The Basics of Backgammon Tactics – Part 2
Posted in Backgammon on 09/15/2020 07:25 pm by Jillian
As we dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of skill and luck. The goal is to move your checkers safely around the board to your home board and at the same time your opposing player shifts their pieces toward their inside board in the opposing direction. With competing player pieces shifting in opposing directions there is bound to be conflict and the need for specific tactics at specific times. Here are the two final Backgammon strategies to round out your game.
The Priming Game Tactic
If the goal of the blocking strategy is to slow down the opponent to move their pieces, the Priming Game tactic is to completely block any activity of the opponent by assembling a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s chips will either get bumped, or result a battered position if she at all attempts to leave the wall. The ambush of the prime can be built anyplace between point two and point eleven in your board. Once you’ve successfully constructed the prime to block the activity of the opponent, your competitor doesn’t even get a chance to roll the dice, and you move your pieces and roll the dice again. You’ll be a winner for sure.
The Back Game Tactic
The goals of the Back Game strategy and the Blocking Game tactic are very similar – to hinder your competitor’s positions with hope to better your chances of winning, but the Back Game strategy utilizes different techniques to do that. The Back Game strategy is often utilized when you’re far behind your opponent. To participate in Backgammon with this technique, you need to control 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single piece) late in the game. This technique is more challenging than others to play in Backgammon because it needs careful movement of your checkers and how the checkers are relocated is partly the outcome of the dice toss.