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Arimaa >> General Discussion >> Favourite strategies to beat a human
(Message started by: 99of9 on Sep 3rd, 2003, 12:04pm)

Title: Favourite strategies to beat a human
Post by 99of9 on Sep 3rd, 2003, 12:04pm
Just to preserve symmetry, this post was put up in the bot forum... Which if any of these apply to humans?  Are there other easier ways to beat humans?

Quote:
What's your favorite strategy to beat a bot?  I've seen several:

1) get an advanced rabbit with some strong pieces nearby, and sacrifice a lot of material to distract the bot while you creat an unstoppable goal threat

2) Outplay it around the traps and get ahead in material.

3) Keep your own pieces back and force it to come to you, then pin its pieces near your traps defending each other, so you have an advantage on the rest of the board.


I think #2 is the most common for humans.  The distraction bit of #1 doesn't really work on humans.  #3 can still work (It's been used on me at least :) ... naveed), but it's harder to draw humans I think.

Here are some alternatives I've seen especially in the end game:

A) Set up multiple threats, eventually your opponent will lose track of all the pieces he is using to defend them all, and will nicely move out of your way (won't you naveed! :)).

B) Push one attack forward and make your opponent sweat so much over defending it that he loses other pieces in the meantime.  Or if you're not gaining pieces that way, suddenly abandon that attack at a time of your choosing to gain the positional advantage somewhere completely unexpected.

Title: Re: Favourite strategies to beat a human
Post by omar on Sep 11th, 2003, 11:03pm
Exchange trap squares; capture pieces at the opponents trap squres while your pieces are also captured at your trap square. After the dust has cleared, just make sure you can reach goal before your opponent; otherwise your gone :-) This type of games ends up being very risky and doesn't always work. But it sure gets your adrenaline flowing; humans tend to go for it such games much more than bots.

Omar



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