Play the commed color!

[Bentre]

This is a plea to everyone reading this: when in doubt, just play the commed color.

An unwillingness to play the commed color has resulted in so many mission losses that I’ve seen. And I’m not just talking about new players, it’s a regular occurrence to sit down at a table with all experts/masters, and have multiple players decline to play the commed color. Like, playerA will comm y8 high to do their task, I’ll lead my lone y5, playerB will take it with the y9, and then we spend the next five tricks passing the lead between playerB, playerC, and me with none of us leading yellow. After everyone has failed to lead yellow I assume playerA has all remaining yellows, but then (once it gets down to the last few tricks and I’m stuck in the lead) I see playerB and playerC each dump a yellow onto my subs. Why??

That’s the most egregious scenario, where there’s no justification at all for failing to play the commed color. Some other examples of things I don’t think people realize are bad plays:

#1
Tasks (all to one player):
- Win a trick with a 6
- Win the p5 and y6
Comm:
- b7 high
We lead blue once, then the person who took the trick with the b9 comms a solo b8 and dumps the lead to green. We play a few more tricks, the b7 player eventually takes the lead and plays b3, getting rid of the b8. The b8 player dumps the lead again, we play a few more tricks, but the b7 player is unable to take the lead again before someone only has subs left. When the b8 player decides to not lead the b8, they’re forcing the b7 player to take the lead twice instead of once, which burns so much time.

#2
Tasks (all to one player):
- Win a trick that has as many yellow as pink
- Win more pink than green
Comm:
- b9 high
Someone plays out their g689, emptying green, presumably because of “win more pink than green”, before dumping to blue. This inevitably makes “win a trick that has as many yellow as pink” impossible - when the last blue card is led, it needs 1 yellow 1 pink and 1 green on it.

#3
Tasks (all to one player):
- Win a trick with all odds
- Win no yellow
Comm:
- b9 high
Someone thinks it’s helpful to take the lead and play out their y4789, and by the time we get to the third blue trick which would have all odds, commander only has subs left. At the start of this mission, we were in a situation where the b9 player couldn’t win any of the last four tricks (because they will all have yellow) and also wouldn’t be able to win any of the last three tricks (because they will all have subs). It was transformed into a situation where the b9 player can’t win any of tricks 2-5 (because they all have yellow) or any of the last three tricks (because they all have subs).

Of course there are exceptions, but they are easier to realize (e.g. someone gives a problem comm, or someone else has a task that needs to be completed before playing the commed color). “I’m not sure what will happen if I lead the commed color” is not a good excuse. Thinking like that will turn ten won games into a loss, for every lost game turned into a win.

[Romain672]

Yeah I agree with your conclusion, I just wanted to said the same thing

#1
Tasks (all to one player):
- Win a trick with a 6
- Win the p5 and y6
Comm:
- b7 high
We lead blue once, then the person who took the trick with the b9 comms a solo b8 and dumps the lead to green. We play a few more tricks, the b7 player eventually takes the lead and plays b3, getting rid of the b8. The b8 player dumps the lead again, we play a few more tricks, but the b7 player is unable to take the lead again before someone only has subs left. When the b8 player decides to not lead the b8, they’re forcing the b7 player to take the lead twice instead of once, which burns so much time.

There is something interesting here. Let's list all situations:
a) that player made a mistake (you could dismiss it if you want)
b) that player got 1 green
c) that player got 2 greens, 2 yellows, 2 pinks
d) that player got 1 yellow (or 1 pink, it's the same)
e) that player got no yellow (or no pink, it's the same)
f) that player got no sub

In situation b) I like to comm green and lead green. That really insist something is wrong, and since you show that you got a single green, the only way it could goes wrong is if g9 is solo, which is unlikely (6% before picking tasks).
In situation c), I would just play b8. Going for 3 greens look weird, and got similar risk with blue. And the chance of losing g6 for one of the task look really bad.
In situation d), I think depending of the situation I could comm my solo yellow, then wait. And then depending of the turn order, and which players got their comm available, I would play yellow if it's without risk.
In situation e), comm b8 and play green look fine to me. I still don't like it in that specific case because of losing the potential 6s and playing blue look much simpler. And those tasks are pretty easy, it's not in epilogue or in high missions, where being able to do something else and discard b8 and make multiple players be able to lead blue can be good.
In situation f), if commander have those tasks, the problem is that if commander got two subs, they should start with it. So that mean that one of the two others players got two subs. Same than with e), since the mission is easy and losing 6s is costly, that look really bad.

#2
Tasks (all to one player):
- Win a trick that has as many yellow as pink
- Win more pink than green
Comm:
- b9 high
Someone plays out their g689, emptying green, presumably because of “win more pink than green”, before dumping to blue. This inevitably makes “win a trick that has as many yellow as pink” impossible - when the last blue card is led, it needs 1 yellow 1 pink and 1 green on it.

Playing an unrelated color with only 3 cards of it is usually bad. With 4 cards, I like to propose that option with an high comm. With 5+ cards, I would usually goes for it.
I think here, I would with 5+ greens, I play it at least once to see what's going on. And if 3+ players played green included the holder of those tasks, I would play it a second time, and most likely a third time. Then play blue.

#3
Tasks (all to one player):
- Win a trick with all odds
- Win no yellow
Comm:
- b9 high
Someone thinks it’s helpful to take the lead and play out their y4789, and by the time we get to the third blue trick which would have all odds, commander only has subs left. At the start of this mission, we were in a situation where the b9 player couldn’t win any of the last four tricks (because they will all have yellow) and also wouldn’t be able to win any of the last three tricks (because they will all have subs). It was transformed into a situation where the b9 player can’t win any of tricks 2-5 (because they all have yellow) or any of the last three tricks (because they all have subs).

My first instinct was that playing yellow look pretty nice, especially if you got the 9. And after reading your post, I disagree here.
You are saying though that they are taking lead, which can be bad.
There is many things going on here, and many plays available:
a) Commander should start subs after the comm. That make everyone be able to discard their even, and keep one blue (even if it's an even one, except if commander commed blue). Exception is if commander got only 2+ even blues.
b) The player with 4+ yellow should imo comm high yellow turn 1 to propose to start yellow, and that will show they got y9 which is a nice way for everyone to discard their blue even. Exception is if that player got only 2+ even blues.
c) If someone got only 3+ even blues, they should comm a way to discard them, that can be complicated so I will not develop. But easiest one is like g5 solo comm.
d) when someone got only one odd left, they should comm it.
So on your game, it look like another color has been played, then the yellow players played 4 times in yellow (which is weird, after 3 plays in yellow, they should look at what has been discarded, and sometimes just goes to blues earlier). Note that playing yellow a forth time should have been subbed by the commander if they got one blue. If they got one missing sub and not the lowest, they could sub and lead sub again if they got no blue.
That shouldn't goes wrongly. I think the most probable thing is that in yellow everyone dumped their last blue, and so they were left with no way of leading blue which is very bad (maybe someone got b2 solo, which incentive them to discard it even if it's usually bad).
But with all that, you got lots of ways to manage all the things which can goes wrong.
Going yellow first is the strongest line in epilogue with those kind of tasks. But that's epilogue, there is lots of others problems at the same time. On that one, that shouldn't goes wrong.