Honors as Valuable Blanks

No, I’m not referring to the fact that in many mahjong sets the white dragon tile is commonly just a blank tile without a design. I chose this title because it is one of the tools I use when I look at my hand, conceiving of the ways I could win with it. Due to their status as a sort of ‘suitless’ tile, the way they contribute to pattern building is unique. Let’s take a look at two of their main quirks: that they are valuable and that they are suitless, or as I think of them, blank.

Honors are valuable

In the design of Zung Jung, Alan Kwan took many of his cues from Chinese Classical and the traditions of mahjong that have remained in the wide variety of variants. One of these cues was that honor tiles should have a place of honor. They should be dear. They should be something that players covet a bit more than the standard suited tiles. For example, one of the ways Alan Kwan did this was to make the point value of a triplet or kong of relevant honor tiles (3.1 Value Honor) worth 10 points per set. This is both overvalued compared to the statistical likelihood of making a triplet/kong of honors and in addition to other patterns achieved.

Thus, if one is close to making Value Honor, the tendency is to hold onto them, which increases their rarity in play. On the flip side, this also explains why they often get discarded early on. If you are nowhere close to making a Value Honor, the thought is to get rid of your honor tiles early before others get enough so they can claim your discard. Furthermore, since they can’t be claimed for sequences, it makes their discard early all the safer.

Honors are blanks

Honors are aloof. Honors are mysterious. Honors like to be on their own, or at least are most comfortable with their own kind. Just their presence and their uniqueness make the hand more interesting. These peculiarities lead to some interesting pattern building – especially in how they try to fit around everything else you are doing. The ready example of this is the “mixed” patterns. Sure, you could go for an 80-point Pure One-Suit. However, you may have started with some honors, maybe even a value honor. If you manage to get a Value Honor as part of your Mixed One-Suit, you still get 50 points. Nothing to sneeze at, especially if it is a faster hand to make. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

This concept also pairs well with a pattern like Nine-Tile Straight. By definition, those nine tiles are of the same suit. If possible, let’s not disrupt that. Honor tiles can be the ‘seat filler‘ at your awards show. Even a valueless triplet and eyes of honor tiles can add Mixed One-Suit to your list of scoring elements. A tidy 80 points. Maybe Mixed Lesser Terminals and Mixed One-Suit. Another tidy 80 points.

Closing Thoughts

Games like Zung Jung are a statistician’s dream, full of probabilities that can calculate what the ‘right move’ is. However, while I am not bad at math, I am not a calculator. I, myself, have trouble keeping up with all of this, so I’ve tried to visualize and conceptualize my strategies into tools to refer to and inform my play, rather than having to crunch numbers in my head at all times. I hope this is helpful to people who tend to think a little more abstractly in their gameplay. I plan to touch on other heuristics and conceits I’ve made up in my own head to take the burden of not being a mathematician but still wanting to play effectively in subsequent articles.

That being said, is this conceit off the mark? Have you tried something similar with success or failure? Have your own way of handling honor tiles? Let us know below!