The kid and I went to visit Sister and BIL this evening and played some of the games I've been making the boards for. Sister put up a very good fight at Bridg-It but caved in when the pressure was on. BIL played like a 9 year old girl in a rugby league match.Then we moved to Hex where I thrashed both of them. Then in a game which still confuses me, BIL managed to beat me. I think it was a case of "LOOK! A Monkey!" I definitely thought I was safely connected to the edge when I wasn't. Hmm... so to prove it was a fluke I thrashed him again.
I found that I was much less confident playing Bridg-It, because although someone must win it wasn't clear how that was going to happen. It's the sort of game where you must not make a useless move, because if you do your alert opponent will gain a winning advantage. In Hex I look forward to learning what you're supposed to do when your opponent knows what they're doing. BIL will become good at it if I make him practise.
We also played Achi, which turned out to be disappointing. Many of the moves were forced, and often you could tell that you were forced to lose the game. It's right down there with Tic Tac Toe except that I don't know the winning strategy.
By the way, Bridg-It and Hex both strongly favour the person playing first. I think in all of our games the person playing second won.
