Spielvariante finesse

[AndyKL]

Was genau ist damit gemeint? Welche Zusatzregeln gelten?

[MoiMagnus]

You can find its definition on the english Wiki on BGA. I copy the paragraph below, but in short it is the following convention:

Assume a 3 player game, where P1 is playing. There is no blue card in play, P3 has a "2" blue in hand that has to wait before being clued, but P2 just draw the "1" blue on their last turn, that that would be a good idea to clue the "1" blue then clue the "2" blue, right? But there is even better, making a finesse. A finesse is to clue the "2" blue immediately, and let P2 guess that they must have drawn the "1" blue recently (otherwise cluing the "2" blue make no sense), so P2 then play the last card they drew (trusting that this card they have no info on is the "1" blue), and P3 can play its "2" blue immediately after!
=> In a single clue, you indicated two valuable cards from two different players and made both of them play.

Obviously, the finesse convention only works if everyone knows it. If P2 doesn't know it, they think "that guy is crazy, the 2 blue cannot be played yet, let's clue something else" and even worst, if P2 doesn't play their "1" blue, P3 might wrongly think that their blue card is a "1" while it's actually a "2" and try to play it.

Copy-cat of the wiki:

CONVENTIONS

If you want to play "full information" style, meaning that you wait until you know both the colour and number of a card before you play it, you will likely be short on clue-tokens in >99% of the decks. The logical conclusion is, that you cannot play a full information style game, and the team must agree on some sort of convention. Meaning: a certain amount of meta-information is assigned to the clues.

Many players have different kinds of conventions. When different players in the same team assign different meta-information to the same clue, the game becomes unplayable. This is why the BGA table-settings give the option to set a table convention since the end of 2020. Please see this post started by Romain672. Ideally, all players adhere to the convention, to avoid miscommunication.

Below, the meta-information of several conventions is explained. In the examples, colours are indicated by their first letter : R - Red - , Y - Yellow - , G - Green - , B - Blue - , W - White - , M - Multi-colour - , P - black Powder - . For example, Y2 means the card with number 2 and colour yellow.

Standard convention

You can assume the following meta-information:

Every card that gets marked, will be playable at some point.
A card marked with a number, can be played when all "number-1" cards are played. (This is usually explained as: number-clues mean that these cards should be saved and played later on in the game. It is custom to play saved cards from oldest to newest.)
A colour-clue means that the newest, previously unmarked card, is the next playable card in the sequence.
The oldest, unmarked card is safe to discard. (Obviously, if a player has a card that he is sure he will never be able to play, for example a card on which is marked as blue when the blue pile has already been completed, such card must be discarded in priority.)

Clues you should avoid giving (bad clues):

Giving a clue that marks 0 new cards.
Give a clue that tells a lie (does not conform to the meta-information above).
As a special remark: don't mark useless, or duplicate cards. So if you have a saved 4, you are forbidden from marking 4s, unless you are sure you are not holding a copy of that 4.

Sometimes, a "bad" clue can't be avoided. For example, when you need to save a unique 3 (using a number-clue) to avoid it being discarded. But you accidentally mark a useless card. Or if you are forced to give a colour-clue from a flamboyant, and you use it to mark 0 new cards.

When a lie has been told, it needs to be corrected. A correction-clue can never mean "play", it can only mean "discard".

Example 1:

new -> old
P1: R1, Y1, G1, B1, W1
P2: R2, Y4, R3, B3, G5
P3: G4, Y1, R4, Y3, Y2

Table: R1, Y5, G1, B3, W4

It's P1's turn, and P2 knows his oldest card is 5. P1 will give R-clue to P2. This will tell P2, that the newest card is the next playable in the sequence (so must be R2), and that the other red can be R3, R4, or R5 (because it must be playable at some later point in the game).


Example 2:

new -> old
P1: R1, Y1, G1, B1, W1
P2: W5, Y4, R3, B3, G5
P3: W2, G4, Y1, R4, Y3

Table: R2, Y5, G1, B3, W4

It is P1's turn again, and P2 knows his oldest card is 5, and his middle card is R. P1 will give R-clue to P3. This will tell P3, that his middle card is the next playable in the sequence (so must be R4, because R3 is already marked). This will give P2 the meta-information that his saved red card, is R3. (This particular move is sometimes called prompting, and is a common way to allow a card that is saved by colour to get played without re-cluing it.)

