Let's see if I can beat Scrabble Deluxe on highest level then

[Morkin]

Sounds like it might be one of the friendlier online gaming communities

[ParadigmShifter]

Yeah I tend not to play online games against random peoples much cos of trolling/abuse, but ISC was pretty good for not having much of that. I think I got accused of cheating because I play quite fast usually (I started out playing way too slowly, losing on time - you get 20 mins (each) default time - chess clock) but after a bit of practice I sped up considerably. I think you can vary the time controls too but it's hard to get a match if you set the time control too long IIRC, so most people play standard 20 mins (and I don't think there is an increment by default i.e. bonus time each move you play).

I can't remember what ELO rating I got up to if I had to guess I'd say somewhere in the region of 1200-1400?

I used to get a lot of abuse on XBox360 playing one of the Magic the Gathering games when I played a mill deck (mill = make them discard cards), you lose in Magic if you have to draw and the deck is empty (i.e. you draw your entire deck). Those decks are a bit trolly though I will admit.

I edited previous post with some more tips anyway.

[sn3j]

I'm not used to play Scrabble. Just hanging around so to say.

Fahrt is valid German, means drive (subst)

[ParadigmShifter]

When I was on Facebook I used to play my friend on that as well.

She used to cheat though (looking up words, using anagram solver) so I stopped playing her online after a while, it's not fun when one person is cheating

Facebook scrabble did not let you play invalid words IIRC as well though. But I could tell she was cheating she was playing too fast and playing weird words too much.

When I play her over the board I occasionally let her check words before she plays them, makes it a bit more competitive then, I got a bit too good for her when I was a regular player on ISC. She is good at finding high scoring non-bingo plays though, just doesn't know enough 7 or 8 letter words whereas I am pretty good at those.

If I start out by gaining a big lead though it can be table knocked over sort of territory lol

Over the board games the board tends to get more clogged I find as well.

We tend to just play Cribbage now (or Backgammon, I'm much better than her at backgammon though, so we don't play that as much as crib). She is better than me at crib, she plays it on her phone against the computer a lot.

EDIT: For IRL over the board play I would not recommend playing with more than 2 players unless it's a very casual game (and you want to play after the worst player usually as well). Scrabble gets a lot worse if you have more than 2 players.

I know duplicate Scrabble is popular in France though (that's when any number of people can play, everyone writes down their play and the position they play it, everyone scores the number of points their word would have got, and the highest scoring word is played on the actual board). So if you have more than 2 players play that instead maybe? There's no board strategy/placement involved in Duplicate though which is a big part of normal scrabble play.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_Scrabble

It does not say what the rule is when 2 different words score the same (I'm guessing the longest word is played? Or maybe random selection of words - they are usually written down on piece of paper so you can just shuffle and pick one I suppose).

[akeley]

As an aside, do you guys play Scrabble irl against other people?

In the early Noughties I worked in a small pub where board games were a big thing, especially Scrabble. After watching the regulars duke it out for some time I started to ask to play myself. At first they were laughing, with "What, you're gonna put some Polish words on?" kinda jokes aplenty, but after I whupped a few of them and had close calls with others these had stopped and I was in.

It was an amazing pastime (although very time consuming) and I still miss it sorely. Hence my interest in this thread. The lot I played with was on the fun-level, usually scoring 300-350, so I could hold my own, and we also had a few big timers with 400+ routine scores. We would all know the 2 letter words by heart (there aren't so many of them) but not really getting into memorizing the 3-letter ones. That's taking it a bit too far methinks

I'm not a good strategist, I would just go for BINDERS I guess. Or SEX. Vowels be damned haha, would be hoping to get a lucky draw.

This rack feels like it is a 7-8 letter-er in there somewhere thou...it's a funny, nagging feeling sometime.

[ParadigmShifter]

In the early Noughties I worked in a small pub where board games were a big thing, especially Scrabble. After watching the regulars duke it out for some time I started to ask to play myself. At first they were laughing, with "What, you're gonna put some Polish words on?" kinda jokes aplenty, but after I whupped a few of them and had close calls with others these had stopped and I was in.

It was an amazing pastime (although very time consuming) and I still miss it sorely. Hence my interest in this thread. The lot I played with was on the fun-level, usually scoring 300-350, so I could hold my own, and we also had a few big timers with 400+ routine scores. We would all know the 2 letter words by heart (there aren't so many of them) but not really getting into memorizing the 3-letter ones. That's taking it a bit too far methinks

I'm not a good strategist, I would just go for BINDERS I guess. Or SEX. Vowels be damned haha, would be hoping to get a lucky draw.

This rack feels like it is a 7-8 letter-er in there somewhere thou...it's a funny, nagging feeling sometime.

I don't think there is a 7 or 8 letter word available with only one E, would have to be through that I. Will think more later.

BINDER is an option I don't think BINDERS is worth using an S for since it's not even doubled. As I said my usual rule for S is try and get around 20 points more than the best play not using the S.

