We received a total of 116 solutions to our second puzzle. All of them were formally correct due to the rigid checking of the result file during upload.
It took 3 weeks for the first solution with 100 victory points difference to arrive, which was then followed by steadily increasing results of two players plus a lot of entries in mid-field. These two player obviously had found a trick to beat the AI and were now optimizing their play.
Puzzle 2 was constructed in such a way that one was able to make a lot of points - that it would be that much is something we didn't expect! The important trick was to increase the number of turns, because if you make more victory points per turn than your opponent you are steadily increasing the VP difference with every turn.
But how do you increase the number of turns in the game, which usually ends due to the exhaustion of the buildings stack?
Well, for example by buying only a few green cards later in the game! Two players actually achieved to play 8 turns (about 10 players played 7 and most others 6 turns. Additionally, you take care that the opponent can buy only a few valuable buildings and by cleverly using the observatory you buy red upgraders to get the full nobels' bonus in the end!
You can explore the full solution by downloading the result file of the winner; you can use the UNDO/REDO buttons to scroll backward/forward to exactly examine each move played!
The second winner was drawn from a hat by Loredana on April 1st, 2005!
The winners of the 2nd WPG Sankt Petersburg Puzzle are:
|
Werner Gehringer from Austria (best result) and Jasen Robillard from Canada (lucky draw) |
Congratulations to both of you from all the Westpark Gamers and the crew from Hans im Glück!
