On resolving multiple 3-in-a-rows

[MarianNyah]

Good day to you all!

I suppose this is more of a guide + question type of post, just some random thoughts about the game.

I've recently started playing boop. After playing a few games on my own to figure out some strategies, I figured out that boops can be really frustrating to deal with. It ruins formations and, in some cases, resets the board, making it difficult to set anything up, especially if the opponent is very good at disrupting your position.

An interesting trick I found was to keep as many kittens (or cats) on the board until I find a way to graduate them. Once pieces start clumping together, it becomes harder to boop one another. You can now think about setting up a 3-in-a-row or something else.

I think most will agree that pieces closer to or on the edge of the board are weaker than those in the center. They can be booped off the board rather easily, and they barely contribute to the position. Sometimes, one may find oneself having all their cats on the board and only kittens at hand, preventing them from responding to a cat-based threat from the opponent.

A solution is to find a chance to get rid of the pieces on the edge of the board as soon as possible. Graduating them or booping them off the board seems like a good idea. But this may lead to "loosening up" the support of central squares, making it easier for the opponent to push you off the board.

A different approach is to potentially resolve the 3-in-a-rows present in the center of the board. This clears up the center enough to get something going on now that you've gotten yourself some cats, but pieces on the edge of the board are still there, not doing much now that they're no longer supporting the center. If the opponent has more cats than you at hand, they quickly become liabilities.

Here's where I am stumped: if given the chance to resolve multiple 3-in-a-rows, in general, is it better to resolve those on the edge, or those passing through (or close enough to) the center?

[Ceaseless]

As you've already pointed out, the center kitties are stronger than the edge kitties. So if you're choosing between losing central kitties or losing edge kitties you'd naturally favor losing the edge kitties all other thing being equal. Your comment on losing support doesn't make a lot of sense, if they try knocking away central kitties all they've done is pushed them closer to the edge as edge kitties at worst, which is what edge kitties already are, as opposed to edge kitties being vulnerable to getting knocked off of the board.

Did you have actual position(s) as examples of where this was a debate? Edge kitties would need a pretty strong set-up for themselves to make an exception out of this.

[SmolCatgirl]

Without a position to work on, I'd say that, in general, it is good to convert the kittens on the edge first before the ones at the center. If the concern is about forming a supporting structure, kittens between the center and the edge (think b2, e4 squares in chess terms) will do that for you. You only need one or two kittens on the edge as a foundation for whatever formation you have in the center. Any more than that and you're conceding too much to your opponent (unless your opponent also has a lot of kittens on the edge). If left there long enough, your opponent can undermine your efforts, booping your edge kittens off before you can think about taking advantage of them. Better to get more cats as fast as possible.

You can leave the center unresolved for some time. The added density at the center helps you convert boop into some weird tic-tac-toe or gomoku, where the only concern is forming a 3-in-a-row faster than the opponent. Makes it easier to get something done. I don't think anyone would willingly play like that, not booping pieces off the board for as long as possible, but I've seen one or two people do.