Help! My opponent won’t stop hitting me!

Liss · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 30

Is there anything I can do if I have one checker trapped in my opponent’s home board and my opponent just keeps on hitting the checker over and over again, trapping me so I can’t get out?

I just finished playing a game like this and it was sooooo frustrating! Ahhhhhhhhhh.

At the beginning of the game I moved one of my back checkers from 24 to 13, leaving a blot on the 24 point. I do this often, and generally it isn’t a problem to free my other checker. This time though my opponent hit my checker immediately, on his first move and then started to build a blockade in his home board. Every time I was able to re-enter my checker he would hit it again and call it bad luck, but I was never able to hit any of the blots that he left from hitting me! Finally, towards the end of the game I got my checker out of his home board and he proceeded to hit my checker again in his next move!

Can anyone recommend a strategy to counter this kind of move? Please help! I can’t take another game like that!

Wipeout · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

Well, it looks to me like you had a case of an opponent with a good strategy so there might not be a whole lot you could have done.

One suggestion would be to intentionally leave more checkers open for your opponent to hit so that you could start building a back game with anchors in his home board. The problem with this is that your opponent may understand what you are trying to do and leave your checkers alone while he continues to keep your checker trapped in his home board. After all, one checker is enough from keeping you from winning the game and I’m sure your opponent is aware of this.

You could also do your best to hit all of your opponent’s blots, wherever they stand (not just in his home board). Even if this doesn’t move you forward it will make you feel like you’re putting up a good fight. In addition, it will buy you time while you work on getting your poor checker free.

This has happened to me before and I know it can be frustrating…I guess in the future you’ll think harder before you leave a checker unexposed in your opponent’s home board!

Rail · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

The situation you have described can be incredibly frustrating—I think we have all been there at one point or another. However, it can also be a fantastic strategy. Imagine being on the other side of the board and keeping your opponent trapped the entire time. If you have the luck of getting all the right dice rolls you can easily win the game by keeping your opponent trapped. Sorry for patting the other guy on the back, but maybe next time you play against him you can try the same move on him.