The Basics of Backgammon Strategies – Part Two
As we have dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of ability and pure luck. The aim is to shift your checkers carefully around the game board to your inner board and at the same time your opposition moves their chips toward their inner board in the opposing direction. With competing player pieces heading in opposing directions there is going to be conflict and the need for particular tactics at particular times. Here are the two final Backgammon techniques to finish off your game.
The Priming Game Tactic
If the purpose of the blocking plan is to hamper the opponents ability to shift her pieces, the Priming Game tactic is to completely block any activity of the opposing player by assembling a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s pieces will either get bumped, or result a damaged position if he/she ever tries to escape the wall. The ambush of the prime can be built anyplace between point 2 and point 11 in your game board. After you’ve successfully assembled the prime to prevent the movement of your competitor, your opponent does not even get a chance to toss the dice, that means you move your checkers and toss the dice again. You’ll win the game for sure.
The Back Game Strategy
The aims of the Back Game tactic and the Blocking Game strategy are similar – to hurt your competitor’s positions with hope to boost your odds of winning, however the Back Game plan uses alternate tactics to do that. The Back Game tactic is commonly used when you’re far behind your opponent. To play Backgammon with this strategy, you have to hold 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single checker) late in the game. This plan is more difficult than others to use in Backgammon seeing as it needs careful movement of your checkers and how the chips are moved is partly the result of the dice roll.