Any specific black powder strategies?

[littlejames]

I agree that keeping the chop 1 until further notice is the best move. If the 2 of the same colour comes up anywhere then we clue the 2.

[Wreckage]

I see this is a pretty old discussion, but here's a couple thoughts...
I've been playing a lot of 2p on difficult with BP on, and some of these ideas aren't as strong with 3+ players, but we've used them with 3-4 players occasionally as well.

First, we decided if bk5 can be clued it should always be clued first. if I give a 1 or 2 clue, and then come back with a 5 clue second turn, this is not a play on any of your original cards, it can only mean play if it's on a new card. This is only a rule with the starting hand. This solves the problem of not being able to save a 5 early which can really hurt if you also want to save other important cards between the 5 and chop.

Second, if a 1 clue hits multiple 1s, it is a play clue starting from the left and continuing until a re-clue of 1 stops us. This is even if the 1s clue touches chop. If we can see the bk1 in someone's hand then we play our ones from the right. This gives info that bk1 is on the table. A single 1 on chop is a save, anywhere else it's a play.

Note: this is on difficult, and although it's much harder to reach 30 points, each individual clue is easier and playing 1s from left to right doesn't have as many problems as in avalanche. This also works for us because we use a lot of blank clues to indicate saves and plays. For instance a multi clue, whether blank or not, means to play our chop card, so we know a single 1 on chop is indeed bk1, because if it is any other 1 we would give multi to have it played.

[smallman]

I fully agree with Ank on all matters. I do respect Travis, who is clearly a great player with great logic.

IMO playing 1's from the right is still the most logical, and only change this if someone gives you a repeated 1 clue or color info to stop.

This mainly comes down to it being the most efficient, as with only 1 black 1 in the deck of 70 cards, you wont have to spend extra clues on this very often and just some nice 1's played asap.

The other side of the coin is that if black 1 is on chop, we must save it with a 1 clue, so at first glance it would seem playing them from left now might be more logical, but with deeper thought, this should not trump the above point. So if its the 2nd turn and you are deciding which 1 to play, you just have to stall so there is time to warn you from playing your right 1.

Another valid reason is that there is a greater chance of being able to give a color clue to play 1's to stop them playing chop 1 first ie:
r1 m3 y2 bk1
but if bk1 m3 y2 r1 and your convention is to play 1's from the left you cant, and just allowing to lose r1 is also bad.