Coppertwaddle: A Notation

A Reproduction of an early 20^th century newsletter article by Sir Eugene Puse (Col. Rtd.) relating some methods for the recording of the game of Coppertwaddle.

Once again the accursed missive arrives from the taskmaster (our beloved editor!) at the Society of Twaddlers. It can only mean that yours truly must scribe more pearls for his attentive readers ... (introduction shortened for all our sakes - ed.)

This month’s article concerns the recently formulated (and indeed inspired) system of notation for our most loved game of Coppertwaddle. The work has been accomplished, not by this author I must say, lest the reader place unexpected and undue credit, but through the auspices of the Society’s own “Committee for Recording Actions during Play”. Many authorities sit upon this learned Committee, viz Horatio and Tracy Duns, Ms O Arlon, Dr. C A Russel and more.

The Committee addressed its task in a careful and methodical fashion, as befits such a learned grouping of experts, enumerating firstly those august principles upon which its work should have foundation.

Each type of card, Noble Threlm, Peasant Threlm, Favour, Declaration, shall be immediately recognizable.
Each card shall be identified by an abbreviation of its title, avoiding any confusions from titles of very similar natures.
Game steps shall be indicated only where misunderstanding could arise.
Actions by Guardian and Challenger shall be indicated as simply as possible.
Markings shall be used such that the misrecording of games through the use of common pen and ink is reduced to a minimum.

Threlms

The Committee decided upon the following abbreviations for Threlms, Nobles shown by the use of two capital letters, Peasants by a single capital and a lower case letter. The Chairman of the Committee asked me especially to bring your attention to the Winds, which are designated We, Wn, Ws, Ww, so that any confusion between the notation for North Wind and the New World could be negated.

The Abbot	AB
The Bentham Fish	BF
The Curmudgeon	Cu
East Wind	We
Father Time	FT
Flibber-de-gibbet	Fg
Hammer and Anvil	Ha
Hemlock	HL
Hissoppe	Hs
Lecturn	Le

The Leper	LP
Lock and Key	Lk
Lute & Bellows	Lb
Mother Milk	MM
Mount Ararat	MA
Narwhal	Na
The New World	Nw
North Wind	Wn
The Ocean	On
The Old Hag	OH

Squire Haversack	SH
South Wind	Ws
Spleen	Sp
Steeple	St
Trepaner	TP
Two Swift Horses	2h
West Wind	Ww
Yeoman	Ym

Favours

The Committee decided to “show Favours” (!!) by using three letters, the first capitalised. Note that Call to Arms, Capstan, Captain’s Reversal and Coppertwaddle might, inadvertently, have similar markings, and yet our wise Committee has carefully described them as Cta, Cst, Crv and Ctw respectively.

Assizes	Asz
Call to Arms	Cta
Capstan	Cst
Captain's Reversal	Crv
Compass	Cmp
Coppertwaddle	Ctw
Dread of Night	Don
Favour at Court	Fac

Glad Tidings	Glt
An Hundred Buttons	Bts
Land Ho!	Lho
Peaked Cap	Pcp
Sextant	Sxt
Thrust and Parry	Tap
The Wheel	Whl
Woe	Woe

Declarations

The Committee determined that Declarations should hold to two letter abbreviations, as for Threlms, but that they should be enscribed in the lower case.

The Birthday	bd
The Hazelnut	hz
A Long Climb	lc
Massinger's Protection	mp
Of a Bastard Line	bl
War with France	wf

Steps

As all my gentle readers will know (for do you not play this Copppertwaddle of ours?), we have in the modern game five steps during each player’s turn, “Engagement”, for making proud and drawing a card, “Challenging”, for the Challenger only to take actions, “En Garde”, for the Guardian to lay cards, “Robbing”, for the stealing of a Threlm, and “Respite”, to end the turn, perhaps by playing a card to the Midden. At most times, the notation of a step is not necessary, for play of a card is unambiguous, for example, play of BF (dread card!) can only be in the “En Garde” step, and preferably with Lb behind and MA alongside! With Favours the step within which the card was played is less certain, and the Committee has decided that certain cunningly created symbols shall be drawn.

