The Essential Basics of Backgammon Tactics – Part 2
As we dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of ability and luck. The aim is to move your checkers carefully around the game board to your inside board and at the same time your opposing player moves their chips toward their home board in the opposite direction. With competing player pieces heading in opposing directions there is going to be conflict and the requirement for specific strategies at specific instances. Here are the last 2 Backgammon tactics to round out your game.
The Priming Game Tactic
If the goal of the blocking tactic is to slow down the opponent to shift their chips, the Priming Game plan is to absolutely barricade any movement of the opponent by creating a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s checkers will either get bumped, or result a damaged position if she ever tries to escape the wall. The ambush of the prime can be built anywhere between point 2 and point eleven in your game board. As soon as you’ve successfully assembled the prime to stop the movement of the competitor, the competitor doesn’t even get a chance to toss the dice, that means you move your chips and roll the dice again. You’ll win the game for sure.
The Back Game Plan
The objectives of the Back Game technique and the Blocking Game tactic are very similar – to hurt your opponent’s positions in hope to better your chances of winning, but the Back Game tactic uses alternate techniques to achieve that. The Back Game plan is often employed when you’re far behind your opponent. To compete in Backgammon with this tactic, you need to control two or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single checker) late in the game. This technique is more difficult than others to employ in Backgammon seeing as it requires careful movement of your chips and how the chips are relocated is partially the result of the dice toss.