General Strategy

Here are some thoughts about general strategy in Lines of Action. Some might be obvious, and some are gleaned from the annotations of Dave Dyer over at the Lines of Action homepage over at Boardspace.net.

1. As in chess, it is better to try and centralize your pieces during the opening. Moving to the center increases that piece's mobility and therefore gives it more chances to connect.

2. Counter-intuitively, having less pieces on the board does not make it easier to connect. It decreases your choice of movement.

3. However, it is best not to capture your opponent's pieces haphazardly. Any capture should also enhance your position. Capturing a lone piece at the edge of the board does nothing and may actually help your opponent.

4. The best moves are those that connect your pieces while blocking your opponent's pieces or breaking one of their connections.

As in chess, these rules are not to be strictly followed all the time, but should be adjusted due to the nature of the position. But these are good rules to have in mind while playing.