[We have used the following modern typography to represent the step symbols - Ed]

[]	engagement
()	challenge
#	en garde
!	robbing
x	respite

Ditches

The Committee took a very cautious approach when it came to the naming of Ditches, as well it might. Attentive readers will know that much heat has been generated, even to fisticuffs in the Society’s Smoking Room, by discussions of Ditch naming! Personally I do not accept the Dutch School view, nor the American, for, gentle reader, this colonel is a Traditionalist. But I digress. As I have already mentioned, caution, caution was our learned friends’ watchword. Each Ditch is to be designated a letter (N for Noble, P for Peasant) and a number (1 to 4, numbering from the left of the Domain), the latter to be written in what I am informed is in these enlightened times known to the printing profession (ah! the art of the hot metal heroes!) as the “sub-script”. [e.g. N₁, P₃ - Ed]

Play actions

The observant reader will have already reasoned that some actions are not covered by the notation previously described. “How to indicate the result of a robbing?”, I hear you cry. “What about using Threlms abilities?”, you ask plaintively. Patience, dear reader, patience. The Committee has thought of all of these and, indeed, more besides.

[Again, see the typographic symbols below - Ed]

>	move/play/movement of robbed Threlm
@	use Threlm ability
/\	Divisor ability applied
=	status of Threlm (usually Power)
~	pressed Threlm

We finish this month’s scribblings with some examples of the notation:

1.	We > (P₁)		It is the first turn of the game; first player lays East Wind into opponent’s Peasant Rank, Ditch 1; En Garde step is implied.
1.		St > P₂	Still first turn; in second player’s En Garde step, second player lays Steeple into the Peasant Rank, Ditch 2.
2.	MA > N₁		Second turn; first player lays Mount Ararat into his 1^st Noble Rank Ditch.
2.		wf > MA, wf > MA, MA=6	Second turn; second player puts two War with France Declarations on Mount Ararat (the final part confirms that Mount Ararat’s Power is now 6).
3.	Cta (St)		Play Call to Arms on opponent’s Steeple; Steeple is placed in the Midden
3.		LP > N₁, mp > LP	Lay the Leper, then play Massinger’s Protection on it.
4.	Asz (LP)		It is now turn four. The first player plays Assizes, selecting the opponent’s Leper. The Leper is moved to the Midden (this is implied).
4.		Ym > P₂	Play Yeoman.
5.	AB > N₂		Play The Abbott. Second player does nothing.
6.	x Fac		In the Respite step, the first player discards Favour at Court.
6.		x Crv	The second player discards Captain’s Reversal (Respite step).
7.	bd > AB, AB=5		Play The Birthday on The Abbott (The Abbott is now Power 5).
7.		Pcp > (bd), (AB = 4)	Second player uses Peaked Cap on first player’s Birthday, which was on The Abbott; the Abbott is now Power 4.
8.	On > P₁ ! (Ym=2), On=4 (Ym) > P₂		Play The Ocean. Then rob Yeoman with The Ocean. No favours or Threlm abilities are played, so the robbing is successful and Yeoman is placed in the first player’s second Peasant Ditch.
8.		Sp > P₂	Play Spleen.
9.	Sxt > (Sp), (Ctw), Ctw, (Sp = /\) ! (Sp = 0), On = 4 + Ym = 2 (Sp) > P₃		Turn 9. First player uses Sextant on Spleen, second player Coppertwaddles, but first player Coppertwaddles the Coppertwaddle, so Spleen is divisored; then second player robs Spleen with Ocean and Yeoman. Spleen is moved to the first player’s Peasant Ditch 3.

From the pen of Sir Eugene Puse (Col. Rtd.)

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