Hello,
Tablut is a great game ! I feel it hard to understand at first, mostly because I needed to get clear with the objectives and ways to capture pawns/win the game ; unsimmetrical game is a bit harsh ; but by now I love it.
I'm sad that any tavern "champion" in "hard" challenge or any empire noble will be a trash at this game. After a few hours, I beat them 100% time (unless I make a stupid mistake)
Flaws :
1 ) The most frustrating one : AI doesn't react when your king is on the way to escape.
It happens about 50 or 60% of the time. My king pawn has got one way to escape (not two, in which case I would win anyway). My opponent has one or more pawns in good position, they could react and block me (at least slow me) but they won't do that. And, I win.
2 ) AI isn't aware enough of how they expose their pawns to danger. They act stupidly sometimes, as they could block me without exposing their pawns by just positioning them one tile less far.They have a tendency to close in, in an agressive manner which just leads them to death.
3 ) AI doesn't seem to understand the consequences of my moves.
When I plan a combo or something, they just don't react and attack somewhere else if the side I'm moving on is blocked for them. They don't retreat their pawns, they don't protect them, they don't counter me. (They sometimes do. But not near what would be needed for a "hard" AI.)
--- This sometimes leads to a loop, where AI puts its pawns in the same place each time, and I sistematically kill em. Fortunately, the limited number of pawns gives this loop a quick end. AI seems attracted by the king, and will often come closer to him than they should do.
I know these are clearly not critical issues, and Tablut would not be your priority for game development, as long as there are game-breaking issues, but I put this here.
By the way, it would be great to play Tablut in multiplayer, both for us and for you. We could have real opponents, and you could collect data from our tactics and behaviours at different levels of learning.
I have not tested Sturgians, Battanians nor Aserian board games so far, but Khuzait's one is great too ! I suspect dice randomness to be in favor of my opponent, but still it is enjoyable.
Thank you for these games
Tablut is a great game ! I feel it hard to understand at first, mostly because I needed to get clear with the objectives and ways to capture pawns/win the game ; unsimmetrical game is a bit harsh ; but by now I love it.
I'm sad that any tavern "champion" in "hard" challenge or any empire noble will be a trash at this game. After a few hours, I beat them 100% time (unless I make a stupid mistake)
Flaws :
1 ) The most frustrating one : AI doesn't react when your king is on the way to escape.
It happens about 50 or 60% of the time. My king pawn has got one way to escape (not two, in which case I would win anyway). My opponent has one or more pawns in good position, they could react and block me (at least slow me) but they won't do that. And, I win.
2 ) AI isn't aware enough of how they expose their pawns to danger. They act stupidly sometimes, as they could block me without exposing their pawns by just positioning them one tile less far.They have a tendency to close in, in an agressive manner which just leads them to death.
3 ) AI doesn't seem to understand the consequences of my moves.
When I plan a combo or something, they just don't react and attack somewhere else if the side I'm moving on is blocked for them. They don't retreat their pawns, they don't protect them, they don't counter me. (They sometimes do. But not near what would be needed for a "hard" AI.)
--- This sometimes leads to a loop, where AI puts its pawns in the same place each time, and I sistematically kill em. Fortunately, the limited number of pawns gives this loop a quick end. AI seems attracted by the king, and will often come closer to him than they should do.
I know these are clearly not critical issues, and Tablut would not be your priority for game development, as long as there are game-breaking issues, but I put this here.
By the way, it would be great to play Tablut in multiplayer, both for us and for you. We could have real opponents, and you could collect data from our tactics and behaviours at different levels of learning.
I have not tested Sturgians, Battanians nor Aserian board games so far, but Khuzait's one is great too ! I suspect dice randomness to be in favor of my opponent, but still it is enjoyable.
Thank you for these games
