10 army sets... are these common to turn in repeatedly?

[General Bedlam]

I consider myself a good sport, I've always tried to wish my opponents good luck, and have always tried to congratulate people for a good game, win or lose, and have largely been treated with the same. Everyone I've met have practically all been good sports. But today I encountered almost one right after another, two opposing players in two different 1v1 matches, that couldn't just say, "Good game". They decided to whine a little.

In both instances, the complaints surrounded the sets of cards I had been turning in, many of which had in fact been sets worth 10 armies (red, blue, and green cards). Admittedly, I received sets such as these numerous times in a row, however, there were times when I refused to turn in my cards when I just had three, I would wait until I had four or five, knowing what I could get with a little patience, not to mention that my opponents in each instance had also turned in such sets. Yet still, one player congratulated my victory by announcing, "Good game, if I received 10 armies every three rounds I'd never lose," while the other player would finish our game by saying, "Wow, three 10 armies after only 9 cards" and even made a rude comment about how I had so many advantages yet couldn't finish the game (I had some bad rolls and it took me an extra turn in order to finally win, which is funny because I didn't complain about bad dice so much as this person complained about the cards).

Now, I would gladly admit to having a good run of luck, but you know what? I also made some pretty good moves, too, which I believe myself to have the right to be proud of, after all, who here actually wins ALL THE TIME? I certainly don't, I get slaughtered by somebody quite regularly, so if I win, damn it I'm going to pat myself on the back no matter what, just like I'm sure anybody else would, even the ones who do nothing but whine and complain about bad drops, bad dice, and bad cards. I'm sure whenever they're on the winning side, they're not thinking about the drop, or the dice, or the cards.

I'd like to open this one up for comment now, because out of my own curiosity, I'd like to know how common or uncommon it is to turn in 10 army sets. I'm playing a game right now where my opponent and I both have turned in sets like these one right after another, and neither of us are bitching about anything, it's just the normal course of a game like it should be. WHat do you think, and what could you tell me about similar experiences?

[lancehoch]

To answer the question from the thread title, actually mixed sets are more common than any single instance of a single colored set:
3 cards: 27 possibilities- 1/27 red, 1/27 green, 1/27 blue, 6/27 mixed, 18/27 no set
4 cards: 81 possibilities- 9/81 red, 9/81 green, 9/81 blue, 36/81 mixed, 18/81 no set
5 cards (note you can have a mixed set and a plain color set, I am counting these as mixed): 243 possibilities- 31/243 red, 31/243 green, 31/243 blue, 150/243 mixed, 0/243 no set

in percentages (mixed only):
3 cards: 22.22%
4 cards: 44.44%
5 cards: 61.73%

So to answer your question, yes it is very common to get a mixed set.

[Kemmler]

I just lost to a private as he turned in two rainbow 3 card sets in a small game... really annoys me.

[General Bedlam]

To answer the question from the thread title, actually mixed sets are more common than any single instance of a single colored set:
3 cards: 27 possibilities- 1/27 red, 1/27 green, 1/27 blue, 6/27 mixed, 18/27 no set
4 cards: 81 possibilities- 9/81 red, 9/81 green, 9/81 blue, 36/81 mixed, 18/81 no set
5 cards (note you can have a mixed set and a plain color set, I am counting these as mixed): 243 possibilities- 31/243 red, 31/243 green, 31/243 blue, 150/243 mixed, 0/243 no set

in percentages (mixed only):
3 cards: 22.22%
4 cards: 44.44%
5 cards: 61.73%

So to answer your question, yes it is very common to get a mixed set.

Good to know, then. One of my opponents in question claimed he had never seen such sets turned in a row before, and I found that hard to believe by his record (he had played 80+ games). You might imagine my surprise at practically being called a cheater.

