Play Tips
From Polarity
These tips have been contributed by members of the community. They are intended as a general guide to play. Feel free to add your own or contribute to others if you feel they can be expanded. Specific advanced techniques such as the creation of multiple leaners should be placed on the Advanced Methods page.
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Distance
If you desire to avoid faulting it is advisable to play away from other pieces. Playing close to another piece limits the way in which you can play, especially in your ability to subsequently convert your leaners. This is due to the conflicting magnetic fields created by pieces in close proximity. Often, your ability to place a piece at a desired angle will be limited by nearby fields. Where there are other leaners around there is a heightened possibility of faulting by causing one to drop, or roll around uncontrolled.
Obviously, you might want to reverse this advice if you're trying to force an opponent to make mistakes. By playing close to their pieces you are making their subsequent play more risky.
Territory
Vitally important is having the space in which to place your pieces. As noted in Distance above, playing close to other pieces is more risky. If you can claim more of the board with your pieces then you have the advantage of being able to play more safely when necessary.
The Use of Towers
A tower can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it gives you points and allows you to restrict your opponent's play. On the other, they restrict your own play and can be tricky to place pieces on. If you fault on a tower, your opponent can claim it and take the points for himself. So when placing towers think carefully about whether you should play them offensively or defensively.
Practice
If you can practice the basic techniques until they become second nature, then your play will be much improved because you will be free to concentrate on higher objectives and strategy. You will also be less likely to fault carelessly when you have developed a feel for how the pieces interact.
About Magnetic Fields
Technical Information
The magnets used in Polarity are thin solenoids. The magnetic field comes out of the centre of the magnet and bubbles around the outside to come back in the centre on the other side. It is shaped like a doughnut.
In the centre of the disc (the doughnut hole) the field is very strong and convergent. Disc centres facing each other this way will either strongly attract or strongly repel.
The field around the side of the disc is weak and divergent and won't cause too much force.
When you place a leaner you are really pointing the bottom center of your leaner at the bottom of the foundation. These have a repulsive force. When this force balances the gravity pulling down on the leaner, it will hover as it should.
If the leaner gets too vertical, the bottom center of the leaner is now pointing at the top of the foundation. This creates an attractive force and will probably suck the foundation up. This is why playing on towers of 2 is fairly easy, because the center of the top magnet is higher and the leaner wont point at it. Playing on very high towers is hard because you are using mostly the divergent side field for support. They must stand almost vertical to minimise the pull of gravity.
Useful Information
You can see why leaners add so much instability to the board. Rather than the strong part of their field pointing straight up (as foundations and towers do), leaners point their field somewhat across the board surface too. The more vertical the standing piece, the more the field points across the board.
Sometimes you can imagine a straight line (or a cone or fountain) comming out of the centre of all the discs to try and get an idea of the magnetic field topography.
Point System
Here is how your relative score can change on your turn (in order of goodness):
- Cause an impossible conversion: +2 or more points.
- Lay a standing piece: +1 point.
- Convert a foundation: +0 points (but you get a new foundation).
- Convert an opponents leaner: -0 points (and your opponent gets a foundation).
- Flip an opponents leaner: --0 (your opponent gets to put a foundation anywhere).
- Cause pieces to touch: -2 or more points (This can be better or worse depending on whos foundations were included in the tower)
(Note is does not matter if the action piece was involved in a tower, if it goes back in to your stack it means you got 0 points from it. If it goes to the tower that means that it left your stack (+1) but your opponent gets it as a point (-1). This is why the action piece must be resolved carefully after a fault.)
