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        Arimaa >> Game Analysis >> some helping comments wanted! (a game against bot)
        
(Message started by: Alkemisti on Feb 27^th, 2012, 7:16am)

Title: some helping comments wanted! (a game against bot)
Post by Alkemisti on Feb 27^th, 2012, 7:16am

I played a game against bot_Sharp2011CC (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/games/jsShowGame.cgi?gid=217615&s=b).

Since the opponent was stronger I thought to go for a careful start and try to seek attacking chances after his pieces have come forward a little.

Question 1. 4th-5th his elephant has moved in my territory, is there some kind of way/plan to restrict elephants movements and try to trap it there, tried to find a way but couldn't.

He comes with his camel and it gets kind of stuck there with elephant that has to be protecting trap square.
This is good turn of events for me right? I start to regroup on other wing with camel ahead since it's strongest piece there being careful to stay out of opponents elephant. Planning to take my horse there, advance rabbits and gain some attacking and rabbit run chances.

Would there be better way to "trap" opponents camel and restrict movements or is my placement there ok?

Should I have gone with plan like drag weaker pieces on C6 with camel or horse rather than going for opponents trap point and running rabbits?

And finally, I got my attack, looking ok, but failing in the end :(. Clearly I did something wrong... Would there have been better attacking way somewhere or should I have tried to create threats with my horse and rabbit in hgf-side to get some defending pieces going there and then trying to force through on other side or should I have taken my elephant earlier to support my attack etc.?

I appreciate any comment, sorry for the long post and many questions. Also answering just one question (coz answering all would take some time and effort) is helpful!

Comments relating other moves are also welcome!

Thank you!

Title: Re: some helping comments wanted! (a game against
Post by ginrunner on Feb 27^th, 2012, 9:33pm

For future reference there is a specific area to ask for analysis of your games. That area is called "Game Analysis"

first question: while it is "possible" to trap your opponents elephant down there it would require them to make mistakes and you to use nearly all of your pieces in the process leaving you not much to generate any sort of game play. it is quite a bit easier to trap the elephant if it ventured behind one of the traps but it is still difficult because you have to have all the necessary pieces in the right positions to set up the blockade the next move so again it is unlikely unless the opponent makes a mistake.

As for the general strategy everyone plays their own sort of style. I personally tend to favor the offensive side so I probably would have tried your plan (it was a good plan but could have been executed better and needed more blue pieces to be effective; the execution comes with practice) but that doesn't mean that a rabbit pulling strategy would have been bad. just depends on what you are better at and can get away with.

The gold camel isn't so much "stuck" as "exactly where it wants to be." Gold was executing the plan you were trying. Gold without a doubt controls f6 and can more than likely sneak a rabbit down the h column to score once your threat on the a and b columns is taken care of. You did a good job of defending once you saw the threat but as you can see from 24 on it is a good position for gold. In your position I probably would have tried to pull the camel nearer to the center to threaten capture in the other trap. It is a long process (at least I have yet to find a quick way to do it) but the threat you were facing was big.

Title: Re: some helping comments wanted! (a game against
Post by lightvector on Feb 27^th, 2012, 10:02pm

Some general thoughts, without mentioning any specific tactics:

Your attack was very good, but it looked like you were trying to force goal outright without capturing pieces in C3. Even with such a huge local advantage in strength, if you don't actually take control of C3 and make captures, then forcing goal will not be as easy. Unless you see advantageous tactics from giving up these squares temporarily, it might better to retain control of squares like B3 (and C2, which you mostly did) and keep your heavy pieces posted next to the trap to make captures.

Also, it might worth spending the time to bring up more pieces from behind. In particular, the dog on D8 is is very sad, since it is contributing very little. Also, bringing up more pieces from behind might have forestalled the counterattack around C6 on 22-24g, and if you can hold solid enough control of C6, (so that the gold camel or elephant crossing over isn't an immediate threat) you can also push/flip little pieces from C3 towards C6 to threaten them while weakening C3.

Lastly, on 15s, if gold is willing to spend three steps pulling your H5 rabbit east, it seems good to reserve one of your steps to undo it. Perhaps the bot will waste steps doing it again, but even if not, there's no reason to allow the gold rabbit to advance down the H file so easily.

Those are my thoughts - stronger players than me may have better advice.

Title: Re: some helping comments wanted! (a game against
Post by supersamu on Jan 14^th, 2015, 7:20am

Note: I moved this thread over from the "General Discussion" Subforum, and after I moved it over I noticed that it was at the top of the first page of the "Game Analysis" Subforum.

I will contact Omar to see if there is a way to fix this and will refrain until then from moving such Threads from Subforum to Subforum.