Board Game Arena

Today I have played my last game of Veletas here on BGA. At least until the setup procedure is revisited by the designer & developer(s) and a change implemented. Currently Black has a *huge* advantage after setting up with the popular array of 3 shooters in or surrounding a corner and he can essentially force an early corner claim resulting in a strong and sustained initiative. White really has to struggle to equalize and even with middling play Black can usually cruise to victory. I think simply making a small shift from the current 3/4 procedure to 2/5 (Black places 2 shooters and then White places the remaining 5) would greatly alleviate this. Thoughts?

Hello,

If I correctly understand the rules I've read a while ago, the initial placement should meet the requirement that there is no row or column containing more than one shooter.

And I actually know that this point is not implemented!

bibi6 wrote: ↑08 September 2020, 17:31 If I correctly understand the rules I've read a while ago, the initial placement should meet the requirement that there is no row or column containing more than one shooter.

Sadly, you have missed the word 'adjacent' from the rules:

no shooters can be placed orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to any other

Anyhow, I note zugzwang's request, but will need to discuss this with the game designer before making any change to the implementation.

Thanks for the response! If the designer is open to feedback or to blessing a variation, an initial sequence similar to what is used in Ponte del Diavolo might also discourage this aggressive initial placement without changing the game too much. Instead of placing 4 shooters, white could choose to become black on the first turn.

I get the impression that a 2/5 initial placement might swing things too far in the opposite direction.

See here.