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Related Discussions
LG: Advice on when to split or not to split right away
Platinum
Member
I understand that splitting game boards is a good way to do up front work and go through the answers quickly, and splitting up the board helps most of the time. Also, I find that sometimes, there are more than six or seven questions where it is worth splitting up and getting several game boards, yet after doing several splits on some games for example: PT 26 section 1 game 1, I originally split the game into several boards, but I did much better when not automatically splitting the board and going through the questions without setting up the boards and which was more effective for me in getting the correct answers. I did make some errors in the original set up, but it took way too much time, yet setting up two or three boards on the fly for each question that required a deduction seemed to work out much better for me. Please advise on when is the best time to judge if it is more efficient to go straight into the questions, besides the amount of questions there are. Do any of you find any specific key identifiers that help you decide when you will split the game right away?
Comments
JY splits sooo frequently and in many cases that I wouldn't. A lot of the times I think a game is simple and can be finished in ~5 minutes by letting the questions lead you, but he'll split into 4 game boards and have it take ~8 minutes. I still like watching the videos to get insight, but I would never split during timed tests as frequently as he does.
I only really split when it's clear that there are 2-3 main game boards. Any more than that feels like it would suck up more time (but obviously that is dependent on the specific game). Even if you don't start out with splitting, answering the questions that give you an additional rule will allow you to come up with sample game boards that you can use to answer the more general questions. I feel like the point of splitting is to be able to answer the general questions more easily, not necessarily the pointed extra rule questions.
A clear indicator to me that you should split is a very long sequencing chain that occupies most of the game board. For example, a 4 piece sequencing chain in a 6 slot game.
In grouping games, you can split if there is an always apart bi-conditional that severely restricts the game into 2 separate game boards.
There aren't really hard and fast rules for splitting, and some people prefer splitting more than others. I'm definitely not someone who prefers splitting and I do pretty well on games without it. I think foolproofing many games will allow you to develop your own strategy and see when you prefer to split.
JY's rule of thumb is to split when there are less game boards than questions remaining (questions that give you an additional rule/guidance count less). If I'm not sure whether I should split, I take a look at the questions. If most of them are very open ended (no additional premises), that's an indication that I should split. If not, it may not be necessary.
Thank you for your advice.