Tom Rosen: Patience Isn’t Always a Virtue

In gaming, as elsewhere in life, patience is normally a virtue. You don’t want to commit those meeples until you draw the right tile in Carcassonne. You want to save cards in the Commands & Colors series until they’ll be most effective. You have to time the playing of Bonus cards in Princes of Florence just right to maximize the value of your work.

In some games, however, patience doesn’t pay. In these games you’re given one – and only one – chance to use an ability that will give you the opportunity to decimate opponents, but if you use it too early, you might not maximize its potential. The often overlooked flip side of this equation is that if you wait too long, then you won’t get to use these abilities at all!

While the notion that you don’t want to jump the gun and use a strong single-use ability too early is widely recognized, the converse concept that you also need to avoid waiting to long and being too scared to pull the trigger is less frequently discussed. This generally overlooked potential problem embodies my usual approach to these opportunities. I treasure the potential of such abilities so much that I end up never finding the “perfect” opportunity to use them, often not using them at all – which has to be worse than using them too early. Now’s the perfect time to confess my sins in more detail…

• Ra – The 13 Sun

Since this phenomenon first manifested itself to me during a game of Reiner Knizia’s Ra, it’s known in my game group as the “13 Sun” (since we play three-player more often than not, and I’d even forgotten that larger suns existed until recently). Am I the only one who overvalues the 13 sun, holding it for an entire round rather than using it to scoop up a less-than-perfect collection of tiles, or are others prone to a similar display of excessive patience? (Consequently, I prefer to have the 11 or 12 sun if possible even though they’re empirically worse.)

• China – Fortification Tile

The second time this experience cropped up for me was with the fortification tile in Michael Schacht’s China, which nets you bonus points when played on a chain of buildings or for an area’s majority. In fact, I didn’t play this tile at all in any of my first few full games of China because I never could find the perfect time to play it! Obviously I lost all of those games horribly. I always wanted to use the fortification tile when it would count double for both a road and a region majority, but waiting for the perfect opportunity also meant waiting too long for any opportunity, which I learned the hard way...over and over again.

• Tigris & Euphrates – Catastrophe Tile

Reiner Knizia strikes again! I most frequently associate Ra‘s 13 sun and China‘s fortification tile with this phenomenon, but looking back over other games that I’ve played while thinking about this list, I realized that a surprisingly large number of games have abilities that fall into this category. Tigris & Euphrates was the first other game to come to mind because figuring out when to use those precious two catastrophe tiles to nuke a plot of land and sever empires is essential and extremely difficult. I usually worry that I’m “wasting” one and end up saving them for far too long – hopefully I’m not the only one.

• Blokus – The Single Square

An abstract makes the list. The single square piece in Blokus is your best chance to escape from being blocked in, but if you’re like me, you’ll have plenty of situations from which you need to escape because you’ll be getting blocked in far more frequently than you’d like. I don’t know how to do well in this game, but I can promise you this: You’re sure to not do well if you fail to eventually break out that single square piece.

• Shear Panic – Ewe Turn & Sheep Leap

Now we have an abstract in sheep’s clothing. The game’s rulebook even encourages you not to waste these two abilities, a warning that wasn’t necessary because I’m so miserly with single-shot abilities that I’d have been too hesitant to use them even if the rules hadn’t specifically pointed them out. Both the Ewe Turn and the Sheep Leap allow you to drastically modify the entire flock and the position of one of your sheep, respectively, and thus are not abilities to be used lightly. Although they are abilities be used at some time rather than hoarded until it’s too late and you’ve already locked up last place.

• El Grande – The 13 Power Card

Thirteen must indeed be unlucky as it makes another appearance on the list, this time in Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich’s El Grande. When you figure out that you really want a particular action card during one of the nine rounds of this game, it’s time to break out the invincible 13 power card and step to the front of the line – but since an even better action card could always pop up in the very next round, I’m never sure of myself when laying down the 13 card...never ever. Are you starting to sense a pattern here? Perhaps decisiveness is the key ingredient one needs to maximize these precious abilities, but not too much decisiveness; it’s a fine balancing act indeed.

• Settlers of Catan – The Monopoly Card

A classic example of patience doing you harm, and one of the classic blunders in Eurogaming!

Buying a development card in Catan and scoring a Monopoly card instead of the expected Knight (or Soldier if you’re playing the newer version) is a joyous occasion. The scarce resource may vary from game to game, but you know one of the five resources will be unbelievably scarce, so stealing from everyone else simultaneously – and not having to get lucky with the Robber to net one lousy card – is nice indeed…

Unless you’re like me and can never build up the nerve to commit and actually declare a Monopoly.

• Samurai – The Figure Swap Tile

The third game in Knizia’s trilogy of titles in which indecisive people do poorly because they can’t commit to pulling the trigger on the most important abilities. The Ronin tile is tricky to use well, but the figure swap tile takes the cake for me because it seems to have such incredible potential – if only I could figure out when to use it. I know you should be able to use the Figure Swap tile to both help yourself obtain a piece that you wouldn’t have otherwise and simultaneously hurt your opponent’s chances significantly at a different piece, but knowing isn’t quite the same as implementing unfortunately.