DIB and BAG is a possibility too that keeps the E and gets rid of both the problem letters (well D ain't so bad really).

There's also EW/EX/XI for 37, leaves a bad rack though. (BRNDS). 37 is a good score though.

So my top 3 plays would be one of

DIB/BAG (XERNS)
BIN/NAG or BIND/NAG (XEDRS or XERS)
EW/EX/XI (BRNDS)

Don't think it's worth playing the E unless it's with the X.

[sn3j]

Ibn / Bag

maybe Ew/Ex/Xi first, then Ibn/Bag ? nvm

[akeley]

I don't think there is a 7 or 8 letter word available with only one E, would have to be through that I. Will think more later.

Pretty sure you're right, but the feeling is there (even though I know it's wrong). I like it about Scrabble, racks like these can make me stare at the board for a very long time.

[ParadigmShifter]

Never heard of IBN before lol I wouldn't want to risk that. Looks like might be an acronym, those aren't allowed usually except for a few exceptions which are now in common use like RADAR, SONAR etc. I will check it later on or after the game.

You made me think of NIB and BAG though keeps the D instead of the N, has merit.

Top tip if you post all CAPS it does not run the spellchecker which can be a bit of a cheat as well, although it probably underlines many playable weird words... will try a few here waqf (ooh it knows that), mzee (nope), inqilab (knows that one too lol), qanat (knows that one too!), sjoe (does not know that one - even though it's a fantastic game for Scrabble players of course lol).

Probably doesn't apply if your spellchecker is German or Polish though

I like the points for EX but I can't see the CPU being able to open the board at all then, it will probably play top left or top centre then I think. Unless it also knows BADE (which I am only 95% sure of anyway, maybe a bit more than that).

If I keep the E I still have BADE later on.

[sn3j]

Ibn = arabic son, also used in a surname or title

My chrome doesn't have spellchecking.
What about Xin/Nag? No idea if Xin is valid though. Could be played after Ew/Ex/Xi.

[akeley]

Ibn means something in Arabic and is found in names eg Mohammad ibn Musa... It's one of these words which can drive you mad, because it's probably NOT allowed, but it actually means something and when you remember the explanations for many crazy words which are allowed, you start thinking "hmmm, maybe..."

[ParadigmShifter]

That does ring a bell now, I think it is valid. NIB just as good though. IBN is also a board blocker. NIB might be a blocker too but SNIB may be ok (risky).

I have to avoid quoting posts with non all caps words in them though since my spell checker is pretty good it seems.

Akeley you should try SJOE (game I wrote) if you like Scrabble, you can get it from this site, all the 4 letter words from SOWPODS are allowed (with CUSS mode on. All the bad words don't score any points if CUSS mode is off). I think the full list is 5638 words. Only 4 letter words are allowed, no others, so it's a good trainer/tester for Scrabble fans. You can also see the entire list of allowed words by pressing L at main menu. All the initial names in the high score tables are random allowable words too

All the words in the UI and menus are also allowed words! It's pretty hard to get to the top of the high score table though (I think my best is 12000 odd).

[ParadigmShifter]

I can also see BRED/BADE/RED which scores 24 I think. That leaves XSN. That opens up the board the best I think as well REDS, REDO, playing through the B, etc. I think that's a better use of the E than EX/XI/XU.

Otherwise it will be one of NIB/BAG, DIB/BAG. Also see BIRD/RAG and maybe DRIB/BAG (not 100% about DRIB, might be DRIBS only, that's unlikely though?), probably missed a few I have already mentioned.

I am still leaning more towards saving the E though. I could play RIB/BAG then I can risk DRIB next go if CPU does not play off it. BAG is better than RAG cos the B gets scored twice.

EDIT: Also if you are Polish you will also have understood the hovercraft/eels thing in Polish too

EDIT2: Gonna start playing again in 15 mins or so I think.

Leaning a bit more towards EW/EX/XI now since CPU will probably play in front of EW. If it plays PEW I have an S for SPEW. If it plays NEW I could pick up an A for ANEW, etc. If it doesn't play there I have DEW. If CPU plays DEW there there's no prefixes though I think. I think JEW may have been banned a while back when they banned a load of non-woke terms (follower of the religion is a proper noun, the verb meaning is offensive. I know it is now banned in US lists). Might be allowed still in SOWPODS, but I think they also had a woke pass recently. I don't know which SOWPODS list the website I use to check words is on. It used to be allowed in SOWPODS IIRC.

Maybe just go for the big points and hope then. I may as well try and get as high a score as possible in a game with this much thinking time. BRNDS isn't too bad as long as I get 1 vowel at least... 2 vowels would be better though.

EDIT3: Go and get beer supplies then the game will be afoot again. Gonna go for the big score, I think that's what you all want to see

[ParadigmShifter]

Game on again.

I play EW/EX/XI for 37. Computer challenges EW - allowed in all dictionaries. Didn't challenge XI or XU so it knows about them already. XI = greek letter, XU = 1/100th of a Vietnamese Dong

THAT WAS A GOOD PLAY! Again. Think it has said that for most of my moves now.

