Commentated Game against Takticianbot

Good morning, everyone!

I am going a little different route this week. I haven't done one of these types of game breakdowns in about a year, so I thought it would be a nice change.

Speaking of changes in routines, I'm not sure that I will be posting a puzzle next weekend as I will be at GenCon. I hope to play and see some great games with some great people while there, and will probably come back with some blog ammunition, but I won't have my computer with me and I've packed my schedule quite full.



This is a game I played last week against Takticianbot (Tako, for short). If you are really looking to test your skills and there isn't a human around to play, Tako can be your trainer. This bot isn't for the faint of heart, though; it routinely beats almost all humans. So, you have to go into the game with the mindset of learning something and not with the mindset that you are going to boost your ego :)

In my opinion, Tako is great at teaching players efficient and safe moves. It is not a flashy bot, it wins by slowly building threats without much risk involved. This can lead to some interesting moves during games. For instance, in this game, there are a few times where it would seem that Tako should make a 'tak' threat (most humans would), but Tako instead chooses a safer option of placing a flat in another area to build up to a slower and more powerful threat with less chance of its opponent's defense of that threat endangering its flat count.

Let me know what you think of this game and this format. I won't be doing it every week, as it's very time consuming, but I think that one of these commentated games could find its place in my blog every couple months.

Putting the commentary inside of a frame embedded in the blog makes the comments take up too much of the playing area, so, here's a link.


Enjoy!!