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BGonline.org Forums
chouette rotation
Posted By: Albert Steg In Response To: chouette rotation (Kevin McDonough)
Date: Sunday, 30 July 2017, at 5:40 p.m.
Like most people, I've played both variations, as well as the British 'last man standing' craziness, but I have never encountered a variation anyplace where the Captain gets to play twice in a row as Captain. I believe it's pretty much universal that if the Captain fails to become the Box, he goes back to the end of the line.
In Boston we play the simpler "winning player is the Box" rule. I like this because
1) It's really, really simple.
2) It doesn't come up that often anyhow. At least it shouldn't. Does this happen more than once in 20 games?
3) It doesn't punish the Captain for silly cube action by his teammates. (Say a steaming partner in a 3-handed chouette doubles early, gets beavered, and then gets cubed out for 4 pts, while the captain plays properly and wins a 2-bagger. Why should the Captain have to step out of the chair? If it's a larger chouette in particular, going to the end of the line after winning a game you've waited an hour to play -- and played 'properly' -- is a big drag.
Either variation will lead to some interesting 'tactical' thinking about cube action that I think is part of the fun of a chouette -- in our version, knowing some players will "take deep" in order to keep the box may lead the captain to hold off cubing. In the "show a profit" version, I suppose it might lead to perhaps some bad taking of even larger cubes in order to show a profit. I suspect that adherents of either rule prefer the kinds of 'weighted' decisions their own rule allows while disliking those that arise from the other variation. Because we like what we're used to.
Chloe, I still don't quite get that your preferred version " weigh[s] all cubes equally" -- everyone manages their own cube, so the equities involved in scoring the game are exactly the same in either variation. In the example I give in (3) above, wouldn't you have to say that the partner's cube "wielded more power" than the Captain's cube did?
All we're talking about is a convention for who gets to be box. It's not even true that for all players getting into the Box is an equity-positive proposition. Not everybody even likes being in the box.
But "When in Rome" is the right idea here. I'm happy to play by whatever the going rules are -- except for "last man standing," which I really do dislike because it can alter cube action so radically. Even there, I can live with it for the good company of our British friends once a year in Cyprus!
Albert
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