• Java – Extra Action Points & Special Tiles

Kramer shows up again, and this time my indecisiveness not only prevents me from using the special ability, but also from deciding which special ability to even list here! I have trouble using up not only all three bonus action points by the end of the game, but also I rarely use both of the single city tiles, all three of the single rice field tiles, and all five of the double tiles.

At the end of the game I’m usually stuck with a bonus action point or two and a handful of special tiles, knowing that if I’d managed to use them, I certainly would’ve garnered a few more points along the way. There are so many powerful pieces to use in this game –13 in all, meaning the number 13 rears its ugly head again – that I’ve just about given up trying to use them all in a single game of Java. I doubt I’ll ever be able to actually commit to using all of the special tiles, so I can only hope that the difference in points will be small enough that it won’t affect the result.

• Dune – Thumper, Cone of Silence, Weather Control, or Family Atomics

Another game in which I can’t for the life of me decide which item most belongs on this list. The Treachery deck in Dune includes such a plethora of amazing cards that I’m not even sure which one is the most difficult to figure out when to use. For example, it’s great to be able to control the weather and sweep the storm past hordes of your opponent’s armies, but it’s also no trifling matter to blow up the Shield Wall with atomic weapons. Any thoughts?

• Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation – The 5 or 6 Card

If you play me in this game, you can be pretty sure I won’t bust out the 5 card (if I’m Light) or 6 card (if I’m Dark) anytime in the first half of the game – and that will definitely be to your advantage!

• Nexus Ops – Scattered Rubium

I’m always sure I’ll have one more territory at the start of the next turn...but it never seems to work out that way, go figure.

• Kreta - Baumeister

Thirteen must really be unlucky as this is the 13th and final entry on the list, which includes both the 13 sun in Ra, the 13 power card in El Grande, and 13 chits in Java. The Fort and Village buildings in Kreta that the Baumeister allows you to build are so powerful that I never want to actually use them. This game kicks me when I’m down because not only are the Fort and Village more powerful (as they affect multiple regions and are worth double, respectively), but also they’re the only pieces that are fixed in place and can’t be moved later in the game. Getting me to commit a more powerful piece to a single position for an entire game is like pulling teeth. Anyone else hanging on to the Baumeister card far longer than they really ought to?

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In addition to the games discussed above, another sub-category of games are those that force players to balance patience against indecisiveness. Games such as Rudiger Dorn’s Arkadia and René Wiersma’s Gheos allow players to choose when to trigger scoring for themselves (unlike most games which involve scoring at predetermined intervals). While the freedom to decide for yourself when to score your progress in a game may seem like a blessing, it’s more like a curse for those of us who usually find ourselves having to use all of our scoring triggers in the final five minutes of the game. Learning to space out your scoring in games like these and avoid being either overly trigger-happy or overly patient is definitely a challenge, but it’s also one of the rather appealing aspects of this sub-category as it provides an additional layer of interesting and meaningful decision-making for players to wrestle with during the game.

What powerful abilities are you stuck with at the end of a game because you waited too long to use them?  I’ve confessed all my sins of patience, so it’s only fair that you provide ammunition for me to use against you!

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in a somewhat different form on Rosen’s NYC Gamer blog. Reprinted with permission.

© 2008 Tom Rosen

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Comments:

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The anomaly described by eric above is also prevalent in “Carcassonne: the Discovery”.  Waiting to pull up and score items doesn’t hurt points you have already gathered in this game, but not scoring and not placing a meeple on an earlier turn, can feel like a bad decision when you are scrambling to pull up and score your meeples in the last few turns.  If you don’t plan ahead you definitely get burned there.  And since I mentioned Carcassonne - waiting to place farmers can make it very difficult to build them in later, depending how savvy your opponents are.  Same thing with claiming River systems with Huts in “Hunters and Gatherers”. Also - as “Sheer Panic” was mentioned - I have never played more than a 2-player game.  If you do so, you must keep extra counters on an additional card to pull off and move the sheep counter along the fields.  It has never happened to me, but I can’t count how many times opponents have forgot about on on the card or didn’t use it...and I ended the game, leaving them with -2 points. The River transport card in “Horus” frequently goes unplaced in many games I have ran, even though it can tip the scales in a larger territory and steal significant points from under other players. that’s all i can think of for the moment. Posted by tom moughan on Aug 28, 2008 at 08:10 AM | #

Tom, just wanted to point out that the article is by Tom Rosen and not me. Good pick on Carcassonne: the Discovery – being able to pick your own scoring times adds to the woes of those who hmm and haw. Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Aug 28, 2008 at 08:19 AM | #

The Monopoly card in Settlers is particularly frustrating when you haven’t been paying attention and try to steal resources no one else has. D’oh! I have the same problem with the 13 tile in Ra, although I like to think I am a little better with the 13 card in El Grande. The catastrophe tiles in T&E don’t get used much, but that’s more because I forget I have them. I’m dumb like that. Of course, the game where you are pretty much ALWAYS making this choice is Ticket To Ride. I cannot count the number of times I have held off claiming a route, only to have it snatched up before my turn comes again. Posted by Nate Owens on Aug 28, 2008 at 09:23 AM | #

