Here is a well-defined strategy game played out in CBS’s Survivor in Thailand.
The Game
There are 21 flags planted in the field between two ‘tribes’ – Chuay Gahn and Sook Jai. Each tribe takes turns removing flags. Each tribe at its turn can choose to remove 1 or 2 or 3 flags. The team to take the last flag, whether standing alone or part of a group of 2 or 3 flags, wins the game.
The first tribe – Sook Jai – chose to remove 2 flags. Was this the right move?
Clue
During the discussion within one of the teams, Ted Rogers – an African American software developer, said:
At the end, we must leave them with four flags.
Wrong. The first tribe should always remove 1 or 3 flags on the first move.
To win this game the first tribe should leave the second one with 4 flags left on the field, to keep this strategy active the first tribe should always leave the second one with even number of flags (e.g. 20, 18, 16, etc.)