Auction

I've been thinking recently about the dangers of symmetry in a game. That is, if all players start with equivalent positions, and there is no mechanism for breaking that starting symmetry, you often wind up with a degenerate game.

By a "degenerate game," I mean one that breaks down for one of several reasons. One reason might be that the game is solvable, in the fashion of Tic Tac Toe and that, once solved, the interest in playing it evaporates. Hex is an example of a much more complicated game that nonetheless is solvable (or at least, has been solved for up to 9x9 grids).

Reiner Knizia is a boardgame god. While the German-born designer has lived in England for many years, he comes from a culture that reveres the form far more than we do in this country; in Germany, as in much of Europe, playing tabletop games remains a mainstream form of social interaction. Knizia, who holds a Ph.D. in mathematics, has designed more than 30 games, including Lord of the Rings, which requires players to adopt a cooperative strategy, and Tigris and Euphrates. Most of his games reward abstract strategies, and many, like Ra and Modern Art have an auction or bidding mechanic. Modern Art is my favorite of these games.