Quarto: How to counter mirror strategy?

[gargoyle_2200]

Hello, first post here. Didn't know where else to put this so hopefully I'm in the right spot.

I was playing Quarto yesterday as a new player vs another new player. She had the start move and I started mirroring her pieces across the board using the opposite color to see what would happen. Wasn't expecting a good outcome because I thought she would trap me but it turned into an easy win for me. After the game was over, we concluded that the mirror strategy was a guaranteed win. The logic is as follows:

The first player moves, and the second player mirror him across the board. This repeats. After the first player finds their last safe spot towards the end of the game (assuming defensive play), the second player will have the same, mirrored safe spot across the board, thus forcing the first player into creating three in a row allowing the second player to stop mirroring and win.

That logic held true for us until we realized that for each piece there is not an equal piece of the opposite color. Because I'm not familiar with the game (re: noob) I don't know how the mirror strategy can be countered, although I assume it can be. Anybody out there who can tell me how to counter this strategy?

Thanks!
~gargoyle

[Jest Phulin]

I am not sure by what you mean by mirror strategy -- color is just one of the four properties a piece has.

Also, I'm confused as to how the mirror strategy can even be implemented. You have no games played here, so I'm assuming you played it with a physical board. If so, you may have missed a very important rule: you do not pick the piece you play, your opponent picks the piece for you. If you pick the piece to mirror the one just played, you do not have control over where that piece is placed on the board.

If you and your friend could play the game online, we (quarto players) could replay it, analyze it, and show where the strategy either works well or has a flaw.

Thanks.

[gargoyle_2200]

I am not sure by what you mean by mirror strategy -- color is just one of the four properties a piece has.

Also, I'm confused as to how the mirror strategy can even be implemented. You have no games played here, so I'm assuming you played it with a physical board. If so, you may have missed a very important rule: you do not pick the piece you play, your opponent picks the piece for you. If you pick the piece to mirror the one just played, you do not have control over where that piece is placed on the board.

If you and your friend could play the game online, we (quarto players) could replay it, analyze it, and show where the strategy either works well or has a flaw.

Thanks.

Thanks, we did miss that rule. Makes a lot more sense! We learned it out of a badly translated version in a pub, so it's possible it didn't even make it into the translated rules...