Board Game Arena

Hello !

I've bought Pinguins a long time ago (15 years ?) and the rule for placing the pinguins at the beginning of the game was a serpentine method.

Player A : places 1 pinguin
Player B : places 1 pinguin
then
Player B places 1 p
Player A places 1 p
then
A
B

But, in the rules of BGA, player A ALWAYS chooses first, AND plays first !!
That's too much an advantage for the player A.
This should be repaired, I think;

While I do think A has an advantage, I'm not sure how to fix it.
By going last, B has advantage of knowing where to block off A. And if A get to place and then immediately move, they would block off two spaces without B reacting, a very powerful ability.

A compromise would be that B's last penguin could be placed _anywhere_ on the board, or at least on the 2-fish tiles, but as it is not in the official rules, I guess it's not available

RedSam wrote: ↑01 April 2026, 09:08 Hello !

I've bought Pinguins a long time ago (15 years ?) and the rule for placing the pinguins at the beginning of the game was a serpentine method.

Player A : places 1 pinguin
Player B : places 1 pinguin
then
Player B places 1 p
Player A places 1 p
then
A
B

But, in the rules of BGA, player A ALWAYS chooses first, AND plays first !!
That's too much an advantage for the player A.
This should be repaired, I think;

In my old German version from phalanx it's the same rule implemented here.

I'va just strarted a game, and something has changed. Now, Player B starts the game. I think it's better, but not optimal...

(when playing a 3 or 4 player-game, the serpentine is, IMHO, much more balanced than the one used these days).