Openings

Not sure they are standard but have found that playing from the dwarf point i like moving one of the back row dwarfs to make a group of three "DDXDD"
to "DDDXD" if the Trolls make a line of 4 to attack it then sacrifice dwarf too break up line of 4 on the black square closest to line of 3 dwarfs then on the next move mirror image 4 the dwarfs on the opposite side "DXDDD" this seems to permit the build up of a quick block by using a few sacrifices on the Troll side i like 2 control the white diags as quick as possible if dwarf moves permit.

Yeah, making a "baseline" like this seems to be common - at the beginning of the game, there's no way to create a baseline other than to move a dwarf sideways. See the post I write about dwarf strategy somewhere round here. First draft of this, I didn't have a baseline on the example, and it was a LOT harder to demonstrate dwarf defense. The baseline effectiely gives you a solid wall through which a single troll may not pass, just with a couple more dwarfs (D=dwarf, x=threatened spot, .=empty unthreatened spot)
:

|. x . x .
|. . . x .
|D D . x .
|D D . x .
|D . . . .
 \ x . x .

Yes, now I see how that works. The funny thing is, I started opening that way on my first few games, and abandoned the approach later in favor of forming an early line.

Forgive the drunken ramblings of a newcomer to the game, a veteran of one game only, i found the joy of unique board shape and mobility of the dwarves. Completely ignoring the trolls, i focussed on racing dwarves together in one corner of the board only, forming a right angled triangle with the diagonal as the hypotenuse. The size gave it fantastic reach, meaning that early troll charges towards it were just suicidal, and any attempt to ignore it just gave me more time to build it. To summarise :my tactic (albeit only used once, so feel free to discredit it) was to make one giant block, using the angle of the board to prevent manouevres behind it.

All i need now is one for the trolls...

The triangle of death as one of my opponents has called it i tend in the early part of the game to try to start building on the flat and only move to the side and build the triangle if i have too after a few troll moves. I quite often try to build this type of trangle in the later game and it can work well. But i think if you are too obvious about it in the early game then it is easlily defeated by Trolls lineing up diagonals that attack the vunrable bit of the triangle b4 it is fully formed. It is worth remembering as a dwarf to get anywhere forming a block that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a few to get your first block.

Troll stratergy should be to get out to four of the 7A corners as quickly as possible without letting a big block form. As a troll diagonals can be quite powerful and somtimes when setting up a diag of 3 the last troll move can set up an attack on 2 sides of the board at once.

SANEAlex

Actually, I called it the Terrible Triangle, but Triangle of Death is good enough as well