Games for learners · simulation

Simulated tables

Three required tables plus an age-band stress. Evidence, not adjectives. The scorecard gate is PASS, mean 9.05.

Table	Locks / game	Who wins	Note
2000 × 3 random	1.63	Seats 35 / 33 / 32	Fair chairs
2000 × random / greedy / spike	1.69	20% / 44% / 36%	Skill shows; new players still win
2000 × 3 spike	1.36	Seats 36 / 34 / 30	Runaway 7%
800 × 2p spike vs greedy	1.66	73% / 27%	Ceiling
800 × 4p mixed	1.67	Harsh on random seats	Default is 3 people

Sim A — first-timers (seed 11)

Ana 8, Cam 6, Bo 5. Ana never locked; she lived on tolls. Cam said “later” on Back Tax.

R1 Ana Foundation (Model 7)
R1 Bo Wafer Farm (Sand 4)
R1 Cam Feed Slot (App 3) pays Ana
R4 Bo Coolant Loop (Cloud 2) — THE TOLL Chip–Cloud
R4 Ana Breach: Bo’s Cloud 2 to the Yard
R5 Cam Spare Rack (Cloud 1) — THE TOLL Chip–Cloud
R6 Ana Back Tax; Cam says later

Sim B — mixed skill (seed 42)

Cam (spike) 12, Ana (random) 3, Bo (greedy) 1. Cam’s 7s take Chip and Sand. Walkout shuts the tolls for one turn — not enough. Named luck floor: Bo never locked.

R1 Ana Side Store (App 1) · Bo Login Wall (App 6) · Cam Frontier Run (Model 6)
R2 Cam Whole Fab (Chip 7) steals Chip
R3 Cam Pure Sand (Sand 7) — THE TOLL Sand–Chip
R5 Ana Walkout on Cam
R6 Cam still leads on tolls

Sim C — three spikes (seed 77)

Cam 8, Ana 5, Bo 5. A Breach on turn one. Last card is a Tax Bill. No forced line.

R1 Ana Whole Region (Cloud 7)
R1 Bo Breach: that 7 goes to the Yard
R3 Cam Lab Run + Login Wall — THE TOLL Model–App
R4 Bo Light Machine + Cloud — THE TOLL Chip–Cloud
R6 Cam Tax Bill on Bo, −2

What the sims killed

The board. The 100-card deck. Jail after ten deferred taxes. Own-with-most-cards (locks never fired). Lock-three-stretches (still too rare). A lock that paid 3 + your lowest number (Cam hit 17). A fixed first chair. What remains: biggest number owns, two doors that touch, a flat 4, lowest score starts the next round.

Human protocol: sit silent while Chip is owned. First-timers will still play Cloud without saying who gets the 1, at least once by turn 3. That is the teachable stumble, not a broken turn.