Arimaa Tips for Beginners


Avoiding Trap Blunders

  A trap blunder is when you don't see that on the very next 
  move the opponent can trap your piece.

  The best way to avoid trap blunders is to always examine the 
  four traps carefully before submitting your move.  Become
  familiar with how pieces near a trap can be captured.

  This is the most important tip on this page.

Avoiding Goal Blunders

  A goal blunder is when you don't see that on the very next
  move the opponents rabbit can reach the goal and win the game.

  The best way to avoid goal blunders is to pay close attention 
  to advanced rabbits (those within 4 steps of the goal). Also
  become familiar with some positions which look like they
  are safe, but really are not.

Mutually Protection

  Two pieces that are adjacent to the same trap square can
  protect each other so that if one is pushed into the trap
  square, the other keeps it safe.

  Sometimes the only way to save a piece that is next to a
  trap square is to bring another piece to that trap square.

False Protection

  One execption to mutual protection is if the two pieces protecting
  each other are both adjacent to stronger enemy
  pieces. Then one can be moved away while the
  other is pushed into the trap.

Danglers

  A dangler is a non-elephant piece that has advanced past the 3rd 
  row and can easily be pulled towards the enemy side by stronger enemy 
  pieces.  Be careful not to advance your non-elephant pieces past your
  3rd rows if there is any chance of them being pulled by
  stronger enemy pieces.

Not Advancing Rabbits

  Although you want to advance the Rabbits you should only
  advance one or two Rabbits along the edges so they can proceed safely.
  Rabbits can easily get pulled into opponents trap squares.

  Rabbits can be more useful on the first rank to form a 
  wall of defense.

  Do not advance too many Rabbits. Rabbits can get in the 
  way of your own pieces.

  Do not advance Rabbits without having some stronger
  pieces ahead of them for safety.

  After some of the stronger pieces have been exchanged, the
  Rabbits can advance much more easily.

Holding Hostages

  A piece is considered to be taken hostage if it is frozen
  or blocked from moving and can be trapped within four steps. 

  The oppenent will need to keep another piece that is as
  strong as your piece next to the trap in order to prevent 
  you from trapping the weaker piece.
  Thus you can tie up two of your opponents pieces with just
  one of your piece.

Hostage Fork

  This is when you take a piece hostage so that it is between two traps
  and can be trapped in either of them within 4 steps.

  This can be used to cause bots to give up other weaker pieces 
  while trying to save the piece being held hostage. So sometimes
  you don't want to trap the piece you've taken hostage right
  away and give the bot a chance to bring more pieces to try
  and save it. But of course those pieces will be trapped.

Framing

  A piece is considered to be framed if it is blocked on a 
  trap square such that it cannot move or push off and is being
  kept safe by just one friendly piece. The guarding piece will
  not be able to move and is stuck keeping the piece on
  the trap square safe. The guarding piece is said to be
  pinned.

  This is a good way to tie up the opponents stronger
  pieces by framing even a weak piece like a Cat or Rabbit.
  Works well on bots since they give a lot of importance
  to material.

Controling Traps

  By strategically placing two or more strong pieces around
  the opponents trap squares you can gain control of
  them and cause the opponents surronding pieces to run 
  for safety.

Trading Traps

  You are used to the idea of giving up one of your piece
  in exchange for one of the opponents piece. Similarly
  you can trade trap squares by giving up control of one
  of your trap squares to gain control of the opponents
  trap square.

  Sometimes you want to give up control of your trap
  square to gain control of the opponents trap square.
  This is especially good if you have an advanced 
  Rabbit close to the opponents trap square so that a
  path can be more easily cleared for the Rabbit to
  reach the goal.

Sacrificing

  In Arimaa sacrificing opportunities arise more often
  since material is not as important. It is common to 
  sacrifice some pieces when one of your Rabbits is
  close to the goal.

  Giving up some strong pieces to advance a Rabbit to a 
  position from where it cannot be stopped works well with 
  bots.

Rocket Rabbits

  If there has been a lot of exchange of pieces and there
  are fewer stronger pieces on the board, be careful of
  Rocket Rabbits. Rabbits can run fast. Four steps are enough 
  for a Rabbit to run straight to the last rank and win in
  one turn from the fourth rank of its camp.
  For a Rabbit to reach the rank before the last might
  even be enough to win some moves later if the opponent's
  pieces are sparse there. So when there are less strong
  pieces on the board watch out your opponent's Rabbits
  that have already advanced one or two steps forward
  from their starting position.

Open Columns

  Avoid having open columns that make it easy for a enemy Rabbit to 
  slip through. In case you nevertheless ended up leaving an empty
  column, keep  some non-rabbit piece close to that column so that 
  your opponent's Rabbits will get frozen and need more steps and the 
  help of a backing piece to make some progress.

Lopsidedness

  Aviod moving most of your strong pieces to one side and leaving
  only weak pieces to defend the other side. The trap square on
  the weak side can easily be taken over.

Centeral Control

  It is generally good to keep a very strong piece like an 
  elephant in one of the four squares at the center of the board. 
  From this position it can easily reach any of the four trap 
  squares and push in any piece that is alone.