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#Summary#

Summary

#Summary#

Summary

Adding summary to top of answer
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tttppp
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I've put this as a second answer mainly for comparison with Johno's answer. I had a look at editing his answer#Summary#

The probability of losing in the first turn due to Fool's Landing sinking, but it'sassuming all players try their hardest to avoid it, is dependent on the difficultly level and the number of players n:


Difficultly  | n | Probability
Novice       | 2 | 0.00199
Novice       | 3 | 0.00122
Novice       | 4 | 0.00071
Normal/Elite | 2 | 0.00291
Normal/Elite | 3 | 0.00179
Normal/Elite | 4 | 0.00103
Legendary    | 2 | 0.00296
Legendary    | 3 | 0.00182
Legendary    | 4 | 0.00105

The computation of the values in this table was quite long, and laid out differently than I wanted toan outline of the steps is given below.

Calculation

I've put this as a second answer mainly for comparison with Johno's answer. I had a look at editing his answer, but it's quite long and laid out differently than I wanted to.

#Summary#

The probability of losing in the first turn due to Fool's Landing sinking, assuming all players try their hardest to avoid it, is dependent on the difficultly level and the number of players n:


Difficultly  | n | Probability
Novice       | 2 | 0.00199
Novice       | 3 | 0.00122
Novice       | 4 | 0.00071
Normal/Elite | 2 | 0.00291
Normal/Elite | 3 | 0.00179
Normal/Elite | 4 | 0.00103
Legendary    | 2 | 0.00296
Legendary    | 3 | 0.00182
Legendary    | 4 | 0.00105

The computation of the values in this table was quite long, and an outline of the steps is given below.

Calculation

Source Link
tttppp
  • 9.4k
  • 5
  • 47
  • 86

I've put this as a second answer mainly for comparison with Johno's answer. I had a look at editing his answer, but it's quite long and laid out differently than I wanted to.


I have split the computation into four sections, based on the game stages:

  1. Game setup - Fool's Landing is initially flooded and no one was dealt a special action card.
  2. First Player's Actions - The first player is unable to shore up Fool's Landing.
  3. First Player's Treasure Card Draw - Waters Rise is drawn (and Sandbags is not).
  4. First Player's Flood Card Draw - Waters Rise is drawn a second time and sinks.

Notation:

  • n The number of players
  • v The number of Waters Rise cards drawn at the end of the first turn
  • w The water level after the first turn

Game Setup

P(Fool's Landing drawn in first six cards) = 6/24
P(No sandbags or helicopters dealt) = (20 C (2n)) / (25 C (2n))

First Player's Actions

Let R be the first player's role:

P(R = Pilot and can't shore up Fool's Landing) = 1/6 * 0 = 0
P(R = Diver and can't shore up Fool's Landing) = 1/6 * 4611612/18574248 = 384301/9287124
P(R = Explorer and can't shore up Fool's Landing) = 1/6 * 10/69 = 5/207
P(R in {Navigator, Messenger, Engineer} and can't shore up Fool's Landing) = 3/6 * 59/138 = 59/276

So summing these:

P(Can't shore up Fool's Landing) = 1945439/6965343

First Player's Treasure Card Draw

For Fool's Landing to sink, one of the two drawn cards must be Waters Rise. The other must not be a sandbags. I'm keeping these separate as the value of v impacts the value of w.

P(v = 2 and no sandbags) = P(v = 2)
                         = 6 / ((28-2n)(27-2n))
P(v = 1 and no sandbags) = P(No sandbags | v = 1) * P(v = 1)
                         = (23-2n)/(25-2n) * 6(25-2n)/((28-2n)(27-2n))
                         = 6*(23-2n)/((28-2n)(27-2n))

First Player's Flood Card Draw

We have now shuffled the six flood cards and put them back on top of the Flood Card Deck. Note that w can be derived from the difficulty and the value of v.

P(Fool's Landing drawn at end of first player's turn) = w/6

The Result

The difficultly level impacts w:

  • Novice: v=1 => w=2, v=2 => w=3
P(Fool's Landing Sinks First Turn) = 6/24 * (20C(2n))/(25C(2n)) * 1945439/6965343 * (6*(23-2n)/((28-2n)(27-2n)) * 2/6 + 6/((28-2n)(27-2n)) * 3/6)
 =  (20C(2n))/(25C(2n)) * 1945439/27861372 * (49-4n)/((28-2n)(27-2n))
  • Normal/Elite: v=1 => w=3, v=2 => w=3
P(Fool's Landing Sinks First Turn) = 6/24 * (20C(2n))/(25C(2n)) * 1945439/6965343 * (6*(23-2n)/((28-2n)(27-2n)) * 3/6 + 6/((28-2n)(27-2n)) * 3/6)
 =  (20C(2n))/(25C(2n)) * 1945439/27861372 * (72-6n)/((28-2n)(27-2n))
  • Legendary: v=1 => w=3, v=2 => w=4
P(Fool's Landing Sinks First Turn) = 6/24 * (20C(2n))/(25C(2n)) * 1945439/6965343 * (6*(23-2n)/((28-2n)(27-2n)) * 3/6 + 6/((28-2n)(27-2n)) * 4/6)
 =  (20C(2n))/(25C(2n)) * 1945439/27861372 * (73-6n)/((28-2n)(27-2n))

Finally, computing these formulae for different difficulty levels and number of players I ended up with:

Difficultly  | n |           Probability
Novice       | 2 | 1355970983/682632941760  ≈ 0.00199
Novice       | 3 | 1223681131/999834661980  ≈ 0.00122
Novice       | 4 |  429942019/608770978200  ≈ 0.00071
Normal/Elite | 2 |   33072463/11377215696   ≈ 0.00291
Normal/Elite | 3 |   99217389/55546370110   ≈ 0.00179
Normal/Elite | 4 |  859884038/837060095025  ≈ 0.00103
Legendary    | 2 | 2017420243/682632941760  ≈ 0.00296
Legendary    | 3 |   33072463/18178812036   ≈ 0.00182
Legendary    | 4 | 3009594133/2869920325800 ≈ 0.00105