Sorcery! 2: Kharé Cityport of Traps sur tablette et Iphone

On commence par rencontrer un ancien soldat qui peut nous accompagner jusqu'à la Porte Sud; là, on ne tombe pas forcément sur la case prison. Dans la foulée j'ai affronté un Louve-Garou qui a quelque chose à voir avec un certain VIC. On tombe sur une grande bâtisse abandonnée où l'on peut récolter des informations sur Courga

For instance, let's say there are 5 dice for both of us, and I have 2 3s in my hand. I will start my bidding with 1 3 in the hopes that the other guy will make a bid and show his hand.

If I believe his bid -- say, he bids 2 4s -- I'll either bid 3 4s (following his bid, regardless of what I have in my hand) or 3 3s (the 2 in my hand plus, if he has 5 dice, he probably has AT LEAST 1 3, so it's a safe bet.)

Let him raise and then make a gut call -- how likely is this call? For instance, if the bid is 5 3s and I have 2 3s in hand -- then he has to have rolled 3 3s in order to make the bid work.

That's unlikely. I call. Most of the time, I'm right and win.

It's a matter of having a good idea for percentages and trying to make plausible but high bids, in the hope of forcing the opponent into overbidding, at which point we pull the rug out from under him with a call.

When playing against someone who bluffs a lot, I mostly ignore his bids and go off my own hand, since I can't believe anything he tells me in his bid.

If I have an unusual hand -- 4 4s , say. Then I bid up to those 4 4s. Against a bluffer, he'll likely call and lose. Against a conservative opponent like the woman under the tree, just bid low and she'll eventually go over. She hardly ever calls unless the bid is completely outlandish.

It's easy when the enemy is down to 1 die. In which case, I bid 1 1. His next bid will almost certainly be what he's hlding in his hand. So all I have to do is bid above that and I'll have him next round. It doesn't ALWAYS work, but frequently enough.

you also have to have a little experience with how the AI works. While this iteration of Sorcery has bluffing opponents (which they seldom did in S!2), their follow-up bids are usually very predictable:

Let's say you both have 4 dice, and you have 3 threes. If you bid those 3 threes, the AI can do one of three things:

1: If he increases the bid, he likely has (at least) 1 three in his own hand. the AI is still very predictable here - increasing your bid with 1 three means he has one in his hand, increasing it with 2 threes means he has two.
2: If he goes for another bid, he probably has no threes, but his hand allows for a good alternative (any other bid he makes HAS to be above 3 threes); so whatever bid he makes (3 fours or 4 of anything) - he probably has a good portion of it in his hand.
3: If he doesn't have threes and doesn't have any good alternative (which is very unlikely), he'll usually call.

So what can you learn from this? Well, for starters, if you do have 3 threes in your hand, you probably don't want to come out with a 3-threes bid - he either increases the bid to 4 (which will very likely be the highest possible bid) or he bids something else, taking the initiative away from you (his bid may or may not be correct, but you don't have any influence over it).
Instead, you will want to bid 2 threes. If he outbids you with 3 threes now, you will know he has a three in his hand and you can return with 4 threes (which will, again, probably be the highest possible bid). If he doesn't have a three and bids something else entirely, you'll have one more 'safe' bid left (3-threes) which could very likely be the highest possible bid; and if not, it may put him over the edge of bluffing.

Obviously, there are alot of maybe's in this example and alot of variation which can screw up this strategy, but I find it works more often than not (and it's a good example of the thought process you need for this game).

Here's another example, specifically in the late-game. Let's say you have 3 dice and your opponent one. You have to start the bidding process. Your dice are 2 ones and 1 three. The goal is to figure the highest bid possible, and then minimize the chance that your opponent will make said bid. Let's go through all the options:

Opponent has a 1: The highest bid will be 3 ones.
Opponent has a 2: The highest bid will be 2 ones.
Opponent has a 3: The highest bid will be 2 threes.
Opponent has a 4: The highest bid will be 2 ones.

In simpler terms; if your opponent has a die that you share, the highest bid will increase to whatever he has; otherwise the highest bid is in your hands (2 ones, in this case). Next, let's look at how your opponent decides his responding bid.

The AI's bidding process will be simple: assuming he doesn't bluff (which he rarely does, but I'll cover that later) he will always bid his own die. So if he has, for example, 1 three, he will bid 1 three if possible, and if you already bid higher then that (1-four, 2-ones, etc) he will bid 2 threes (and if you bid higher than THAT he will attempt 3 threes, etc.). This also means that his bid will always reveal to you what he has - in other words, after his first bid you will already know the maximum possible bid.

With all this information, let's say you bid all that you have (which alot of people do in this case) - 2 ones. Here's how your opponent will respond:

Opponent has a 1: He will bid 3 ones, and will have made the highest possible bid (not good)
Opponent has a 2: He will bid 2 twos, which you can safely call (with no twos in your hand and only one die in your opponent's, 2-twos is impossible)
Opponent has a 3: He will bid 2 threes, and will again have made the highest possible bid.
Opponent has a 4: He will bid 2 fours which you can safely call.

