Tac-Tic-Tee (Tactic-Tee, not Tic-Tac-Tee) is a curling strategy game that centers on shot selection. Players of the game pretend that they are skipping a team in their club championship final. A play situation involves the layout of the stones as diagrammed on one of the rock-position cards, supplemented by the specific circumstances for the shot: which colour is your team throwing, which end is it, which player is throwing, how keen and/or straight is the ice, what is the score, what the are abilities of your teammates, and so on. With each situation, and given the stones in play, you then select from a list the best possible shot to call. Once the shot is selected, the scenario booklet lists the potential choices, an analysis of each potential shot, along with a score. If you selected the “correct” shot, you earn 100 points, whereas with a disastrous call you will lose 100 points, with other choices in-between. After a certain number of turns or time, the game is over and the player with the highest number of points wins.
The game’s creator, Bob Martin of Rock Science, is up-front about the shot selection choices and scores contained in the game – it is unrealistic to assume that everyone will agree on the set of choices, or on the relative merit of each potential shot. In the game’s introduction, Bob writes:
This means that you may disagree with some of my scoring of options. If you do disagree, take the chance to analyse [sic] WHY we disagree. If you can figure out how we think differently about the best options, then you will have learned something about how I think about tactics, and about how YOU think. On the ice, you will always be trying to outthink your opponent in pretty much the same way.
Despite the possibility of disagreement, however, the point of the game is to teach strategy, and for Little Rock and bantam curlers this game can be an excellent way to do that. Some scenarios are more difficult to analyze; others are easier. I have owned a copy of Tac-Tic-Tee for several years and really enjoy playing it with my own kids. I highly recommend this game for parents of junior curlers.
The Tac-Tic-Tee 100 Base Pack offers 120 different situations. The Base Pack contains 30 rock-position cards that illustrate the scenario, with each red or blue stone labelled to make the shot, and analysis, clear. The 30 rock-position cards are combined with 4 different analysis booklets, each of which describes a different game situation. An “add-on” pack is also available that provides an additional 88 situations using the identical rock-position cards. There are multiple ways to play; an extra challenge is to call the shot without choosing from the provided list of choices, and see if your call is even one of those listed in the book!
Earlier this week, Bob sent me an email outlining some of the plans for Rock Science’s next generation of products, which includes new Tac-Tic-Tee packs of additional game situations. The first of these, planned for September 2011, is a new Tac-Tic-Tee 501 Pack, that uses real-life situations from games from recent Canadian and World Championships, enabling you to compare your shot-selection skills against the best skips in the world.
Tac-tic-tee is not available in stores. You can order Tac-tic-tee (and other Rock Science products) directly from Rock Science, using the order form on their website.
About Bob Martin
Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Bob Martin skipped England from 1980 to 1987, and skipped the English rink in England’s first two appearances in the World Curling Championships. Bob now lives in Montreal and curls out of the Town of Mount Royal Curling Club. You can contact Bob by telephone or fax at +1 (514) 385-5306, or by email at bob@rock-science.ca.
About Rock Science
Rock Science aims to create training aids for curling, to encourage and facilitate research, and to develop a mathematically structured theory of curling strategy.
Rock Science is located at:
Rock Science
9320 Avenue Andre-Grasset
Montreal, Quebec, H2M 2B5
Canada
Est-ce que la série 100 existe encore. Est-ce qu’elle existe en français et combien elle coûte.
Merci.
How can we use your multiple examples for a strategy course to curlers?
Great idea, Élie. I have had the same thought myself. Nicole Stewart (nee Westlund), a PhD student at Western Ontario and a former Western varsity player, has been developing a set of strategy scenarios, targeted at bantam and young junior-aged players, in studying both (a) which teaching techniques work well in teaching strategy and (b) what are the important points to strategy that should (or can) be taught in such a course. Whether or not Bob’s Tac-tic-tee game could be used as the basis for a course would depend on the age and skill level of the athletes you have in mind.
If you are interested in having a discussion about this (perhaps we could work together?), send me an email offline.
Hi Élie. Pardon, mais je parle Francais un peu et je vous reponde en Anglais. I believe that the 100 series still exists and Bob Martin is still selling them – you should send him an email at bob@rock-science.ca. Bob is in the middle of updating his website for Rock Science and it (clearly) is a work-in-progress. When I purchased the base 100 pack some years ago the cost was approximately $75 plus shipping, as I recall, but I don’t know what Bob charges now.