The thing about all of those games is that the power and strength of the card/tile depends entirely on using them at the right time. The effect can vary so wildly that not using the tiles / powers is actually not that bad. If you are looking at a definite gain of 2 points versus a 50% chance at a gain of 10 points, clearly you should wait. It is only in retrospect that your choice looks bad. Posted by Frank Branham on Aug 28, 2008 at 09:27 AM | #

Also not discussed yet is the domino effect of using a power card.  Best example for me is using a catastrophe card in E&T: contest of kings - and I am sure its relevant in the T&E (though scarily I don’t own this title) as well.  Once one player uses the card, ever other player is like “oh - I forgot to use that!” and seem to follow suit in an attempt to undo any damage to their stake in the game.  To this end, the player who takes the leap and uses his/her card first, is never the one who ends up on top in my experience...in fact, he/she most certainly ends up at the bottom of the pile up. the cost of doing business and taking a chance I guess! Posted by tom moughan on Aug 28, 2008 at 09:34 AM | #

The catastrophe tiles in T&E often go unused.  They can be effective when used right, but you are giving up at least one point to use it.  Not using it can frequently be the right choice. Similarly, since you get a bonus for using the one square tile on your last turn in Blokus, you are giving something up if you use it earlier in the game.  Sometimes it’s worth it, but sometimes it isn’t and using it earlier is not always the right move. Posted by S. Deniz Bucak on Aug 28, 2008 at 10:25 AM | #

I played “Oregon” for the first time a couple weeks ago, and I liked how it provided a way for your “joker” and “take another turn” tiles to be replenished. If it had been a one-off thing, it would have been agonizing. Posted by Nate Owens on Aug 28, 2008 at 10:55 AM | #

In many of my games of El Grande, there’s no problem waiting to use the 13.  Often the best time is on the last turn anyway, when you see exactly how the board looks and the penultimate scores, and have that final chance to affect them.  It’s such a good move that I often wait to play the “1” until the penultimate turn to insure that I’ll be able to play the 13.  Eventually, people I’ve played with all learned to hold back their 1’s as well!  Now the choice becomes - do you then play your 2 on the turn before that - to really insure that you can play the 13 at the end?  Or just forget about it? Posted by Jonathan Degann on Aug 28, 2008 at 10:58 AM | #

I frequently encounter the last round 13 standoff in El Grande as well.  (Followed by the “1” race, and so on...) In fact, I’ve taken to using the “13” on a mid scoring round to take better advantage of it.  The big problem here is that you will tend to be the leader and thus get picked on by everyone else for going ahead too soon. Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Aug 28, 2008 at 12:55 PM | #

I once played a game of Ra in which one person held on to the 13 sun for the entire game.  Needless to say, they didn’t win. Posted by David Goldfarb on Sep 1, 2008 at 09:15 PM | #

Thanks for the feedback everyone and for the suggestions of additional games that fit this mold.  I haven’t tried Carcassonne: The Discovery, but it sounds like it fits in with the likes of Arkadia and Gheos since you get to choose when to score, which definitely has a push-your-luck and rewarding decisiveness feel.  I’d forgotten about the extra counters in the 2-player version of Shear Panic, so thanks for pointing that out Tom Moughan, and also thanks for your point about the domino effect.  I’ve definitely also seen the same sort of thing happen with catastrophe tiles in Tigris where the first user loses in the end because their catastrophe could easily be countered, which is why I’ve been trying to work especially on placing catastrophe tiles in such a way that they can’t easily be reversed (usually slightly further out than they would be otherwise).  Frank - That’s a good point about a 50% chance at a 10-point gain being better than a definite 2-point gain, in terms of expected value, but I do think that seizing an opportunity that presents itself to use one of these types of abilities is an important skill to work on, at least for me.  It seems like the definite gain of using one of these in the middle of the game almost always greatly exceeds the gain from being forced to use them in the last couple turns just for the sake of using them, since the moment has passed.  But I suppose playing the odds is an important part of weighing when to bust them out.  David Goldfarb - Surprised that wasn’t me in the game, holding on to the 13 sun for the entire game is my specialty.  Lastly, as for Jonathan and Matt’s thoughts about the 13 card in El Grande, those are some interesting points that I hadn’t fully considered.  It’s an intriguing idea to use the 2 in round 7, so you can use the 1 in round 8, so you can use the 13 in round 9, but planning that far ahead seems like it could backfire.  It would seem better to be able to adjust your short-term tactical decisions based on the action cards available because sometimes one of them is just going to be so much better for you than the other four, such as a scoring card for the 4 regions, 5 regions, or 6/7 regions that really gives you a big boost.  Obviously you don’t want to get out to too big a lead by using the 13 at the beginning of the game, but hanging back can be a dangerous strategy since you don’t know when the next opportunity to score big will come around.  I dunno, but all this talk of El Grande makes me want to play it again soon, and maybe explore its expansions a bit as well.  Thanks again for everyone’s feedback and comments. Posted by Tom Rosen on Sep 17, 2008 at 12:04 PM | #

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