So in half of the cases you will very likely lose (unless you can bluff your way out of it). Instead, let's use the first example as a guide and bid only 1 one. Here's how it plays out:

Opponent has a 1: He will bid 2 ones, and you can counter with 3 ones (which is the highest bid).
Opponent has a 2: He will bid 1 two and you can counter with 2 ones (the highest bid).
Opponent has a 3: He will bid 1 three and you can counter with 2 threes (the highest bid).
Opponent has a 4: He will bid 1 four and you can counter with 2 ones (the highest bid).

So basically you win every time! The only problem is that your opponent can bluff. I won't go into details since this post is long enough as it is, but if you write out the possibilities like I did above it should be easy to win in most cases.

While I understand that this sounds like way too much work for just one single round of Swindlestones, the thought process is very fast and after doing it a few times you'll start recognizing the patterns naturally. I honestly win 99% of the games while never having to think more then a few seconds about what to do; the only times I lose is because the opponent bluffed exponentially or I was really unlucky with my dice.

TLDR: Try to think about what your opponent could have and what that means for the 'highest possible bid' - then try to steer the game so that you will be the one to make that bid. Every bid your opponent makes tells you more about his hand. Bluffing complicates things.

Quand même, un pirate esclavagiste qui peut prendre le pouvoir à Kharé en transformant de pauvres gens en loups-garous!! C'est toujours un honneur que d'être un ami de Vik?

Vous avez à peine le temps de prendre une décision que le Lutin plaque le Farfadet - ou je me trompe et c'est l'inverse - et lui fait crier pouce. Et c'est fini! En même temps, ce sont deux minuscules demi-portions qui auraient rendu un peu ridicule une assistance de combat.

Alors, comment tu fais pour récupérer l'Epée de Légende sans jouer aux Swindlestones?

la ville est au bord de la révolution, un complot se trame contre le Conseil (et VIK n'y est pas étranger...) et si on manque certains indices, on se retrouve à ne pas pouvoir quitter Kharé alors qu'elle est envahie!

pour acquérir l'Epée de Légende à 40 P.O (ça n'a rien à voir avec la série éponyme!)

- si on n'a pas tous les vers du poème, on peut abandonner Kharé à son sort et tout de même quitter la cité... mais on se prend une malédiction gratinée de la part de Lorag, ce qui n'est pas conseillé
- si on n'a pas tous les vers du poème, on peut demander à Lorag de nous renvoyer dans le temps n'importe où dans la cité, en conservant tous les objets et indices acquis, mais en perdant un point d'endurance de façon permanente (pas vraiment folichon non plus)
- le seul vers qui peut poser problème est celui de Moulas qui implique de rencontrer un PNJ particulier (Sirisi) à un moment particulier, sinon il faut choisir la question "facile" dans le temple de Slangg et se convertir au culte du dieu de la malice (dans ce cas, on se convertira à Courga avant de quitter la cité pour avoir une divinité plus bénéfique -- on perd son esprit guide, mais la seule contrainte est de jouer un héros "loyal bon")

1) Les sortilèges du temple de Courga: j'ai vu qu'on pouvait utiliser 6 combinaisons valides (une permet d'obtenir un masque noir, une permet de se rassasier, les quatre autres n'ont l'air de ne rien faire de concret), mais ces sorts ne s'inscrivent pas dans le livre de sorts et je ne sais pas si on peut les réutiliser plus tard...
2) Le bout de papier dans la gorge de Moulas: n'a pas l'air d'être utile pour la suite...
3) Les gantelets du marchand nain: celui en fer augmente l'habileté de 2 et celui en cuir la réduit de 1, mais ont-il d'autres propriétés? il me semble que celui en cuir double les dégâts, ce qui en ferait un objet sacrément utile malgré la pénalité en habileté

Et une question de résolue... Dans la 3e partie, quand on nous propose de lancer un sort, il est parfois possible de recourir aux sortilèges du temple de Courga. Par exemple, dans le livre original, on propose aux Centaures de leur lancer un sort de chance en contrepartie de leurs infos. Dans le jeu... cela est pris au pied de la lettre: on a le choix de lancer un sort, puis on choisit "LUK" (l'un des sorts du temple de Courga), et les Centaures repartent heureux!

Deuxième question résolue: si on va vers la foire et on s'arrête pour manger, on découvre la deuxième partie du message sous une pierre, ce qui permet de découvrir que Moulas s'attendait à se faire zigouiller par Sansas et à délibérément laissé sa ligne du poème sur un morceau de papier qu'il a avalé avant de mourir. Donc on peut avoir accès à sa ligne du poème sans passer par la case Slangg. A vérifier si cela n'est pas la meilleure solution, car prendre le chemin du milieu au début pour rencontrer Sirisi ne permet plus par la suite de repasser par Dwarftown et d'acquérir les gants de maille qui donnent +2 en habileté.