Setup and Rule Diagrams

[yenisey]

But is it realistic to make all those inferences that's shown on setup in 10 mins or ? It does require more time to infer all those inferences, as I believe

[Robert Carroll]

yenisey,

Yes! It's quite realistic, for three reasons:

1. Everything listed under "Cage Inferences" actually just involves application of the second rule to every pair of variables affected by that rule. Technically those are all inferences, but it doesn't take any real "work" to get them once you see that every such pair conflicts. So the only time you'll effectively take on that is physically writing them down!

2. The first inference under "Exhibit Rules/Inferences" is just what the third rule says, so it's not even an inference and thus can be written as soon as you see that rule.

3. The other inferences (and not many are left!) are reasonably standard inference you see in Grouping games in general, so, while they take some thought to discover, they aren't unique to this game. With practice in Grouping games, you'll be conditioned to want to look for inferences like these anyway.

In short, although the inferences in this game take up a lot of space, they aren't as time-consuming to discover as it at first might appear.

Robert Carroll

[gabe_katz)=_]

Hi,

I understand everything except the final inference. Would you mind explaining why goldfinches and lovebirds cannot be exhibited together?

Thanks!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Gabe,

At most two pairs of birds are exhibited together. If those two pairs are lovebirds and goldfinches, we know that the parakeets are all not exhibited and are all in cages. No two birds of the same type and gender can be caged together. We have three male parakeets, and each must be in a different cage from the other male parakeets. That would require three total cages, but we only have two. If the lovebirds and goldfinches are on exhibit, we'd have too many male parakeets to cage.

I think it can be a tricky inference to see, but one of my first steps in this game (after reading the scenario and rules) was to look for places where I couldn't make a pair. Since I know that the birds are always exhibited in pairs, I paid close attention to where the numbers were off. The goldfinches jumped out immediately as having uneven pairs. There would always be at least 1 female goldfinch in a cage. The other place where I saw the mismatch was in the parakeets. I first noted that there would always be at least 1 male in a cage, but then realized the second issue---there were more male parakeets than there were cages. So there is always a pair of parakeets, and at least one male parakeet in a cage.

As a general comment, number and distribution issues can be the hardest to train yourself to spot up front. Whenever you see a game like this with a numerical component, I recommend treating the numerical idea as an explicit check for drawing inferences. Before looking at the questions and deciding if your set up is complete, see if there are any inferences you can make based on the numerical restrictions. I will tell you that even after over a decade of doing this, I have a process that I use for games where I explicitly check for number issues. Every time. Even if I don't see a numbers issue up front. If there's no numerical issue, it's easy enough to write it's a 1-1 game, but by forcing myself to check every game, I know I won't miss an issue if it's there.

Hope that helps!

[glascock]

Hi, I think I'm misreading something or not making an inference correctly. Why is it that the birds have to be displayed with the same kind (ie why is it always a pair of parakeets that has to be displayed?). Couldn't Q be displayed with N? I get why one male parakeet has to be displayed, but why does that have to correspond to a female parakeet also being in the exhibition? Thanks!

[katehos]

Hi glascock, thank you for your question!

The reason why Q cannot be displayed with N alone is because of the first sentence stating that "the breeder exhibits pairs of birds consisting of one male and one female of the same kind." So, we know that a male parakeet has to correspond with a female parakeet in the exhibition!

I hope this helps
Kate

[akreimerman1]

Hi,

I do not understand why it is an inference that G can never be with M, or that H,J,K <+> M,N. When in the rules can this be inferenced?

Thank you.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi A,

We moved your question to the main discussion page for this game--all games have discussion sections based on the game date--and if you read the explanation on the first page of this thread that will hopefully answer all your questions

Thanks!