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Tri-areal Doublets

Posted By: Nack Ballard
Date: Friday, 22 March 2019, at 4:48 a.m.

In Response To: Lost Six-point Mystery (Bob Koca)

What does G signify in Nactation?

The short answer is "Glasses." However, a one-sentence answer fails to do it justice.

It was challenging to create a system that designates any possible doublet play with a single character. I'm not clever enough with html to reproduce the table here, but it first appears on page 95 of the Nactation tutorial (about 3/4 of the way through), and later on page 114.

There are four areas of movement: R (Run, anywhere on the far side), D (Down), J (Jump: from outer board to inner board), and Inside (within inner board). R, D, J and I, head the four columns of the table.

There are 35 different ways of combining these four areas. In 12 of the combinations, exactly three areas are involved (1 doublet portion in one area, 1 portion in another, and 2 portions in a third area). See page 108 for these "tri-areal" doublets.

All letters of the alphabet were assigned elsewhere in Nactation except for F, G, M and Y. After lengthy experimentation, it seemed best to use underlined RDJI for four of the areas, regular FGMY for four, and underlined FGMY for the last four. It works out quite nicely (see the pink-and-green subtable).

It is easy to remember the order of Run Down, Jump Inside, both visually on the board, and as a mnemonic. I created a separate mnemonic for FGMY, which is

.....Field Glasses Magnify Yosemite

If you read the explanation there on page 108, you'll see this FGMY mnemonic visually relates to Run Down, Jump Inside. As an extra memory aid, the F-word has one syllable, the G-word two syllables, the M word three syllables, and the Y word four syllables.

For example, "F" dictates that 2 doublets portions are played in the first (run) area. "G" dictates that 2 portions are played in the second (down) area.

There are many examples of tri-areal usage in that section of the tutorial for anyone who would like to become fluent.

Nack

Messages In This Thread

• Lost Six-point Mystery
  Nack Ballard -- Wednesday, 20 March 2019, at 2:15 a.m.
  • Lost Six-point Mystery
    Joe Russell -- Thursday, 21 March 2019, at 1:32 a.m.
  • Lost Six-point Mystery
    Nack Ballard -- Friday, 22 March 2019, at 3:21 a.m.
    • Lost Six-point Mystery -- SOLUTION posted above *NM*
      Nack Ballard -- Friday, 22 March 2019, at 3:22 a.m.
    • Lost Six-point Mystery
      Bob Koca -- Friday, 22 March 2019, at 3:27 a.m.
      • Tri-areal Doublets
        Nack Ballard -- Friday, 22 March 2019, at 4:48 a.m.