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BGonline.org Forums
NG-OLM #6
Posted By: David Rockwell In Response To: NG-OLM #6 (Stick)
Date: Friday, 10 October 2008, at 3:30 p.m.
Checkers sent into the black hole behind the five prime are unlikely to emerge again. Therefore, the traditional backgame strategy of recycling the checkers is not likely to work well. Timing is improved when checkers can move in a loop, forward, back to start and forward again. When our's get hit, they are going back and getting stuck. That doesn't help timing and it may hurt. The worst thing that could happen is to be hit in Stick's outfield. That costs us all of the pips that the checker could have moved forward. Let's get all of the timing we can out of that blot on the 15 and hope for the best. Getting hit on the three isn't as bad since it doesn't have many pips to move forward anyway. (Being hit there does hurt our chances of saving the gammon of course.)
Note that leaping the prime is the equivalent of entering on a five point board. Would we send a checker back with the idea of entering on a five point board and taking part in the struggle from there? How often do you do that in a week's time? This is actually harder since we have to get to the front of the prime before rolling a six.
It may not seem like much, but hitting Stick on the four point costs us four pips in timing by sending him back, half a roll. If we are going to give this gift, we should have an idea of what we stand to gain from it. I don't see enough to justify the hit.
15-6
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