116/126/226/155/156/166 axis and engines

[Romain672]

Hello,
Here is a general question which causes me lots of problems. Let's said your first dice was close to mandatory, and you are left with those dices.

No dice has been played on axis and engines, your teammate has 3 dices left. Axis is neutral.
You must advance one and sum to actually 5~8.

How are you playing this?
Should you play an early axis? An early engine? Play your duplicate dice somewhere else and leave the priority to your teammate?

Thanks.

[euklid314]

In general, if I am inflexible at axis (say I have 116) then I play axis (i.e., axis 1) as early as possible so that my (co)pilot can adapt.

If my (co)pilot has not played axis before me than I assume that he both has low and high numbers (i.e. 2+5) and can react either way.

[Romain672]

Those dices are weird because you are flexible, but you need your teammate to play first.
And if they don't, you are not flexible anymore.

So I guess you should just play axis/engine at your second dice with those, and I should think of those dices as 'mostly non flexible'.

[euklid314]

If you can play elsewhere and still keep one high and one low number you probably should do so.

But in the situation you described you need to be flexible both in axis and thrust (sum 5-8, in your example). I believe it is more dangerous to wait with both axis and thrust (because your partner does not know you have kept exactly one low and one high number).

If you signal him, e.g., on axis what he will need to put there he/she can put their spare number on thrust (or vice versa if you began on thrust they can respond on axis).

Leaving both axis and thrust for the last 4 dice (shared) is always risky...

[Edit:] After rereading your first post and thinking again I would start with a 1 or 2 on thrust in case of 116, 126, 226 and a 5 on thrust in case of 155 and 156. And I would put a 6 on axis in case of 166. I would rather not wait with both my last dice...