There’s a bit of a dispute in GQ about whether either side can guarantee a win in Hare and Hounds. Maybe that’ll eventually end up in GD; but in the meantime, I declare for the Hounds and am prepared to challenge all comers! First responder gets to be my first victim!
Here’s an opening board. I’m using D (Dog) for the Hounds and R (rabbit) for the Hare–makes it a bit easier to see in text:
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
D-O-O-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
Make sure to use
tags when you copy the board to a response ... Hounds move first, so I'll post the first move as a response.
For some reason, if you don’t put any text in the response, VBulletin changes all your letters in the code tag to lower case. I found this on preview …
To save us some trouble (and some fun :() the ideally played game will play out like this:
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
D-O-O-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-D-O-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-D-O-R-O
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-R-O
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
O-D-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
O-D-R
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-O
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
O-D-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
O-D-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
O-D-O
O-O-D
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
O-D-O
O-O-D
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-O
\|/|\|/
O-D-R
at which point only the forward hound is in play because the hound in the center hexagon cannot move because doing so will allow an outright win for the hare, so only the top hound can move, and it’s only move is down because moving forward traps it on the far right (because hounds can only move vertically or to the right), from which point we end up with:
O-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-D-O
\|/|\|/
O-D-R
leaving hare’s only move as back to the far right yielding:
Sorry I fucked that up. There’s a couple of moves missing. The ideal game would play out like:
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
D-O-O-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-D-O-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-D-O-R-O
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-R-O
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
D-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
O-D-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
D-O-O
O-D-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-O
\|/|\|/
D-O-R
O-D-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-O
\|/|\|/
O-D-R
O-D-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
O-D-O
O-O-D
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-R
\|/|\|/
O-D-O
O-O-D
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-O-O
\|/|\|/
O-D-R
at which point only the forward hound is in play because the hound in the center hexagon cannot move because doing so will allow an outright win for the hare, so only the top hound can move, and it’s only move is down because moving forward traps it on the far right (because hounds can only move vertically or to the right), from which point we end up with:
O-O-O
/|\|/|\
O-O-D-D-O
\|/|\|/
O-D-R
leaving hare’s only move as back to the far right yielding:
Actually, since you don’t have a choice in the hare’s next move (due to symmetry), I’ll go ahead and advance the game a little more, if you don’t mind.