[owenshooter]

i don't play cards, eliminates the luck and WHINE factors of other players. i feel your pain. i love how easily people accuse others of cheating on this site. i can only wonder what type of rating you are going to get from these two seperate players, for merely being luckier than they were... interesting.-0

[thellama73]

I have turned in three or more mixed sets in a row on numerous occasions. It seems to happen a lot. Then again, maybe I'm just lucky

[General Bedlam]

i don't play cards, eliminates the luck and WHINE factors of other players. i feel your pain. i love how easily people accuse others of cheating on this site. i can only wonder what type of rating you are going to get from these two seperate players, for merely being luckier than they were... interesting.-0

Perhaps I will try more games without cards myself. Something else I also find interesting, was that one of the whiners I mentioned was a Major. Much higher rank than me, with I imagine more games under their belt than myself. You'd think they'd know how the game works by now.

As for what rating I'll receive from each, I will say this: the first offender, I actually responded to and had somewhat of a brief argument with, and I believe he realized himself to have sounded like an ass and while not admitting to it, he did say he'd leave me a good rating (while still basically accusing me of cheating). The second offender, I didn't end up even saying anything to because I was more shocked than anything else that point, that I had run across two people of such attitude in such rapid secession. What they may or may not rate me doesn't even bother me, I actually INVITED the one player to rate me as badly as they wished if they really thought I did anything wrong. I pretty much did the same, and rated each according to how poor of sports they turned out to be. Fair is fair.

[FabledIntegral]

Sounds like a self-pity thread. The guy who said "gg - I could probably win if I got all 10 sets," hardly did anything wrong. Appears you have thin skin more than anything.

[e_i_pi]

Game 2762555

In this game, which went to round 17, I got something like this:

Red, Red, green, Red, Red, (cashin red), Red, Green, Red, (cashin red), Red, Red, Red, (cashin red), Blue...

Probably the worst set of cards in my history, though the other guy got red set, green set, red set, green set. For a flat rate game, it was agonisingly slow hehe. I guess you just take it and hope for better luck next game. At the time I thought it was a damned rort, but when you look at the odds, theres a 1 in 86 chance of not getting a blue in the first 11 cards, and I've certainly played more than 86 games.

As for the odds on 3 mixed sets in a row:

(1 * 2/3 * 1/3)^3 = 0.01097... = 1 in 91.125

I see you've played 129 flat rate games, of which 115 are 2 player, 11 are 3 player, and 3 are 4 player. Thats 275 individual player-games, so by the averages it should have happened 3 times by now, on average once (possibly twice) to you. I'd quit whining and get on with the game.

Kj

[gdeangel]

My advice: join the DRS. They have a monopoly on this ... I never seem to get it, often when I'm on the brink, I email them asking for one, and they never approve my request. We should all be petitioning to free the back-to-back three card sets for the monopoly of the DRS...

[lancehoch]

As for the odds on 3 mixed sets in a row:

(1 * 2/3 * 1/3)^3 = 0.01097... = 1 in 91.125

I see you've played 129 flat rate games, of which 115 are 2 player, 11 are 3 player, and 3 are 4 player. Thats 275 individual player-games, so by the averages it should have happened 3 times by now, on average once (possibly twice) to you. I'd quit whining and get on with the game.

Kj

This actually depends on how many cards you had when you turned in each set. If you mean three mixed sets turned in at the 3rd, 6th, and 9th cards then the odds are:
(2/9)*(2/9)*(2/9)=8/729=1.097%
However if you wait until the 5th, 8th, and 11th cards to turn in then your odds are:
(50/81)*(50/81)*(50/81)=23.521%
(fractions were reduced for ease of calculation)

[General Bedlam]

Sounds like a self-pity thread. The guy who said "gg - I could probably win if I got all 10 sets," hardly did anything wrong. Appears you have thin skin more than anything.

It's not that I feel that the other guy did anything wrong, it's that I don't feel as though I personally did anything wrong either. I found it hard to believe that, as the person claimed, they had never seen such a thing before. I can handle being called a cheater when I know it's not true, but if someone can't handle losing a game, they're better off not playing.

[FabledIntegral]

That's far from "not being able to lose a game." That's being annoyed with the game. It's very annoying to be playing a strategic game and have luck play such a significant factor at times.

[owenshooter]

It's very annoying to be playing a strategic game and have luck play such a significant factor at times.

again, that is why i play mostly no card games...-0