This turned almost the entire top two rows to blue, including extending my dark blue squares from one to three. This would have had the added bonus of turning the N and L in my corner to red, forcing me to work much harder for a good reply move. My opponent would have likely done better if she had played BLANDER. This was a significant oversight in my view- and I quickly took advantage of it. ![]() However, it failed to undo my NW corner foothold. This looked pretty good it re-established her control of the NE corner, even extending it a bit. It gave me the desired foothold in the northwest corner plus turned every light red square in the northeast corner to blue. I attempted to accomplish this goal in this game with the word SLANDERS. By continuing this dual pressure over several turns, I hope to eventually build an advantage while limiting the ability of my opponent to expand their lead. Ideally, this requires my opponent to fight back on two fronts. When playing second, I do my best to have my move accomplish two goals simultaneously: (1) Force my opponent to defend their advantage and, if possible, (2) establish a corner of my own. Unless an obviously great word presents itself, I typically spend more time on my first move than any two or three moves for the rest of the game. I give a great deal of thought to my first move. One or two, even minor, errors can quickly turn a disadvantage into a sure loss. Accomplishing this, however, will require playing catch-up for most of the game and being very careful not to make mistakes. The good news is that, even with the corner lost, I can still theoretically win by at least 17-8. I may be able to do better, but I don’t count on it. For example, you could turn a word like SLAM into (with the second M) the much better SLAMMED or SLAMMER.Īfter a start like this, I assume the corner (perhaps 6-8 squares) will still be in my opponent’s color at the end of the game. These are desirable letters to re-use for long words - as they form the suffixes -er and -ed. It’s an especially strong start because the corner contains the letters d, r and e. She has solid control of the northeast corner, with two protected (dark red) squares. My opponent opens with the word DRAPERY, leaving the strong position shown in the figure below. My hope is that these annotated replays can help develop your own skills.Īs the figures below do not include every move of the game, you should ideally follow along with the full replay of the game. I also include briefer analyses of two other games. What follows is a move-by-move analysis of a tightly fought game, explaining the thinking and strategy that went behind each move. However, going from abstract advice to practical implementation may prove a bit tricky. Essentially, I followed the advice outlined in the quote above. In almost two-thirds of those games, I played second - usually after my opponent got off to a solid start. While it’s certainly an advantage to go first, I wouldn’t be too concerned - no matter how big the advantage seems. If not, Loren wouldn’t be considering a “pie rule” (which I hope he doesn’t do). While Josh acknowledges that a great opening is not an “insurmountable” advantage, it sure comes close to sounding like one. Developer Loren Brichter told me that he’s considering adding a “pie rule,” which would allow the second player to veto the opening move. However, the current first-mover advantage might be short lived. Like Microsoft in the ’90s, you want to “embrace and extend.” “Embrace” the opponent’s letters by using as many as possible, and “extend” by using unclaimed letters, preferably taking another corner as you do so. If you play following an opponent’s really great opening, you’re at a disadvantage, but not an insurmountable one. ![]() If you’re opening the game, always defend a corner letter and make the longest word you can. A well-played opening can devastate your opponent. The first move in Letterpress confers a huge advantage. ![]() My focus here is on how to play when you go second after your opponent has made a great opening move. If you do prefer a review of the rules and essential strategy, I highly recommend Josh Centers’ Letterdepressed in Marco Arment’s The Magazine. I figure that, if you don’t already know how to play, you’re not going to be reading this article anyway. I’m not going to review the basics of the game here. My hat is off to developer Loren Brichter for creating this delightful app. For me, it is a nearly perfect merger of my dual interests in word puzzles and strategy board games. In fact, it is my favorite new game since Angry Birds.
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