishnakh
Posts: 197
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:08 pm

Very good questions about the solitaire variant.
I tried that several times and came to the same questions like Nellistos.

I couldn't answer them, so I stopped to play that solitaire variant and start to play with two decks at one time.
So I could test all my decks alone via one challange deck I knew well for example.
That's more like playing chess from both sites alone ;)

But may be some one can help us here with that questions to the solitaire vaiant???
So I can play that variant again in the future.

Cheers,
Heiko
Cheers,
Heiko / Grishnakh
Nellistos
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:01 pm
Location: Greece

I really want to try the game after so many years, but before presenting it to friends i need to have most of the rules, ( and i mean specific rules on cards - CoEs/CRFs- that are going to see some play ), in place .

Also be able to test some pre constructed casual decks from bunch of cards i have, ( not many ~140 cards ).

Solitaire is one way to do this.
But this:
Grishnakh wrote: That's more like playing chess from both sites alone ;)
is exactly how it feels for me too. So many decisions and outcomes. Of course this is good, showcasing the potential of playing the game as it was meant.
But in solitaire, i just can's split my brain and get over the bias when deciding to play hazards.

I am still thinking on how to overcome this, in combination of stream lining the solitaire ruleset of the official rules booklet.
So, i think there are two main issues, 1. Bias / AI 2. Streamlining.

1. Bias
This will always be an issue, unless every card is played in the order it was drawn no matter what, and as long as it has a valid target and applies to an existing situation. No room and no need for decisions here.

2. Stream lining
First step toward this would be to abstract the Hazard Hand. There is no hazard hand, only a hazard deck and a determined number of hazard cards that are to be played against each company during the M/H phase.
__________

Some ideas on the above two issues that i haven't tested yet, but i plan to.

Hazard Deck functions.
0. Setup a hazard deck normally, its size equal to resources.
1. There is no opponent or hazard hand, only a hazard deck, its discard pile and a temporary hazard stack of cards that is created for each company's M/H phase.
2. Whenever a card has to be drawn from the hazard deck, and the deck is empty, reshuffle the discard pile.
3. Whenever cards are drawn from the hazard deck, are drawn faced down and placed in order, to create a hazard stack.
4. Any hazards that were not playable against a company during the company's M/H phase and were set-aside, are shuffled back to the hazard deck in the end of the company's phase.

Movement Hazard Phase.
Repeat the following steps for each company.
0. At the start of each company's M/H phase draw face down from the Hazard deck a number of cards in order to create a hazard stack.
1. If the company does not move, draw cards equal to the black-box number.
2. If the company does move, draw cards equal to the sum of the numbers in both boxes, ( black and white ).
3. If a card has to be drawn and the deck is empty, reshuffle hazards' discard pile and start/resume drawing.
4. The face down cards drawn above, are now the hazard stack.
5. After the player has decided not to play any more cards and all chains-of-effects resolved, check the hazard stack.
6. If the hazard stack is empty, no more hazards can be played against this company. Shuffle any set-aside hazard cards, ( see 8 ), into the Hazard deck and priority is passed to the player.
7. If the hazard stack is not empty, reveal the top card.
6. If the revealed card is the last one in the stack, make a roll # and subtract from the result any unused general influence of the player. If the final result is greater than the roll # printed on the revealed card, draw another hazard card from the hazard deck and add it last, face down in the stack.
6.Play the revealed card if applicable.
7. If the revealed card is played, no other hazard cards may be played to this newly created chain-of-effects and its children. Priority is passed to player, until the chain resolves.
8. If the revealed card cannot be played, set it aside face down, creating a separate pile of set-aside cards.
9. Continue from 5.
Nellistos
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:01 pm
Location: Greece

Received The Wizards Companion book the other day, and the Solitaire rules variant,
work much better. There is a defined procedure on revealing and playing hazards in order,
without exhausting the hazard deck or having to overthink hazard's hand most optimal moves.

Will go with that.
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