Solving for as many boards as possible?

Martin01

When doing games, I like to attempt to solve as many probabilities as possible before going on to the questions. In short, spend time upfront in order to save time when answering questions.

However, after doing four or more boards, I begin to realize that there are too many probabilities to solve in order to complete the game in a good time.

My question is, are there any clues to look out for to help me not attempt to solve all probabilities?

How can you tell that it is not better to try to solve everything up front????

Cant Get Right

This is a great question. Sage Corey did a webinar on this very topic that would be worth checking out:

https://7sage.com/webinar/splitting-boards

For me, I tend to think of splitting more as a way to reduce my list of rules than anything else. If you use a rule to split, you can scratch out the rule and thus reduce the complexity of the information you have to apply to the board. Sometimes a rule just screams to split the board, other times you couldn’t use a rule to split if you tried. And then there’s a lot of grey. Start with the webinar, it’s a great resource to begin developing your own strategy for when to split or not.

stepharizona

For me, I found I could spend way too much time on boards, so I look for obvious splits and then move on to the questions. For me, this works. I also am always sure to use past question game boards to help answer additional questions (as long as new rules weren't introduced).

It helped me find a balance and become much faster at games.

hlsat180

@"Cant Get Right" said:
If you use a rule to split, you can scratch out the rule and thus reduce the complexity of the information you have to apply to the board

This, plus consider how your splits force in play more rules or variables (i.e., inferences!). Otherwise, if splits do nothing further then best to look elsewhere, or continue on.

GSU Hopeful

For me, it comes down to feel a large majority of the time. While not a hard and fast rule, I generally won't split if I will end up with more boards than questions. Its a fine balance to maintain a good speed while splitting versus proceeding to the questions and splitting with individual questions.