#4 Pie rule a.k.a swap rule

[David J Bush]

I haven't been able to run javatwixt yet, so my
apologies if this is already implemented. Standard
Twixt incorporates the pie rule, also known as the swap
rule. (Let us say, the first player is white and the
second player is black.) After white places the first
peg on the board, the opponent has the option to swap
sides, if desired. If sides are swapped, the player who
moved first as white is now black, and makes the next
move. Sides may be swapped only once per game. If the
second player chooses not to swap after white's first
move, then sides may not be swapped at all that game.

This rule greatly reduces the advantage of the first
move, and makes Twixt a much more interesting game.
This is also part and parcel of the original rules as
written by Alex Randolph. Unfortunately, some sets sold
in the US neglected to mention this rule. As a result,
many gamers have dismissed Twixt as too unbalanced.

This is MUCH more important than link removal. Thanks!

[Rob Cranfill]

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Thanks, David! I'll have to go look at my 40-year-old copy
of the 3M version, the one I learned on, and see if it
includes this rule, and we just never bothered to use it, or
if that's one of the ones that didn't include the rule.

It always seemed to me that the "first player advantage"
could be offset at any time by player two abandoning a given
area of contest and taking up somwhere else as a new, local
"player one", but the "pie" rule is cool.

Thanks,
rob

[Rob Cranfill]

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Re: not being able to run the code... The 1.0 release isn't
set up for this, as it says in the download page:

NOTE: This JAR file should be renamed to ZIP and unpacked
in order to run it! Running from the JAR file itself won't work
right now, for several reasons...