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  4. What's your Strategy?

What's your Strategy?

What's a strategy? A strategy is a plan for how to play a game. For example, in noughts and crosses your strategy might be to always make your mark on, or as close as possible to, the top left square.

Is every strategy a winning strategy? Definitely not, as you will soon find out when you use the above strategy in noughts and crosses. You might have a plan for how to play a game, but that doesn't necessarily mean you win. You might be lucky and win if your opponent doesn't play particularly well, but you might also lose.

A winning strategy is a plan for playing a game that means you win no matter what the other person does. Not all games have a winning strategy. In noughts and crosses, for example, the best you can do is draw. If you do win, then that's because your opponent hasn't played their best moves, not because you had a winning strategy.

The games on this site all have a winning strategy. Either the player who goes first, or the player who goes second has a way of playing the game that guarantees a win, no matter what their opponent does. Can you find it?

Comments

Submitted by Pragyesh Jain on Tue, 03/15/2016 - 19:13

you have to be the first to reach 1\4 to 11 and then the whatever move the opponent does makes win

Submitted by Jack Flower on Tue, 06/21/2016 - 21:45

How do you get to 11:45? The computer always gets to 9:30 then he wins!!!! So how do YOU get to 9:30? I keep thinking I get to 9:30 but then it appears that it's actually 8:30?!

Submitted by emp1001 on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 10:19

Thanks for your comment, which I think relates to our Approaching Midnight game. Have you seen what others have said about the game?

Submitted by Alex Ahumada on Thu, 05/12/2016 - 00:36

Very nice game, thanks for sharing. After a few tries, my daddy and I figured out that whoever gets to 18 loses, which means that whoever gets to 13 loses, and so on. The trick is to start with a 3 and then respond to your opponent by making his and your number equal five. He choses a 3, you chose a 2, and so on...
THANKS!!!

Submitted by emp1001 on Thu, 05/12/2016 - 08:15

It's good to hear you enjoyed one of our games, Alex. I think you are referring to Got It.

Have you tried changing the target number? Does your strategy still work?

Submitted by Donald Lowery on Wed, 05/18/2016 - 00:00

Winning strategy: every move you make must make the total=target modulo (range+1). Sometimes this is not possible, for example going first with target=25 and range=4 is impossible to win against the computer, since your first move would need to be +0, according to the formula. The computer opponent recognizes these impossible to win situations and responds by make a random decision from the available choices.

Submitted by emp1001 on Wed, 05/18/2016 - 08:06

Thanks for your comment Donald. I believe this relates to our Got It game. I notice you've tried Approaching Midnight too. Have you had a go at any of the other games in this pathway?

Submitted by Nathan on Mon, 06/20/2016 - 09:48

If you go to settings with your clock analog and set the starting time to 11, change the maximum step to 30 mins and the smallest step to 15 minutes start the game and press 15 mins then wait for your opponent to choose and no matter what you win

Submitted by Luna on Sat, 06/25/2016 - 22:41

You have to start at 7:00 then at your turn get 8:15 then 9:30 and to finish 10:45. You will win always.

Submitted by mf344 on Mon, 06/27/2016 - 07:00
Thanks Luna. It seems that this is a comment for the Approaching midnight game.

Submitted by Jonathan Gibson on Tue, 08/02/2016 - 22:15

Great game which has driven me crazy. With the help of a spreadsheet I somehow came to the conclusion that you had to ...

keep the computer 1hr and 15mins away forcing them to put you in charge. Hard to explain my strategy fully but the key times working backwards from midnight are 10:45, 09:30, 08:15 & 07:00.

Submitted by emp1001 on Tue, 08/09/2016 - 08:19

Thanks for your comment, Jonathan, which I believe relates to our Approaching Midnight game. I have hidden a bit of it under a 'reveal' button so that we don't give the game away for others. It's interesting to hear you used a spreadsheet. Are you able to tell us a bit more about that?

Submitted by Bubble J on Sat, 12/03/2016 - 10:26

Make sure you have the first go, and change the adding number to one. Play like this until you win! ^_^

Submitted by Charles on Thu, 01/12/2017 - 17:10

what's the formula?