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        Arimaa >> Game Analysis >> Game 193023: Belteshazzar vs. ginrunner
        
(Message started by: Belteshazzar on Aug 13^th, 2011, 8:58am)

Title: Game 193023: Belteshazzar vs. ginrunner
Post by Belteshazzar on Aug 13^th, 2011, 8:58am

In regards to this game (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/games/jsShowGame.cgi?gid=193023&s=w), when Gold uses a 99of9 setup and Silver responds with such an aggressive unbalanced setup, what is the best way for Gold to proceed? I often lose time early on because I am very uncertain of what to do.

Title: Re: Game 193023: Belteshazzar vs. ginrunner
Post by Fritzlein on Aug 13^th, 2011, 10:22am

Current conventional wisdom is for Gold to station his camel opposite the silver horses, not opposite the silver camel. See the Gang vs. Mob game for just one of many recent examples. But tune in next year for a new theory. :)

Title: Re: Game 193023: Belteshazzar vs. ginrunner
Post by ginrunner on Aug 14^th, 2011, 4:13am

Honestly, I played that game differently than I would have normally played because we have played so many times and I have grown accustomed to you playing a certain style (which you deviated from and surprised the hell out of me). Your elephant camel attack did trap my camel in and as I told you in the game with a different 5g the trade would have been you getting a dog rabbit for me getting a horse and camel hostage. I think of that as me having the advantage due to the hostage. A possible 3g (not saying this is the best move btw) could have been Ed5n Ed6e dd7s Me2w or Ed5n Ed6e dd7s Hg3s. I have never figured out why people that have played me multiple times dont expect me to attack their advanced horses.

In any case (considering all of the games we have played and not just this specific case) I don't feel like any part of the game is your exact weakness. You tend not to utilize your moves giving me more "time" to forward my plans. A slight example of this is on 6g you pull my rabbit and then on 8g you completely negate 3 of your previous steps. This is kind of a common theme. Another thing I try to exploit when playing you is you tend to attack with a single rabbit or even not at all near the end. I was really fearful of a large scale rabbit assault. You were losing and in my opinion should have tried to turn the game into a chaotic race with your rabbits more advanced than mine.

You really surprised me this game by playing much differently than usual and that is a good thing.

Title: Re: Game 193023: Belteshazzar vs. ginrunner
Post by FireBorn on Nov 17^th, 2011, 8:43pm

On 3g, IMO, you shouldn't worry about your horse or camel being pulled. If your camel gets pulled, just unfreeze it and move it away from the silver elephant one or two squares. If your horse gets pulled, support it with your elephant for an EH attack or retreat your H (probably better to retreat since you're up against EHH).

In the meantime, I would try to pull his camel and position your camel to defend against his two horses, like Fritzlein said.

On 4g, I don't think you should have let him take your horse towards his trap in exchange for an attack on his other trap, since your positional advantage is not worth the trade. As you can see, you only got 2 rabbits for 1 horse. I would have unfrozen the horse with my elephant and retreated it. EM attacks are not very good because the M can get hostaged by the enemy elephant easily, which is exactly what happened here.

14g, I wouldn't have moved the horse on the last step because it is the only thing blocking the silver elephant from coming to help. Then you could have captured both horses without losing yours.

From here you basically lost on material disadvantage. This is why I don't do balanced setups :). Better to have elephant and camel on opposite sides, IMO.