On Ingo Althofer's games site

http://www.3-hirn-verlag.de/games.html

I found 'Big Balls', a new game with similarities to EWN but with the interesting extension of choosing between stochastic (roll die and move pieces like in EWN) and deterministic (move big balls) play.

@Ingo: Is it right, that the numbered pieces can't capture/remove a big ball?

Hello Telestes,

first of all my congratulations for winning

the third Championship in Ewn!

Taking into consideration how much energy some

other participants invested to win this tournament

you can be really proud of your success.

Now on Big Balls:

> @Ingo: Is it right, that the numbered pieces

> can't capture/remove a big ball?

No.

All captures are allowed, except for balls vs balls.

So:

Black stone may capture white stone or black stone or big ball.

White stone may capture white stone or black stone or big ball.

Big ball may capture white stone or black stone, but not another

big ball.

Of course, all these pieces are alloed to move to free squares.

Ingo.

PS: In my eyes “BigBalls” is some classes more complicate to

master than Ewn. (So, when played on a game server, the rating

differences in BigBalls should be clearly larger than in Ewn.)

Hello Ingo!

Thank you for your congratulations. Yes, I'm really proud to be the 3rd EWN champion on Little Golem. But I know, that my victory in a field of very skilled players was only possible with sufficient luck. So it will be hard (or nearly impossible) to defeat the title next time. We'll see :)

Big Balls looks very promising to me, as I like the move mechanics of EWN and the neutral balls should be a good deterministic extension to form an interesting new board game.

Is there any chance that Big Balls will be playable online in the near future?

Ingo, have you ever tried to setup and play Ewn with one neutral stone in each neutral corner?

Telestes wrote:

> Is there any chance that Big Balls will be playable

> online in the near future?

When there is (enough) interest, I am

willing to give a license.

> have you ever tried to setup and play Ewn with

> one neutral stone in each neutral corner?

Not exactly with this setup, but with 3+3 neutral balls

in the empty corners of a 6x6-board.

One main reason for designing BigBalls as it is

was a fundamental rule of business: A new product

has to be sufficiently different from known products

to find its place in market. Differences here are

given by triangle board (instead of square); the

mechanism with choice between deterministic ball

move and probabilistic stone move; and identical

target square for both players.

Ingo.

Rules and a sample game for BigBalls

may now be found on the site

http://www.3-hirn-verlag.de/bigballs.html

Ingo.

Excellent, Ingo. Looks quick and fun.

Thanks Ingo for the site and additional informations about BigBalls.

1) On the board picture: g2 should be f2

2) I think in the sample game Black should better play 9.BBa5-a4 to clear line 'a' soon and win the game because of better mobility and BBs on White's side.

3) Moving BBa7 to the opponents side seems to be a key play in BigBalls - isn't it?

4) After playing 5 BigBalls games on a piece of paper, I miss the amount of contact between black and white pieces like in Ewn. Moving the BigBalls first seems to be necessary to clear the direct line to a7 as quick as possible.

Thanks to Phil and Telestes for the feedback.

Telestes wrote:

> 1) On the board picture: g2 should be f2

Is repaired.

> 2) I think in the sample game Black should better

> play 9.BBa5-a4 to clear line 'a' soon and win the

> game because of better mobility and BBs on White's side.

This move did not come to my mind during the

“construction” of the sample game. But indeed,

it seems to be much better. When White continues by

capturing the black 5 in move 10, then black 4

becomes very mobile, and likely Black can start

a home run immediately.

> 3) Moving BBa7 to the opponents side seems to be

> a key play in BigBalls - isn't it?

Right.

> 4) After playing 5 BigBalls games on a piece of paper,

> I miss the amount of contact between black and

> white pieces like in Ewn.

Yes, it is indeed mostly indirect contact via the

big balls. More EinStein feeling may come in when

the rules are modified slightly: Instead of joint

target hollow on a7 the targets may be shifted to

the opponents borders: for instance

\* target b6 for Black and target a6 for White

or

\* target c5 for Black and target a5 for White

or

\* target d4 for Black and target a4 for White…

> Moving the BigBalls first seems to be necessary

> to clear the direct line to a7 as quick as possible.

Maybe, but I am not so sure. Perhaps, it is a good strategy

to directly rush upward with own stones. When the opponent

takes the time to capture them with balls, this increases

the mobility of the “rushing player” - and - the opponent did

not make own progress in his capturing move(s).

I think, it will take “some” time to fully understand the

subtlities of BigBalls.

Ingo.

> Instead of joint target hollow on a7

> the targets may be shifted to the

> opponents borders: for instance

> target b6 for Black and target a6 for White

> or …

I would suggest playing it on a pentagon.

Maybe I'll find time to give it a try.