Can you play backgammon?
 

I can't but I'm impressed by anyone who can.

I LOVE backgammon. It is probably my favourite board game.

If I could play chess (well) then perhaps it would be my second favourite.. but.. I suck at chess.


If someone can find online backgammon I will totally play with you until all hours. Or you can come over for coffee/booze and backgammon until all hours if you live near me. LOVE it. In the nerdiest way... One day I'd like a really nice board too... there are some very beautiful antiquey types with mother of pearl and intricate wood inlay.

is it easy to learn?

it's pretty easy to learn and play, but there are tactics also. if you are the kind who needs to keep yr hands/mind moving you'd probably like it.

It's all down to the luck of the dice roll with backgammon. Any game that revolves around the rolling of dice is down to pure luck, in my opinion.

not having played I can't say but, from what i understand, it seems a bit more tactical than your average game of snakes and ladders.

I've played backgammon and couldn't get out of my mind how different the outcome might've been if the dice rolled differently. It's a game of chance.

but it's not just about the dice, right? I mean you do make tactical decisions as well, I'm assuming.

Yes, but on the outcome of the dice roll.

well what's the fucking point in that then?

no, but I slay at dominoes.

it's as lucky as poker, but less intense. You make decisions based on dice roll/chance but also on probability of the next persons dice roll and what you think their decision would be on rolls etc.

Every American i've played at dominoes (admittedly totalling only one) has led me to believe that America plays by an entirely different set of rules to the rest of the world.

another game i don't know how to play.

just make sure that yr holding those bones tight when I slam down my three switchin' bitches.

see, the American I played with said the exact the same thing. Then proceeded to overcomplicate rugby.

I can't find any white people to play with. :(

evidentally, I talk too much trash while playing and it hurts their feelings.

no amount of explaining that "this is the way it should be played" helps.

Backgammon rules. Got my very first backgammon last night actually. My friend who I play with was having a bad night haha.

Anyway, yes it is a very easy game to learn. The hardest thing to understand probably is the concept of how to properly bear pieces off the board.

But indeed there is strategy to the game. Obviously there is the element of chance in the dice roll that effects how good of a move you can make. But there is strategy in what you do with your dice roll. Such as if you got 3/5 on your opening roll, you could make your 4 point, and that'd be safe, or you could move your your um, I think it's the 11 point on the opponents outer table, whatever the number is where you have 5 blocks on the outer edge and put one on your 7 point and the other on the 9 point. Which sets you up for a better point on your next turn. And you don't have to worry about that exposed block too much because the odds of getting the roll to hit it aren't too hot.

The game is really about understanding odds. Like utilizing your rolls and if you leave a block exposed, try not to leave it seven spaces away from an opponents block, because they have the best chances of hitting you that way. the better idea would be to get as close as possible or pass it. Since there are only two ways to hit a block one space away, as opposed to the like 7 or however many to hit one 7 spaces away. So yeah, there's luck involved, many games involve luck. But in Backgammon it's also about using your moves to skew the other players chances of hurting you.

I play it online.
Lots of chance (unlike at chess), lots of strategy as well...

A beginner can beat an expert, and vice versa.

I don't know if that's necessarily true. Beginners will probably do strange things like go out of their way to bar exposed blocks at the opponents starting position, or play too safely and try never to leave their own blocks exposed and hurt their game. I think there is a competency plateau that players will reach and the games will kind of even out then.

Chess is indeed probably considerably more skill based though.

I taught myself backgammon about 20 years ago by playing it on an Amiga. Forgotten all but the basics now, but it's pretty easy to pick up.

I started playing chess again a few months ago, mainly through Facebook, and am totally hooked on that these days...

Thanks, Count Mocha. Yeah, there obviously is an element of skill to it, albeit with a 'competency plateau' that's different from, as you mention, chess. Either way, backgammon does strike me as being a rather civillised game.

Kind of funny learning how the game works and relating it to LOST and what's going on there.

Yeah, chess is the daddy. You can dedicate your entire life to improving at it. Did you see the recent BBC4 documentary about how to get better at it? Really interesting. Loads of different tactics I wasn't aware of. It actually got me back into playing it and actually was probably responsible for me thinking about learning backgammon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-VODzrDiGI

i haven't played backgammon in many years, i used to be pretty good when i was 12. i've forgotten the rules but i bet it would come back to me if i sawit again

it's not so much online though haha, especially if you roll plenty of doubles. It's all about the doubling block imo, it adds a sick twist to money games.

They do this with cricket. Cricket! For fuck's sake. If there was ever a decent rationale of nuking the whole of North America, fiddling about with the rules of fucking cricket would be it.

you're just sour because baseball is so much better. the world wears New York Yankee caps, not whatever your cricket teams are called caps.