Stein

The Stein is one of ten mugs used in the Drinking puzzle.

The stein gives the player a +15 point bonus for each stain made in his/her color, and a -10 point penalty for each stain that is turned from his/her color to an opponent's color. This is cumulative with the normal stain bonuses, bringing the total for making a stain to +35 and the penalty for losing one to -30.

The stein is the most commonly used mug by medium/expert players due to the universal point gain given to the stein. Using the mug requires no specific strategy to be effective, other than merely placing pieces on the board. The point bonuses accrued by the player add up very quickly, and many times the stein player need not even complete a row to come out on top. In fact, clogging the board is a goal for the stein player, since if the game comes down to chugging pieces the stein user's point total will almost always be higher at the time.

The stein gains an advantage from playing games that are less than the standard 1500 points due to the fact that the point bonuses create a large early game schism that other mugs have difficutly counteracting without the opportunity to take back some of the stein player's stains. A stein will have more potency with a smaller variety of pieces (4 color/shape) due to the fact that placing pieces on the board - thus creating stains - will be easier; although the advantage gained by other mugs that utilize a smaller variety of pieces is usually more severe. This means that the stein usually has the most likely chance of victory with 5 colors/shapes. The stein is strong against the chalice due to large point bonuses independent of row completion. It is superlative against the pitcher due to the fact that the point gain the pitcher recieves from drinking the pieces is barely greater than the stein's bonus from placing it. The stein is theoretically weak against the horn due to its ability to constantly clear rows and make the stein player's stains unprotected, but the point bonus received goes a long way to making it a moot point.

History

 * In the point bonus and penalty were changed from +15/-5 to +15/-10