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The history of elimination games - Printable Version

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The history of elimination games - Michael - 03-11-2021

It seems to me that there are no traditional games of elimination that are guaranteed to end with only pieces of one player on the board. That is, there is no finite and drawless traditional game in which the only way to win is to end up as the only player with pieces on the board. Can this really be the case? I think there were no such game before Mark Steere made Tanbo, and he has made many since (Oust and Zola are two excellent examples in the Ludii repository).

I'd love to hear if I'm wrong about this. I'm also interested in edge cases. If there, for example, is a mancala game that is guaranteed to end with the winner having all seeds in their houses, or a card game that must end with one player having all the cards, that would also be interesting to hear about.


RE: The history of elimination games - cambolbro - 03-11-2021

Hi Micheal,

It turns that there might be several, especially in the hunt game category.

If you go to our Concepts page (https://ludii.games/searchConcepts.php) and click on concept "3.3.3.3.1 No Piece" you'll see the list of games in our database that involve a "no piece" test for at least one player. This won't always be the winning condition, but I think it is for most cases.

Here is the list: https://ludii.games/library.php?conceptName=221&conceptValue=_

Interestingly, they are almost all modern games, and the few ancient or mediaeval ones we have are reconstructions with uncertain rule sets! And I don't know if any of these games actually guarantee convergence to complete elimination, of whether it is is just a condition and up to the players to achieve it.

Regards,
Cameron


RE: The history of elimination games - Michael - 03-11-2021

(03-11-2021, 08:06 AM)cambolbro Wrote: I don't know if any of these games actually guarantee convergence to complete elimination, of whether it is is just a condition and up to the players to achieve it.
Thanks for the search tip! Regarding the quoted bit. The guarantee is kind of the main point. Traditional elimination games often cycle or have a stalemate goal, it seems. But I will look at some of the more promising entries in that list.

By the way, I don't think I have described the elimination games I have submitted in such a way that they end up in this list..


RE: The history of elimination games - Jacobjsdhfg - 12-21-2023

It's an intriguing observation about the absence of traditional elimination games that guarantee a single player with pieces on the board. The mention of Tanbo, Oust, and Zola as examples in the Ludii repository highlights the work of Mark Steere in creating such games.
drive mad 2