Board Game Arena

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?
Curious to get your thoughts!

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.

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...

euklid314 wrote: ↑03 September 2023, 17:15 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).

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