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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> All-Out Attack
        
(Message started by: mistre on Jun 21^st, 2007, 3:15pm)

Title: All-Out Attack
Post by mistre on Jun 21^st, 2007, 3:15pm

Aamira 2006p2 is a bot I have trouble with because it's strategy is so different from the other bots I've played. It's no holds barred attack can be defeated if one is patient enough. However, it causes some difficulties because it can block piece movement and prevent its own pieces from freezing due to keeping several pieces in close proximity of one another.

Has anyone tried to make a stronger "All-out attack" bot? Has anyone experimented with this strategy themselves?

Looking forward to any replies.

Title: Re: All-Out Attack
Post by Fritzlein on Jun 21^st, 2007, 11:18pm

There have indeed been experiments with attacking bots. The first real bot, Occam, advanced rabbits fearlessly, and this tendency remains in its descendant Arimaazilla. However, folks soon learned that you can let Arimaazilla come to you, and slaughter its rabbits.

The second real bot was Bomb. Bomb fearlessly advanced its pieces, and was at least as good as the best humans at that time. It's too bad one can no longer play bot_Arimaanator, an early version of Bomb, because that bot had very strong piece play combined with an aggressive attitude. In any case, people eventually learned that taking a camel hostage was the key to beating bot_Arimaanator.

After that, Fotland made Bomb more defensive, and in particular very conservative with its camel. Aggressive play went out of style among humans too. But that didn't stop humans from experimenting from time to time with an all-out attack. One painful memory for me is this game (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/gameroom/replayFlash.cgi?gid=11704&s=w&client=1) where 99of9 blew me away with an all-out advance. I thought I knew that "take a camel hostage" was the answer to aggressive play, but it wasn't enough to save me in that game.

Over time I learned more about how to deal with swarming attacks, and got better at insuring that I had total control of at least one of my two home traps. On the other hand, other people like Adanac and PMertens got better at launching swarming attacks, particularly delayed swarms where is it more typical to advance four pieces one step each, than one piece at a time, four steps each. PMertens brutalized me with a slow swarm in this game (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/gameroom/replayFlash.cgi?gid=32175&s=w&client=1).

The fact is there is a sort of arms race between strategic ideas. If an attack has some success, folks start playing it more often, but as it gets more popular, we learn how to defend against it. Then the pendulum swings back to defense until some new attacking ideas emerge.

Right now, any sort of attack involving the camel is out of style. Only blue22 regularly exposes his camel, and sometimes Adanac, while everyone else judges it is too costly to give up a camel hostage. But it wasn't always so. A year and a half ago, there was quite a spurt of interest in camel attacks.

The main attacking idea in vogue nowadays is to attack with an elephant and horse on the wing where the opposing camel is not. However, the thought is rarely to swarm. More often the attacking horse is content to pull a rabbit and run away, if allowed to. Chessandgo is the foremost expert of this mode of play. It isn't that he doesn't want to swarm. On the contrary, he is a brilliant attacker, and no one is more dangerous with an E+H+M attack. The reason he doesn't swarm is merely that I seem to be able to beat it off and get him in trouble more often than not. He tried swarming play against me over and over again before deciding he could beat me more easily with his current style.

At the end of the day, the only rule is "whatever works". Until someone comes up with additional ideas and resources that support swarms, it will probably remain out of fashion.

Title: Re: All-Out Attack
Post by mistre on Jun 26^th, 2007, 11:32am

Thanks for the run-down on Arimaa history. I appreciate your helpfulness and welcoming attitude to new members. I hope to be playing Arimaa for many years to come.