Happy Meeple forum
Our games => Cartographers => Topic started by: Guy O. on 14/11/20, 06:09pm
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What is your best score with the Great City ? I've managed to do 36 points in my last game but I'm almost sure there is a way to do better.
(https://www.happymeeple.com/upload/game/game_4580756_254787.jpg)
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My best is 44
Trev
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Fwiw I think the best theoretical score is 85. Not that I have ever come close to that.
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I gave my simulator a few unbalanced draws and 68 is one of the highest scores so far. The theoretical max is pretty tricky, because there are only 19 red squares (did I do the math right?) in the deck for 19x4 = 76. I guess the other draws need to come from single red squares which is pretty hard, since you cannot easily cover up the ruins next to the mountains.
Since the 4 pieces with red on them already take up 7 time in each season, you will have spent 5 time after 3 pieces, and therefore only have room for 2 other pieces in the first season, and 1 additional piece in seasons 2 and 3 (each converted to a single red square through a ruin). That would make the theoretical max 80. I can't easily see how you can block all the ruins to accomplish this especially in season 1, so I think the theoretical max may be about 78.
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You have a simulator that lets you unbalance the draws? How did you make that? Or is it something someone can obtain somewhere?
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Yes, I wrote a simulator and simple AI for Cartographers as a hobby project. It can play a decent game against itself, and soon I'm hoping that I'll be able to play against it as well. It probably will never be released, although I'm exploring the possibility to release some part of it. Maybe it will encourage Happy Meeple to offer an AI opponent here too :)
Unbalancing the draws is relatively easy compared to writing the simulator. If you know about the board game, the deck consists of 17 cards: a single square, 10 regular pieces, 2 ruins, and 4 monsters. In this case, I just kept all 5 pieces that have red on them and the piece which is only yellow for the simulation. I drew cards from that deck following the standard rules.
I put Great City last among the scoring cards, and randomized the other scoring cards to see how high it would score against itself.
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45 for me but it was a D goal so I had time to build it.
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Can you unbalance more and get all the single square in each season ?
For max theoritical ;)
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Carl, I have not tried placing the shapes on map but I agree with your conclusion that the maximum number of red squares that can be placed in Spring is 19, using 0+1+2+2+2=7 time for the 5 cards with red and 1 (or 2, if drawn last) time for a card with no red. With no wasteland, the total for Summer would be the same. In the first two seasons, if the non-red shape is used to cover a ruin (and the rest of the ruins are covered with red shapes), the maximum number of red squares for Fall increases to 20, provided the non-red card is drawn after a ruin, allowing it to be used for a single red square. However, in Winter, I believe that the maximum is again 19 red squares (from the five red cards), as replacing any of the non-zero-time red cards with a non-red card would result in fewer red squares. Hence, my conclusion is that the theoretical max for Great City with a board with no wasteland (and 121-5-20=96 vacant squares that are not adjacent to mountains) is 19+19+20+19=77 red squares.
On the wastelands map (with 121-7-5-19=90 vacant squares that are not adjacent to mountains), I believe that the max is still 19+19+20+19=77 red squares because, although it is possible to cover 2 of the ruins squares with the same long red shape, a non-red card still has to be used (in both Spring and Summer) to cover the ruins that are adjacent to mountains.
In both cases, for simulation purposes, I would suggest that the non-red shape be the 2-square green shape (instead of the 2-square yellow one), since it can "block" 2 sides of the same mountain without any additional waste.
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I recently got my web UI working. 78 is possible like I suspected, and relies on blocking but not covering one of the ruin spaces.
Typing this made me realize 79 is possible as well, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader :)
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78 is possible like I suspected, and relies on blocking but not covering one of the ruin spaces.
Well done! I obviously missed the "blocking but not covering" option.
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Got 47 points for my great city
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That's a great great city!!!
Simply amazing!!!
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That was quite the commitment from the start! Way to go!
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I just reached 47 points as well - in edict D. Great luck in the last season to combine two branches through another two read pieces! :D
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Jo H with an amazing great city of 51