As a relief from the deep-think of craps and roulette, may we suggest this maddening little game, simple, easy to play, and guaranteed to drive you mad.
Although you may not be a traveler in the proportions of a Marco Polo, a Robinson Crusoe or a nonstop round-the-world flyer, there have been— and the chances are there will be many more— shipwrecks on a deserted isle in store for you. These can happen in your own home, or someone else's, for that matter. That deadly lull in conversation, that awkward pause that is far from refreshing, when you don't know what to say or play— the equivalent of being stranded— calls for a game like shipwreck draw with which to while away the time.
All the equipment you need is fifteen coins, or bananas, or coconuts, or any other fifteen objects, and the will to win. Arrange the coins, or whatever tokens you are using, as the case may be, in five piles: five tokens in the first, four in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth and one in the fifth.
Now that you have the set-up, here's the objective: the one who takes the last coin away wins, and this is the way you play it. Each player in turn may remove as many coins as he wants from any pile, but he may remove coins from only one pile at a time. Simple? Well then, try this variation: Change the objective to the one who removes the last coin loses.
Still simple? Well, here's a way to make the game more complicated yet. Start with twenty-five coins, or tokens, in one pile. Each player in turn withdraws from that one pile as many coins or tokens as he wants, up to five. Arrange these piles in sequences as they are drawn. After the two players have drawn all the tokens, or coins, from the pile of twenty-five and arranged these in the proper sequences before them, they can start to play, applying exactly the same rules as the first game where you only had five piles and where the objective was to cause your opponent to draw the last token. Obviously, the number of piles depends upon the number drawn by each player in setting up the game. Here's a sample game played with this variation.
In this diagram, A's drawings are indicated by the white tokens and B's by the shaded ones. You will note that from the original pile of twenty-five tokens, each of the protagonists has drawn four times, making eight separate piles in all.
Starting with these and applying, as we have said, the same rules as applied to the previous game, keeping in mind the fact that you want your opponent to draw the last token, the players make the following eight moves in order:
A is the loser, and as a result he retires to some desert isle all by himself. You will see that after the fifth move in the above game, B actually had a winning combination. Here in Diagram Number Three is how the game looks at this stage, before B makes his fifth move. After A takes away all the tokens in Pile 2 or 6, B draws the other of the two piles and leaves only one coin, which would make A the loser. Another alternative is that after A removes Pile 1, B then evens the other two piles and matches A's draws until it is down to two and one and then takes the two.
There are a great many sure-fire combinations which can be concocted, and the more you can scheme up in advance, the greater will be the possibilities that you will be the sole survivor on the desert island. Naturally, if you happen to be stranded on an isle with one or more of the opposite sex, you may not consider this game to be the ideal solution, but for the average social vacuum it's a handy filler.
And there you have them, sirs, the indoor accomplishments. There is enough variation, conundrum and excitement to keep you involved for a good part of your lifetime. It is to be hoped, however, that you venture outdoors every now and then, if only to deposit those winnings at the bank.
No withdrawals, please.
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