Example 3:

new -> old
P1: R1, Y1, G1, B1, W1
P2: R3, Y4, R2, B3, G5
P3: G4, Y1, R4, Y3, Y2

Table: R1, Y5, G0, B3, W4

It is P1's turn, and P2 knows his middle card is 2. P1 will give R-clue to P2. This will tell P2 that his newest card is the next playable in the sequence (so must be R3, because R2 is now visible with 100% information).

Finesse

Finesse is a more complex version of the standard convention. In the finesse convention, the timing of the clue gives you extra information. You can assume the following meta-information:

Every card that gets marked, will be playable at some point.
If the oldest, unmarked card gets marked with a number-clue, then the clue meant "save this/these card(s)". (It is custom to play saved cards from oldest to newest when appropriate.)
A clue that doesn't mark the oldest card, means that the newest, previously unmarked card, is the next playable card in the sequence.
The oldest, unmarked card is safe to discard. (Obviously, if a player has a card that he is sure he will never be able to play, for example a card on which is marked as blue when the blue pile has already been completed, such card must be discarded in priority.)
If more than 1 person are able to give the same clue, then the last possible person should give that clue.
If a player gets skipped (P1 clues P3, instead of P2; then P2 is skipped), it means either:
The skipped player is forbidden from giving that clue; or
The skipped player has something to play.

Clues you should avoid giving (bad clues):

Giving a clue that marks 0 new cards.
Give a clue that tells a lie (does not conform to the meta-information above).
As a special remark: don't mark useless, or duplicate cards. So if you have a saved 4, you are forbidden from marking 4s, unless you are sure you are not holding a copy of that 4.

Special interpretation for play-clues:

When receiving a clue for the "next playable card in the sequence", the linking cards are not limited to already marked cards (like in standard convention). The newest, unmarked cards in every player's hand should be considered as well.

Example

new -> old
P1: ??, ??, ??, ??, ??
P2: B1, Y5, B3, W1, W2
P3: R5, R2, B2, G2, Y2

Table: R0, Y0, G0, B0, W0

P1 gives B-clue to P3. This gives the information that B2 is the next playable card in the sequence, and that P2 is either not allowed to give B-clue, or has something to play. Since P2 has no marked cards, he was not blocked from giving B-clue, so he must have something to play. This something, must be the missing link (B1, to enable B2) that makes B2 the next playable card. Since there is no logical (marked) card that could be B1, P2 must assume his newest, unmarked card is B1 and blind-plays this card.
Example of reversed finesse

new -> old
P1: ??, ??, ??, ??, ??
P2: R5, R2, B2, G2, Y2
P3: B1, Y5, B3, W1, W2

Table: R0, Y0, G0, B0, W0

P1 gives B-clue to P2. This gives the information that B2 is the next playable card in the sequence. P2 sees that the newest, unmarked card in the hand of P3 is of the same colour (blue) AND playable now. P2 concludes it is a finesse, with the players in reversed order, so his blue card must be B2.
Example of a bluff

new -> old
P1: ??, ??, ??, ??, ??
P2: W1, Y5, B3, W1, W2
P3: R5, R2, B2, G2, Y2

Table: R0, Y0, G0, B0, W0

P1 gives B-clue to P3. This gives the information that B2 is the next playable card in the sequence, and that P2 is either not allowed to give B-clue, or has something to play. Since P2 has no marked cards, he was not blocked from giving B-clue, so he must have something to play. This something, must be the missing link (B1, to enable B2) that makes B2 the next playable card. Since there is no logical (marked) card that could be B1, P2 must assume his newest, unmarked card is B1 and blind-plays this card.

However, at this point the "lie" is revealed (because the colour of the played card does NOT match the colour of the finesse-clue). The blind-played card is NOT B1, but W1. P3, upto this point, was thinking he had B1. The blind-play of P2 gives him extra information: his blue card is in fact B2.

[Romain672]

Obviously, the finesse convention only works if everyone knows it. If P2 doesn't know it, they think "that guy is crazy, the 2 blue cannot be played yet, let's clue something else" and even worst, if P2 doesn't play their "1" blue, P3 might wrongly think that their blue card is a "1" while it's actually a "2" and try to play it.

I think usually is P2 think to it, he will either understand it, or correct it by clueing P3 back.

Finesses from already clued card are enough simple to be done even with begginners.
Finesses from first finesse position (which are just not fully logical, just present in all sets of conventions i know except 1) are on the case above imo.