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        Arimaa >> Game Analysis >> Game 501881: Weiqifan vs. bot_Sharp2014Fast
        
(Message started by: Weiqifan on May 5^th, 2016, 7:23am)

Title: Game 501881: Weiqifan vs. bot_Sharp2014Fast
Post by Weiqifan on May 5^th, 2016, 7:23am

The game:
http://arimaa.com/arimaa/games/jsShowGame.cgi?gid=501881&s=b

Inspired by Game 332896: Lion vs. bot_Sharp2014Fast,

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/games/jsShowGame.cgi?gid=332896&s=b

I decided to try a similar setup as silver. I guess the idea is to pull a rabbit with the flanking horse. If gold tries to attack with the camel, you try to take it hostage. If gold tries to hostage the horse with his Elephant, you are probably ok with it, especially if you can get his camel in return. Your own camel should be ok as long as it has your horse as "canonfodder".

As it happened I couldnt handle Sharps threats to both my horses, so I abandoned one horse for a camel hostage. I think this must be a mistake. A horse seems too valuable to be sacrificed. I dont know what I did wrong in the opening.
I figured I must put my horse forward to prepare for an attack if Gold decide to move his elephant elsewhere.

Despite the opening, sacrificing a horse for a camel hostage turned out to work surprisingly well. Maybe because my camel and other horse prevented Sharp from swarming the hostage trap. Then Sharp let me block its elephant, and I now had my Camel against two horses.
I think this position was a theoretical win for me, but I couldnt find a good continuation.

Title: Re: Game 501881: Weiqifan vs. bot_Sharp2014Fast
Post by clyring on May 5^th, 2016, 9:37am

Some quick thoughts:
-If your idea is rabbit-pulling on the two horses wing, you should have some answer to the gold elephant camping on the g5 square, which makes any pull past h4 very difficult. The stock idea here is to advance and threaten to blockade the f5 square, but a mix of bold advancing and rabbit pulling may not be to your liking.
-Generally, while your elephant is tending to threats in the east, you should expect the gold camel to be able to cause you moderate annoyance in the west. That said, consider on 10s and 12s only bringing your elephant over to d4 or on 10s retreating your horse without your elephant, each looking to defend your western horse with minimal use of tempo.
-16g is a big mistake and the main reason the fighting with the camel hostage favored you.
-23s bites off a little more than you can easily chew- after 24g it is clear that you don't have enough firepower at f6 to handle both gold horses and company easily, if at all. Taking a smaller prize, such as the g3 rabbit was likely better, with several good continuations if the same 24g is played. Later in the fight, there are moves such as 24s g5::e5 and 25s me5e He6s cf6w cf7s with similar ideas. After the played 25s, the position is unclear to me, but 26s me5e He6s re7s rd7e might be the best try, looking to reach f7 more efficiently than the played move can.