839: Explorers
| Explorers |
 Title text: We're going to have to work together to get over our hangups if we're going to learn to move on Catan's hexagonal grid. It's bad enough that we lost our crew of pawns when we passed within firing range of Battleship |
Explanation
In this comic appears to be two chess pieces, a knight and a bishop. They are on a 3x3 chess board on wheels that has broken off from a "home board". The knight can only travel two spaces up or over and then one space over, which means that no matter how many movements he makes, it can never reach the center square (where "the food" was put by the bishop); and the bishop can only travel diagonally, which means it can never go on any black square (hence the joke with the knight "bragging about how comfy the black squares are"). The two pieces are from the two opposite chess camps (one black and the other white), which means they are constantly trying to capture each other, but due to the configuration and their respective move constraints, they cannot achieve it.
The chess pieces are playing Settlers of Catan, which is the reference to the hexagonal squares because that's the shape of the spots on the board.
Ba3, Nc3 and Ke5 are all moves on a chess game, but they are more probably used here as the denomination of a piece with its position: Ba3 is a bishop on the A3 square, Nc3 a knight on the C3 square, and Ke5 the king on the E5 square.
There is also a reference to another board game, Battleship in the title text.
Transcript
[A black bishop, Ba3, and a white knight, Nc3, are on a three by three chessboard. Both are on white squares. There is a heap of supplies at b2, also a white square. The chessboard is mounted on rockets and appears to be flying through the air.]
Ba3: Mission Control, come in. This is Ba3 on the capsule calling Ke5 on the home board. We're on track and approaching the Coast of Catan. Our ETA is —
Nc3: Control, this is Nc3. Bishop put all our food in the center so I can't get it. I demand —
Ba3: Control, knight will get his food back when he stops hopping around bragging about how comfy the black squares are. I swear to God, I'm this close to capturing him and completing the mission alone.
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How is that ship flying in the first place? Wouldn't the pieces fall off? Davidy²²[talk] 09:59, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
- Inertia The pieces are moving at the same speed as the board. You would need energy to slow it down. Search it up. It's everywhere on the web. 108.162.241.64 00:54, 29 December 2016 (UTC)
Magnetic Chess :-) 121.99.55.58 03:23, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
Is the mini board really floating? It looked to me like it was adrift in sea. I think I might make some edits.
- I think the board is actually rolling on casters. If you look closely you can see a small round circle by each corner. I've edited it a bit. 199.27.128.63 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- In the original transcript, it notes that it's mounted on rockets. WriterArtistCoder 02:06, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
This comic actually has a common error by non-chess players using chess positions: a1, and by extension a3 and c3, are dark squares. h1 is supposed to be the light-squared corner. 18.215.1.155 06:50, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
- Unless, of course, the positions are relative to their small board, where al corners are white and hence numbering has to start on a white square 108.162.212.218 17:41, 16 April 2014 (UTC)
It looks like there are wheels in the corners. 209.104.241.66 16:25, 22 May 2013 (UTC)
The loose 3x3 board is from a Classic Star Trek 3-D chess set. The little pegs on the corners are used to secure the board in different places around the game. 74.98.181.175 02:03, 11 August 2013 (UTC)
- No, it's not. The Star Trek 3D chess consists of 3 stationary 4x4's and 4 mobile 2x2's. --108.162.254.183 02:25, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
Make of it what you will, but I just realized that the robber in Catan looks a lot like a black bishop....173.245.54.45 14:27, 3 May 2014 (UTC)
There's a typo in the comic. It says "misson" instead of "mission". 108.162.219.18 04:55, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
- and I just adjusted the transcript to reflect that Just some random derp 05:08, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
The black bishop and the "completing the mission alone" might be a reference to the robber from Catan, who looks very similar in the original edition. 172.69.55.136 09:14, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
On a 3x3 board, in at most 2 moves any pawn would be promoted, almost certainly to queen. The bishop and knight may have deliberately approached Battleship in order to avoid being outranked. Nitpicking (talk) 10:55, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
The bishop isn't any closer to capturing the knight than the knight is to capturing the bishop. Sure, the bishop can move away if the knight tries to capture it, but similarly the knight can move away if the bishop tries to capture it. So I think the explanation needs to be changed. 172.71.178.152 21:57, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
Our intrepid explorers might be interested in this video: [1] Szeth Pancakes (talk) 04:34, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
