Well I've started playing my favorite game again recently, Scrabble.. Or more to the point computer scrabble and have been playing in the veteran level which isn't a really high level, but is enough of a challenge at the same time.. Letters are very important as with scrabble being a crossword game if you don't like letters, you're playing the wrong game.. But what I mean by the letters being important is that if they come at the wrong time you can be screwed.. Say for instance..
You get a tray with almost all I or you get the vowel full tray.. That's always fun.. I got I's up the yang and you not only can you not make any words to start the game, if you have either vowels only of consonants you are in the same boat either way.. Getting the Q early on is good for a good start, but the best time to get the Q is around the twenty tiles left mark, mostly because you can score better by then, but if you are the mindset that you can only use the Q if you have the U then you are stuck.. That isn't the only was to use the Q and after you learn this fact the better you will be.. I used to take chances with using the U just anytime, then if I got the Q later on I figured that would be ten points taken away from my final score.. NOT ANYMORE.. My least favorite tile to have towards the end of the game is the dreaded V.. In fact the V and C are my least favorite letters to have almost ever in the game.. Give me a J or K before a C or V... ANYDAY..
So I was playing a game the other night.. On the computer version I set the game to be fifteen minutes in full length, and 45 seconds per turn.. 45 seconds might seem like a way too short of a time, but when you get used to it, it seems like an eternity.. unless you are used to trying words out because you don't know what will give the bigger score.. I did that in the early going in non timed games.. After I learned the board I started to play timed games, and I learned the board really fast and extremely well.. Like the other night I was playing and had the lead early when the computer scored fairly large point totals and I was down by 70 points.. I felt like this was it.. I would lose yet again.. I have this goal of scoring 20 points per turn to have any chance at winning against the computer.. And this night wasn't happening.. I was getting six and nine and really feeling like this game was out of my hands.. And then the miracle happened.. I got the Q... There is a god.. Ok by the time I got the Q there was nowhere to place it as the Q U combo.. There are games out there that have the QU as a single set letter thing (Boggle comes to mind) and that would screw me out of the ability to play the word that would get me from being down by 70, to getting back in the game.. A two letter word placing the Q on a triple letter score.. In this case the word was QI Placing the Q on the triple letter (three times ten, and three times ten again, it was the perfect storm.. adding up to 62 points.. Suddenly I'm back in this one.. And everything kept going good for me, the bigger letters were in the right place on the board and after being down by 70, it came down to the last play, I literally had to place the tiles down, my final three.. I was down by ten, and I had all vowels and the way it came out I got my seven points, and I got the points from the letters left in the computers tray.. From down by ten to winning by three.. What an amazing game that one was... I had to play my remaining tiles because the computer might have been able to clear it's tray and won the way I did.. That has happened on more than one occasion.. Very rarely I clean my tray to win the game like that.. And I have only had a single game play that way to an exact tie...
Badge Henry
No comments:
Post a Comment