Azul Weekly Puzzle #005

[Effgee]

Hi all!
Following our little probability puzzle, let's get back to real game situations!

This is the beginning of round 3, we're trailing by 7. Tiles for rounds 4 and 5 will be: 9 Red, 7 Yellow, 10 White, 7 Blue, 7 Black

So here there is a lot of interest for red on both sides, do you go with 1 red, 2 reds or 3 reds? or something entirely different?

puzzle005_censored copy.png (476.38 KiB) Viewed 1667 times

Curious to get your thoughts!

[Reish Galuta]

I like 3 reds on 3 here. There will still be yellow or black for the 2, and we can still finish the 5.
If opponent takes the 2 red and we take the 1 red, we are guaranteed the 2y or 2bk.

Putting them elsewhere (like the 4 or 2) seems wrong to me, as it would be trickier to still fill the 3 row.

[euklid314]

To keep a compact position we should try to get 3 yellow for row 1+2. It looks promising since our opponent only needs 1 yellow. He will try and join the yellows to bigger groups.

Our opponent would love to get 2 red and 3 blue for row 2+3. Thus we should be careful not to join 2 blues in a group. We can take blues and put them in row 4 where we have no good colors anyways...

That said, I would start with taking 2 red and putting them on row 5 (i.e. discarding 1 red). This puts pressure on our opponents plans (he will perhaps take 1 blue and starting tile) while we still have our yellow plan intact...

[pahakuukkeli]

That said, I would start with taking 2 red and putting them on row 5 (i.e. discarding 1 red). This puts pressure on our opponents plans (he will perhaps take 1 blue and starting tile) while we still have our yellow plan intact...

If I were the opponent, I'd immediately put the three red to fifth row in response. All the other moves would seem to put a column completition at risk.

Because of the above, I'd either take three reds (either on row five or three) or choose another color (two yellows to second column looks tempting).

[admitted]

i like 3 red on row 4 because 3 red on 3 makes yellows and blacks utterly useless for the round. I want to create the threat of 3 yellows and 3 blacks. Works well with adjacency, also down the road can create the threat of a second column