Twixt
October 26th, 2004I have been investigating Twixt recently. After being turned off by the over-seriousness and commitment required from Go, I have wanted to find a challenging abstract that would be easier to get into. Mikko mentioned he was experimenting with Twixt on Little Golem, so I thought it would be a good time to try.
Mikko managed to beat me in about five moves, so the first thing that struck me is how brutal Twixt is. One false move and it really is all over. My second impression was how difficult it is to plan any strategy, particularly when defending. Especially initially, Twixt has little clarity. I later tried it quickly, with paper and pencil, with a friend at work and we could not figure it out at all.
Luckily, I managed to find K2Z. Rather like the Kiseido Go Server, a nice program allows you to play in real-time. The program itself is slick. There is no install required, it is only 484 KB and it does all the basics well, including a reasonable AI for basic training. It also lets you play back old games, for self-study. There is even Java version for Windows fugitives.
Playing back a few games between experts let me discover some tactics. It is surprisingly like Go in terms of the thinking required. It is much faster to play and less dense, so hardcore Go players might not like it, but these are bonuses for me.
If you want a game, just instant message me and we can meet on K2Z.
November 5th, 2004 at 22:26
Hi there,
im pvs, i run the K2Z server. Thx a lot Iain for speaking about it. The best chance to find players is around 9pm european time. leave a message when you logout can help.
Not enough players yet, ti meet someone everytime.
There is a bot connected to entertain new players, the bot is weak, but it makes you wait for an human player
I share source code of the bot, i try to launch an open source movement for an AI playing TWIXT.
cya all
November 5th, 2004 at 22:38
Yes, Twixt is very sharp and brutal. On the standard 24×24 board, tactics play a much larger role than strategical planning, in my opinion. As you gain experience, you may find ways to rebound after a mistake, with confusing moves that might fool your opponent into letting you back into the game. But to gain this experience you need to play (and probably lose) a lot. It’s a sort of Catch-22 situation. You might also like Hex, which is similar to Twixt in terms of the game object, but very different in terms of play. The tactics are more monotonous, but the strategy is more important, and a game will tend to fill up a greater portion of the board.
November 7th, 2004 at 22:03
PVS: I only mentioned it because I really like the program. :o) It would be even better if you could progam a few more games, apart from Twixt, to run on it.
David: Thanks for the insights into Twixt. I’m actually playing a game of Hex at Little Golem. Are you Twixter at K2Z?
February 26th, 2008 at 16:24
[...] about wargames, sometimes Eurogames and now abstracts. The last time this happened it was Go and Twixt. Now it is Hex. For those of you that don’t know, the rules of Hex are incredibly simple. [...]