Board Game Arena

I really like this game, so simple rules and setup with emerging strategies.

However, I worry that there will be lots of ties between experienced players, like in chess. It's very good that Qawale is so short, only 8 rounds, but the consequence is that if you defend well, you'll get a tie even if you're unable to win.

Therefore, if it was mathematically impossible to have a tie, like in some other abstracts on here, Qawale would be even better.

• Perhaps it it had 9 rounds and a pie rule? Could still be a tie, of course.

• Perhaps it could work with some kind of tiebreaker, like most stones on top of stacks, most stones in a single stack, or most stones touching each other in the same stack?

I am sure the designers and developers at Gigamic tested all options before settling on the published version, but I also imagine that they might have decided to keep it simple to reach a mass market.

My favourite game from Gigamic is Quarto, and it has a similar issue, but it is more complex and thus it seems to be much more difficult to end up with a tie, especially with advanced rules.

Would love to get other opinions on this!

I was taken by surprise when I first tied. I hadn't read the rules carefully and just assumed that when your stck was gone, you would play from stacks of your color on the board, continuing to try to get 4 in a row. If tihere are no stacks with your color on to, you lose. But perhaps that can lead to unending games?

starman72 wrote: ↑03 August 2023, 03:33 I was taken by surprise when I first tied. I hadn't read the rules carefully and just assumed that when your stck was gone, you would play from stacks of your color on the board, continuing to try to get 4 in a row. If tihere are no stacks with your color on to, you lose. But perhaps that can lead to unending games?

This sounds like it could be a good option. Then again, like SimplicatusGames says, the designer probably has done a lot of testing prior to release.

I have surely been in a few games where I felt like the other player was in total control and deserved the victory, yet by defending it wasn't too hard to get that tie in the end.

About what percentage of games between experienced players are resulting in ties?