A game of nim is played with one pile of 30 tokens. The two player takes turns taking tokens off the pile. Whoever takes the last token wins.

To make the game a little more interesting, the rules have been changes slightly:
A player may take 1, 3, 4, or 5 tokens but not 2.

What is the best starting move and what is the general strategy?

(In reply to re(3): Solution - Generalized! by nikki)

I think you hit it right on!  It looks like you would enjoy the book 'Winning Ways', which includes discussion on all sorts of games including nim and its many variations.

Posted by Brian Smith on 2004-09-03 22:50:33