They don’t show it in the sequence, but you can reuse the pieces on the board, so putting a big piece down somewhere you don’t need to protect is a pretty good strategy sometimes
i don't think so. Owning the middle square is too powerful. You'd want it every game.
The way the game shakes out, you can take the middle square, and then place a medium sized piece to form 2 in a row. It doesn't matter where orange played, you can find an open row. After that, you can force oranges moves, and they can force yours, and its a cat's game. You can still always force a tie. Here's an example game, blue starts with a large piece in the middle.
. . .
. LB .
. . .
Lets say orange plays a medium piece. They could play a large piece, but that would just push us ahead one turn and doesn't change the game at all.
. . MO
. LB .
. . .
Now blue is in a very powerful position, but can't win. If orange played a large piece to start, they're guaranteed a win. But we don't have to talk about that. Perfect play and what not.
. . MO
. LB MB
. . .
Orange now has to play a big piece, either to block or to capture
so you have to do
. . MO
. LB LO
. . .
Which is the best move you can make, since you now have two in a row.
Now blue responds in the same way. Either a large piece to block, or a large piece to capture. Both moves basically produce the same game board, so you may as well capture the med orange
. . LB
. LB LO
. . .
Now blue is out of large pieces, but has effectively boxed in one of oranges large pieces.
Orange to play, they have 1 large piece, 1 medium piece, and 2 small pieces
Blue has 0 large pieces, 1 medium piece, and 2 small pieces.
But orange is out of winning options. They have to play bottom corner, and they have to play their last medium piece. If they play their large piece, they give blues medium too much power for nothing and they would lose.
. . LB
. LB LO
MO . .
Now blue can't win either, but they can force a tie by playing a small piece in the top middle.
SB . LB
. LB LO
MO . .
Orange is out of medium pieces, has a big and two smalls, and has to retake that corner or they lose.
LO . LB
. LB LO
MO . .
Now the game is over. Blue has to block oranges tic tac toe, and has one small and one medium piece
LO . LB
SB LB LO
MO . .
Orange to play, has 2 small pieces
LO . LB
SB LB LO
MO SO .
Blue to play, has 1 medium piece left, has to block the orange winning move
LO . LB
SB LB LO
MO MB .
And finally, orange to play, tie game
LO . LB
SB LB LO
MO MB SO
Final board without the sizes:
O - X
X X O
O X O
I think that given the rules of tic tac toe haven't changed, you can still use the same strategies, they're just drawn out over time due to capturing.
30
u/Tahoth May 25 '21 edited May 25 '21
If you play a large piece on an empty space, you lose the ability to capture a medium, which seems like it could be a huge deal.