Advice on starting out with Thud
By: Trevor Truran
When starting out playing Thud you will find that the trolls have something of a tactical advantage. This fades as one gains experience and faces stiffer competition but for the DWARFS to survive, it is essential to form as large a BLOCK as possible, as soon as you can. A block is a solid group of dwarfs forming a square or rectangle. Initially, a rectangle of six dwarfs is enough to prevent a single troll from coming within two squares without being taken. But six is not enough against a shove by two or more trolls. Nine dwarfs in a square are needed to make sure that any attack costs the life of a troll for the loss of only one or two dwarfs.
TROLLS - make the most of your early advantage - attack and capture as many dwarfs as you can. Ideally, also prevent the dwarfs from forming a block. If not, try to be lots of points ahead before the block is completed and the dwarfs have the advantage.
DWARFS - sometimes a partly-formed block is seriously threatened by a line of trolls and there is no obvious way of defending it. It might well be worth having a look at THE OTHER END OF THE TROLLS' LINE! You may be able to threaten the tail-end charlie in the line, either with a mini-line attacking it or a single, sacrificed dwarf plonked next to it. If the trolls take the bait - their line is then too short, for a couple of moves, to attack your block - giving you time to strengthen it. If the trolls ignore your threat and attack your block - at least you can quickly capture that end troll and gain four points from the situation to compensate for the carnage being wreaked on your block.
TROLLS - be aware of the danger of forming a shoving line directly against two, or more dwarfs. You may find that one more dwarf filling the front of their line will leave you with a certain loss. For instance, four dwarfs only two squares away from two trolls means that if the front troll is moved to safely, the one behind will be captured. The only other option is to take the front dwarf with the front troll and lose it. Either way, the situation results in a points loss for the trolls.
DWARFS - if the position looks hopeless and disaster seems certain - don't forget to RUN - scatter your survivors separately around the board and then move to keep them away from any troll that tries to lumber towards them. Try not to have two dwarfs both only one square away from a square a troll can reach - as it will then be sure to capture one. Keep running until the trolls player gives up - at least you will have saved some losses and cut the score down.
DWARF BLOCK-BUILDING
WARNING :
IF YOU WANT TO HAVE THE FUN OF WORKING OUT YOUR OWN STRATEGY TO GET THAT DWARF BLOCK STARTED - DON'T READ ON - GET OUT NOW!
Let's have a look at the opening situation and see what's on offer. (We won't do the move diagrams here, but hope you'll set up a board and make the moves on that, using the Thud Board Map for reference.)
We'll do the dwarfs moves in lower case and the TROLLS in UPPER.
A handy start might be e14 - g14. If the trolls choose to attack this proto-block by say, H9 - J10, the dwarfs can defend the square J14 by filling F14. If the trolls attack with a shove, the dwarfs will capture the shoved troll for the loss of 2 dwarfs. But if the trolls respond by moving J10 - H11 it will soon become obvious that this single troll can attack the block before it can be made large enough to be safe.This is because the dwarfs need to occupy that vital empty edge square - h15, but doing so allows the troll to advance. THIS IS THE DWARFS' MAIN PROBLEM - they are one move short of being able to defend against a troll attacking head-on.
The dwarfs' choices are:
1. Add a couple more to the block and draw the troll nearer before running.
2. Run straight away and start a block elsewhere.
3. Try and divert the troll with a sacrificial block in front of that single troll (too late!)
4. Leave the position as it is and start again elsewhere. Clearly, another start, either fresh or from running, will lead to another troll attack. Which doesn't seem a good idea - unless the dwarfs can upset the central troll position and, probably at the fourth attempt, start a block that cannot immediately be attacked. If the trolls cannot threaten a shove, and so force the dwarfs to waste a vital move defending it, the dwarfs are no longer one move behind.
After three attempts and drawing three trolls towards three main battle areas, the fourth attempt should succeed. This means that the trolls will have to make a points-losing attack if they are to destroy this last block-building attempt.
Gaining that vital move can be achieved in other ways. For instance, from the start e14 - g14 and the response H9 - J10, why not stop the troll shove by sacrificing a dwarf to BREAK THE LINE UP! This can be done by moving: k1 - k8. The trolls can either carry out the shove - and lose a troll in the central area from a capture from k9, or move a troll out of the line to capture that wretched dwarf. But doing that stops the troll threat and they will require another move to get back into line before the attack can be carried out. THIS IS THE ONE MOVE THE DWARFS need to get the block started.
This early sacrifice can be used in another way - you can use several sacrificial dwarf moves one after the other to disrupt the trolls' neat and powerful layout. Once you have prevented them from immediately forming a shoving line in just one direction, you can build a block in the area that cannot be quickly attacked - and this has the benefit that the other trolls are not yet threatening and dominating the other main battle areas. Once the dwarfs get that move ahead and start building, the trolls have problems...
Do they attack the block, losing points in the process, or go elsewhere for easy picking?
And, just what is the best troll response to this dwarf deviousness?
Give us an answer here!
Happy thudding, folks!
Thudmeister Trev
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