• Basics - level 1

    Version française ici.

    Apart from discard order, all the advice in the following "basics" articles come with all due "in general", "most of the time", "unless..." disclaimers. They should not be followed blindly, since specific situations will sometimes encourage you to depart from them. The most important thing is that you understand the reasons behind them, in order to use them wisely.*

    Remember: situation is everything and always comes first.

    *"Science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul." F. Rabelais

     

    #1 Discard order

    During the game, you will find out (perhaps because of others doing it) it is not a good idea to discard a card you have just drawn and it is not a good idea either to hold a card for the whole game (this card may be useless and you trash other good cards instead). Therefore, it is best to discard your oldest unclued card first and your newest unclued card last. An easy way to do this is by placing any cards you draw on one end of your hand and discarding to the other end (called the chopping block, or chop), shifting all your cards one place towards the chop every time you draw a new one. If you decide your chop is on your right, your teammates will probably expect you to discard from the right all the time, even at the beginning of the next game, although there is no such thing as card age on starting hands. Don't confuse them.

    #2 Don't waste clues

    Because they are so rare, clues are very precious in Hanabi and you can't afford to waste them. If you waste them, you may be left with none when you really need them. Clues should be used for two purposes – saving cards for later or getting them played. For example, cluing 4s at the beginning of the game is useless, because 4s won't be played for a long time. However, cluing 5s in early game is fine, because there is only one 5 per suit.

    Discard clues should be banned for now (later, we'll see when and how they may be useful).

    #3 Don't discard clued cards

    Because clues are so rare and precious in Hanabi, if a clue was given to you, it must be because the clued cards are important. Therefore, if you are unsure, hold on to your clued cards until further notice.

    #4 Don't play blindly

    If a clue targets several cards in your hand and you are not sure which one of these cards is playable, don't play at random. Your teammates may just need more time to give you more information about these cards. If they tell you nothing more, just hold these cards until further notice. Remember, with just 3 misplays you lose the game.

    #5 No duplicates

    As already said, don’t waste clues! If John has a card he knows something about and you want it played, don't clue someone else about the same card. Better clue John about it again so that he has full information and plays it.

    #6 Single-card clue

    Most of the time, if you are given a clue that targets a single card, it means you should play it. If not, your partner might not have spent a precious clue.

    Similarly, if a clue to you hits cards you had partial information about + one other card, and the former are not identified as playable, then it is very likely the newly clued card is playable.

    Example: R1 is in play. Your hand looks like x x x x 5
    You receive a red clue —> x R x x R5
    R5 is not playable, so R must be R2.

    #7 Contents of the deck

    Each suit contains the following cards: 1 1 1 / 2 2 / 3 3 / 4 4 / 5

     

    Next: level 2

    « Levels of riskBasics - level 2 »

    Tags Tags :
  • Commentaires

    1
    ollyfish2002
    Mardi 12 Mai 2015 à 15:38

    I would had 3 comments on your basics:

    save before play.

    play before clue.

    discard if you have nothing to play or save.

    What do you think ?

    2
    Mardi 12 Mai 2015 à 15:44

    I would raise your points to level 2 or 3.

    And I disagree with "play before cluing", but this point will match a higher level as well.

    3
    spressi
    Mercredi 18 Septembre 2019 à 12:49
    I would rephrase "#6 Single-card clue" since it could as well be a save clue that just happens to hit just a single card. Something like "unless the clued card would have been discarded in your next turn". (I guess premature saves will be higher level)
      • Mercredi 18 Septembre 2019 à 20:43

        I kept the particular treatment of chop clues for higher levels (#16).

    • Nom / Pseudo :

      E-mail (facultatif) :

      Site Web (facultatif) :

      Commentaire :


    4
    Dimanche 10 Mars à 06:35
    It's nearly impossible to find knowledgeable peolle about this topic, but you seem like yyou know what you're talking about! Thanks
      • Mercredi 20 Mars à 16:52

        I try my best, thanks. What topic exactly?

    Suivre le flux RSS des commentaires


    Ajouter un commentaire

    Nom / Pseudo :

    E-mail (facultatif) :

    Site Web (facultatif) :

    Commentaire :