Why you need to be able to add links between two pegs already on the board
 
AuthorMessage
Peyrol
01 Nov 2016 4:03 PM
EDIT two years later.

Sorry, all my image links turned bad. I cannot post an image here directly, as far as I can tell.

Instead, I refer you to the thread
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1665337/why-you-need-be-able-link-between-pegs-yours-alrea
on the Boardgamegeek Twixt forum. There are six images there. I refer to them here as images 1 through 6. So, if you want to to discuss this topic, you could refer to them in the same way. Or, you could post a response in that thread instead. I will try to respond more quickly from now on.

Here is a variation from a game I recently played.
[image 1]
It is purple's turn. On this server, I could remove the H5-J6 link and then play i5 linking to H7:
[image 2]
But if I did that, yellow would win immediately with J4:
[image 3]
Under standard rules, the only way for purple to win is to place a peg at i5 and do *not* remove the H5-J6 link, do *not* add a link from H7 to i5 *on this move*.
[image 4]
yellow cannot prevent purple from adding the H7-i5 link later. Play might continue with yellow playing at K4 to prevent purple's double link from i5 to J6,
[image 5]
And now purple wins with -i5'/H'6K6 (using Alan Hensel's notation at http://www.ibiblio.org/twixtpuzzles/
[image 6]
But such a move is not possible on the TwixtLive server, because there is no way to add a link between two pegs already on the board.

Of course, this pales in comparison to the importance of adding the swap rule, but I thought I would mention it anyway.
TheGroom
30 May 2017 4:11 AM
if it were possible to add links like that, then the rule should be: immediately, any and all pegs that can be linked because of a line being removed should be linked, thus giving the opponent the ability to set up for a link in the event their opponent removes a link.  This would prevent a player from making 2 or more links in a single turn without the opponent being able to passively defend while not their turn.  The balance in TWIXT lies in the 1 dot / 1 link potential per turn.
Peyrol
30 Oct 2018 2:29 PM
TheGroom, I apologize for taking so long to respond. I am not sure what you are saying, exactly. So I hope you will look at the diagrams that are in the BGG thread which I link to above. Each move I show there is made according to the standard rules of Twixt, as specified in the Twixt Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TwixT

Are there any moves I show in the BGG thread that you disagree with? If you want to discuss in detail, it might be easier to do so in that forum, since I can post images there.

Are you proposing that the rules of Twixt should be different from the standard rules?

I'm particularly confused by your final statement:

"The balance in TWIXT lies in the 1 dot / 1 link potential per turn."

Are you saying no more than one link should be added on each turn? That can't be right, since you play here on TwixtLive, and this server allows multiple links added to a peg on a single turn. Could you please help me understand what you are saying?
 
 
 
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