As we have dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of ability and luck. The goal is to move your chips safely around the game board to your home board and at the same time your opposing player shifts their checkers toward their inside board in the opposite direction. With competing player pieces shifting in opposite directions there is bound to be conflict and the need for particular tactics at specific times. Here are the 2 final Backgammon tactics to round out your game.
The Priming Game Plan
If the goal of the blocking plan is to slow down the opponent to shift her checkers, the Priming Game tactic is to completely stop any movement of the opposing player by constructing a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The competitor’s checkers will either get bumped, or result a bad position if he/she at all tries to escape the wall. The trap of the prime can be setup anywhere between point 2 and point eleven in your board. After you have successfully assembled the prime to prevent the activity of the competitor, your opponent doesn’t even get a chance to toss the dice, and you move your pieces and toss the dice again. You’ll win the game for sure.
The Back Game Plan
The goals of the Back Game technique and the Blocking Game plan are very similar – to hinder your competitor’s positions hoping to better your chances of succeeding, but the Back Game strategy uses alternate techniques to do that. The Back Game technique is generally used when you are far behind your opponent. To compete in Backgammon with this strategy, you need to control two or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single piece) late in the game. This tactic is more difficult than others to play in Backgammon seeing as it requires careful movement of your checkers and how the checkers are moved is partially the outcome of the dice toss.