CPU plays another S, REE, ES and JETES for 20.

That's gimped any VALIDATE shenanigans.



Got an E back. Looks like a bad rack. Less vowels to play through this time too. I'll have a think until 7PM then post some word ideas. Could be a "change letters" rack though?

EDIT: That was the last S played there, I have the 4th and final one on my rack. Probably want to save it for something good then if the board opens up more.

IBN is not valid, sorry. Good job I didn't risk that then

[sn3j]

Looks like it's time to get rid of consonants. You were lucky to get a vowel back.

[ParadigmShifter]

BED and DEW is best I have seen so far. I can only play 1 letter out if I don't play the E looks like. Can't see anything 5 letters ending with D to make REED and reach the double word score either at the moment. At least that cycles 3 letters though. Could play BRED and REED or CRED and REED (99% sure CRED is allowed as in street CRED) to play off 4 but that misses the triple.

BED/DEW: 19 leaves NSRC
CRED/REED: 12 leaves BNS
BRED/REED: 12 leaves CNS

SCRN isn't a bad leave though CR goes well together.

Depends if I want to cycle 4 or 3 tiles really.

Unaccounted for tiles: 24 vowels and 24 consonants (says 41 tiles left cos CPU has 7 on rack), so 50% per draw to get a vowel. Both Y's in bag too which can almost be as good as a proper vowel.

Big scoring letters left: Q(10) K(5) YY(4) V(4) H(4) W(4)

Could also play BEN/NEW for 15 instead of BED/NEW since then I still have a D for a REED play later. Also sets up ANEW which surely one of us will get (and probably get a big triple word score with that as well, so a bit risky). At least it doesn't play into the first column so there's no possibility of a double triple play for a 9x.

[sn3j]

What about Neds / Dex ? If Ned is a noun, no idea if it is.
Or Dens / Nex.
CPU is probably keen on that spot anyway.

[akeley]

ERS/REX also...

[ParadigmShifter]

Not 100% sure about DEX, think it might be a word though. Might be a REX play (don't think there is though).

Could play CESS there for CESS/SEX which scores a lot. Uses the last S though. Scores 22 so I don't think that's high enough scoring for an S. Also opens up double triple word score plays.

Not sure about ERS either although was it played in last game, will have a look EDIT: Wasn't played in either of the last 2 games. Can be a bit weird with interjections and whether they take an S.

Also I think I would rather cycle 3 or 4 letters if I play my only vowel. Only playing 2 and drawing no vowels would be pretty bad.

[sn3j]

Also BEDS / DEX. I was thinking along DEX as abbrev for dexterity, but it's probably not allowed.
Or CERS / REX maybe?
CREW opens up too much imo.

[akeley]

I'm pretty sure IF takes S so that's something to consider too, though right now it's all low scoring. One more vowel and you probably could make it on the triple word there...

[ParadigmShifter]

Yeah IFS is fine no ifs or buts about that one

Shame there's no room to play 7 letter word onto IFS though. Might be a big scoring move later though, I have the only S, so may as well keep it for a big score.

I think I will play bed cycling 3 and it also scores the most. Although BEN/NEW is only 2 less and leaves me with a D for a possible REED later. But NSRC is better leave than DRSC I think.

Played BED waiting for CPU to play.

BREAKING NEWS: No vowels on new rack

[ParadigmShifter]

BED/DEW for 19

CPU plays OB/OE/EE for 20.



No vowels. First thought is change everything except NSR. There are a few low scoring plays don't think I can play more than 1 tile though... will have a better look though.

If I can only play 1 tile think changing is better.

I guess THE CPU had a vowel heavy rack from its last play while I have opposite problem.

EDIT: 1 tile plays would be CH(A) for 7 that's slang for tea (from the Chinese word for tea obvs). And REED for a measly 5, but that's the only decent hook on the board now for bingos, so I might not want to change the D either. Other hook letters for REE are L (2 of those left), K (only 1 of those). Both Fs are on the board. REET might be ok. Don't think REEM is good. So may want to change everything apart from DNS instead of keeping NSR.

I can obviously afford to miss a go to change I am miles ahead. I'll have to check what the change command is though (luckily I have the manual open in another tab)

It's the 6 key to change tiles then

Also, MOI is good as well (Pretentious, MOI?). Or I'm about 95% certain certain it is.

So I could play CHA then MOI and see what CPU does meantime. Or I could change.

Vowel/consonants in bag or on opponents rack: 22 vowels, 21 consonants. So slightly more likely to draw a vowel than a consonant.

Playing 1 tile at a time is something you should only really do in the endgame.

I'm gonna change all but NDS.

[sn3j]

Zarm / Rif / Moi ? Rif should be ok. Zarm no idea.

[ParadigmShifter]

Too late! I accidentally quoted and it had the red underline which is a bad sign. It was after I had changed though.

CPU played SAP for 11 since I missed a go changing 4

New rack



Still bad I think lol. Don't want to play all my vowels this go I don't think.