Advanced Linear Setup Practice Drill #5

[momgoingbacktoschool]

Hello,

Since this is an unbalanced game, would you recommend coming up with all of the possible numerical distributions for the paint color options when doing the initial game setup? This then leads me to wonder, is it possible to not use all of the paint colors? To me, the wording doesn't indicate that every paint color must be used. Am I misunderstanding it? For example, could a numerical distribution be 9-1-0-0?

Thank you!

[Adam Tyson]

Good questions, Mom! You're right that there is no requirement in that scenario to use all four colors, and it is possible to use just two of them, but a 9-1-0-0 distribution won't work because of the rule about the houses across from each other being different colors. That means using only two colors you would have to have 5 of one and 5 of the other to make sure all the paired houses (1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc.) were in different colors. Imagine, for example, all the houses on the west side are Blue, and all the ones on the east side are Green. If you wanted to change a blue house to a green one, you couldn't do it - that would put it across from another green house! Otherwise, good catch, and nice job not making an unwarranted assumption about having to use all four colors! It's bad assumptions like that that can destroy a game for you, so stay on your toes like that and you'll never have that problem.

[momgoingbacktoschool]

Good questions, Mom! You're right that there is no requirement in that scenario to use all four colors, and it is possible to use just two of them, but a 9-1-0-0 distribution won't work because of the rule about the houses across from each other being different colors. That means using only two colors you would have to have 5 of one and 5 of the other to make sure all the paired houses (1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc.) were in different colors. Imagine, for example, all the houses on the west side are Blue, and all the ones on the east side are Green. If you wanted to change a blue house to a green one, you couldn't do it - that would put it across from another green house! Otherwise, good catch, and nice job not making an unwarranted assumption about having to use all four colors! It's bad assumptions like that that can destroy a game for you, so stay on your toes like that and you'll never have that problem.

Thank you!