Strategy and tactics in board games and beyond

Strategy and tactics in board games and beyond

 

Strategy and tactics are two fundamental concepts not only in board games but in games in general. In the words of chess player Saviely Tartakower Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do, while strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do. In this article, you'll learn more about these concepts and how they apply to games.

 

Strategy and Tactics in Board Games and Beyond 1

What is Strategy

 

Strategy, in simple terms, is a plan to achieve the desired result. Board games are about winning. Therefore, you must come up with a plan to win. This plan should make the most of your resources and be flexible enough to adapt to your opponent's plan. Of course, you don't know what your opponent is doing until he starts doing it. But once he makes a move, you can calculate what options he has and how to react to each variation.

 

The resources you need to use wisely in your strategy are time and materials. It takes time to reflect as matter is represented by your pieces. Ideally, you should waste as little time as possible and move in a way that maximizes the combined strength of your characters.

 

When chess players strategize, they think at least a few moves ahead. Your objective is to slowly accumulate positional, tactical, or material advantages. Once you get a small edge, you can expand it if you use it wisely. Every move counts.

 

In board games, your strategy is based on complete information. This means you can see what your opponent has and is doing at any time, and use that information to make your own moves. In other games like StarCraft or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you only have as much intelligence as you can find. So you have to constantly watch your opponent to know what he is doing.

 

What are the tactics

 

Strategy and Tactics in Board Games and Beyond 2

Tactics are the actions you take to accomplish part of your plan or to defend yourself against what your opponent is doing. When you think about strategy, think about the whole campaign. When thinking about tactics, think about the details: “How am I going to achieve this? What moves move me forward? How do I react when the opponent does something specific? Etc. »

 

Tactics are the implementation of your strategy. In chess, two of the most well-known tactics are the pin, the fork and the sacrifice.

 

When you use the pinning tactic, you try to pin one of your opponent's pieces and threaten to take another important piece if it moves.

 

The fork tactic is an attempt to threaten multiple pieces at once, so no matter what they are trying to save, your opponent always loses something important.

 

The sacrifice tactic involves sacrificing one of your characters to gain another advantage. For example, some of the greatest chess games of all time had a queen sacrifice that resulted in victory for the player who chose to sacrifice their queen.

 

Strategy and tactics in off-board games

 

Strategy and Tactics in Board Games and Beyond 3

One of the most famous boardless games where strategy and tactics matter is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or CS:GO. Millions of people play it, watch its tournaments and bet on it using online sports betting platforms such as Rivalry. In CS:GO people think and use tools like in board games like Chess or Go https://www.csgoboard.com . With this tool, players can easily plan each round in advance.

 

Strategy and Tactics in Board Games and Beyond 4

In CS:GO, the material consists of the team members and their equipment. How you use a smoke grenade, the timing, and where on the map you want to make your move can all, in theory, be carefully considered. This aspect of the game concerns IGLs (In-Game Leaders), coaches and players in general. Because without the right tactics and a solid strategy to win the game, the chances of success are slim.

 

CS:GO is the perfect example of a game where players must constantly react to what their opponents are doing and make good decisions to succeed. As in chess, time is running out quickly. Except here the opponent doesn't have to wait for you to make a move, so your reaction time is crucial.

 

Conclusion

 

Whether you play board games or other types of games, study the concepts of strategy and tactics and you will automatically become a better player. Knowing how to create a winning plan is one of the keys to success in this field.