Opening moves:

Some combinations of players' hands definitely give rise to 'best' first moves, but there are so many possible combinations of tiles in the initial hands that this really has to be judged on a case by case basis. One of Tantrix's strengths as far as I am concerned is that while you can develop general strategies, you can't learn standard openings so you have to think on your feet every time, hence the game isn't one of those that favours players who do the most bookwork.

By Bdot on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 03:00 am:

Adding to your preferred line end:

Consider that your line has two ends. First decide which end theoretically is the better one to be extended. Usually one side is preferred, as it may be far enough away from your opponent's line ends to ever be reachable for him/her (so you can waste tiles with his/her colour there), whereas adding to your other line end might help your opponent as much as it helps you! However, the theoretical end to add to, and the one that you actually end up adding to, might differ, as the best move is ultimately decided by the tiles you have available to you... The 'preferred line end check' is only one of many considerations when deciding where to play, but definitely belongs to the basic 'must check' of every move.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 05:32 pm:

Early Loops:

I have played many a Robot game where i have had very early loop of bout 10-16 tiles, the option has been there to keep this as a line and try to make it loop later but both options are fine, but i feel that early loops are good, if you are able to count and block then you dont have to worry bout any of the tiles u get and can concentrate on making sure that your opponent goes nowhere. A smaller loop means this may be harder to keep the opponents score down but i would definitely say that you are more likely to win with smaller loops and blocking than building on a line.

A sceptecal view i know and people may argue this but in experience it has very rarely let me down...

By JMSC on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 06:32 pm:

I find that it is always helpful to build your lines into the end of your opponents' lines. If your opponent has to add to your line in order to extend his/hers/its, it can end up giving you an extra 2-4 tiles, and although that doesn't seem like much, i'm reminded not to take it for granted every time I win by 1...