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best way to break simultaneous bid tie

14 replies [Last post]
Mon, 11/03/2014 - 10:45
NewbieDesigner
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I’m trying to figure out a way to break a tie in an environment with no turn order.

Say there are three players simultaneously bidding on two different cards. Player A bids on card #1 and no one else does (he wins it). Players B & C bid on card #2 but have the same amount of bidding strength. How best to break a tie? One solution is to have another value on the bidding cards that would break the tie. For example, there would be 30 bidding cards in the game each with a value of 1-30. If a tie happens, the higher number card would win. Any other ways you can think of? Thanks.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 12:11
#1
mongoosedog
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EASY!

HAMMERS!!!!

j/k if you have a bid order then that breaks it. If player B goes first then that player can bid up to their maximum and player C cannot out bid them if they have the same amount.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 12:24
#2
NewbieDesigner
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Yeah, I'm trying to avoid any

Yeah, I'm trying to avoid any sort of bid/turn order to reduce the fiddly factor.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 12:40
#3
mongoosedog
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It works pretty well :D

I would try and give it a shot to keep the rules to a minimum. It works well in other games if you want to look at it being implemented. I like the way Rex handles it, personally.

You can always have try out bid cards with additional values. I don't hate that idea. I mean Robo Rally is one of my favorite games and they use a method like that for determining play order for the cards.

You could make it first one to throw down a bid the opening bidder like a real auction. That kind of thing (while fun) can cause some serious arguments when it is close.

Also encase you are not familiar with Rex, here is the rules. The bidding rules are on page 9 at the top. Not sure if this style would fit in your game because it is a blind auction. It will work with cards face up as well with some tweaking.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/rex/support/Rex_Ruleboook_...

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 14:38
#4
NewbieDesigner
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Thanks, I checked out the

Thanks, I checked out the bidding rules but they would slow down the game too much.

I think the way to go might be to bid on the first choice of available cards instead of bidding on each card. So at the end of the round, the player who has bid the most gets first choice of available cards. The tie issue still exists but hopefully I can think of something for first choice of entire lot instead of each card. Let me know if you can think of something else.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 14:44
#5
mongoosedog
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without knowing more

Not knowing more about the game sort of limits my idea wagon. Is there a way to determine a lead player after each round. Highest count of something would work.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 15:27
#6
ruy343
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I agree

One of the things that keeps Power Grid interesting is how the player that is doing the best (in terms of city count) always has to go first on bidding for power plants, so they have to make their intentions known. It is a way to give the people at the back of the pack a chance to catch up. Similarly, if there's a simultaneous bid tie, you could let the person that is doing least well in the game have an advantage here.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 15:27
#7
kungfugeek
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tie token

An idea I've been wanting to try out is a tie-breaker token. It's given to one player at the start of the game. The holder of the token gets to decide how the next tie is broken. Here's the catch: after he breaks the tie, he has to give the tie token to the loser. So the loser of one tie gets to decide the next tie, and so on. If the next tie involves himself he can choose himself as the winner and give the tie token to his opponent, or he can choose himself as the loser and retain the tie token for a tie that might be more important.

It only works in 3+ player games, of course, and only in 2-way ties. So 3-way ties would still be a problem.

Hey, it's just an idea. :)

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 15:34
#8
truekid games
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You can give each player a

You can give each player a priority token (A, B, C). A beats B beats C, when tied. If you lose a tie, you swap tokens with the person you just tied with.

This prevents situations (like in kungfugeek's example) where you have to decide someone else's tie, and lose the token, and thus never get a real benefit from having lost at some point yourself.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 17:49
#9
Despot9
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Or to be particularly harsh,

Or to be particularly harsh, on ties no one gets the card. You have to outbid.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 22:03
#10
NewbieDesigner
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The hot potato ideas are

The hot potato ideas are clever but still a little fiddly.

Imagine that instead of military scoring, those cards in 7 Wonders were used to bid for a lot of cards (with powers or end game bonuses) that would get distributed at the end of each round. Everyone would get one card if they bid at least once and the first choice would go to the highest bidder, second choice to second highest bidder, etc.

Augustus breaks ties with the value on each card if you know that game. Still only thing I can think of.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 22:25
#11
Archimedes42
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Any Resources?

The easiest way of breaking a tie that I can think of would be whoever has more of a certain resource/item/card/whatever. The question is, are there any other factors that are already included in the game that players own and could compare? If so, I think that this is probably the easiest solution.

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Mon, 11/03/2014 - 23:23
#12
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Archimedes42 wrote:The

Archimedes42 wrote:
The easiest way of breaking a tie that I can think of would be whoever has more of a certain resource/item/card/whatever. The question is, are there any other factors that are already included in the game that players own and could compare? If so, I think that this is probably the easiest solution.

Yeah, I may tinker with one idea that is sort of a catch-up mechanic. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

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Tue, 11/04/2014 - 03:35
#13
firstcultural
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What's the broader context of

What's the broader context of the bidding? Perhaps offer an option for the tied players to make an additional bid?

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Wed, 11/05/2014 - 23:13
#14
Beggarking
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Roshambo! :) Why not a second

Roshambo! :)
Why not a second round of bidding with just the folks who tied?

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