notes-games-generalStrategies

there is a balance between how much resources to commit to attack vs. defence

there is value in momentum/keeping initiative/'clearing the board'/keeping the opponent on the defence while you go on the attack

lookahead (think: if i do this, what can my opponent do? and for each of those, what will i then be able to do? and for each of those...). related: dont play sometthing that could be a longterm investment but that gven the curre t board state will be immediately captured

dont 'save up' your resources too much/too long while waiting for the perfect opportunity. On the other hand, sometimes hold back for a few turns so as to prevent immediate capture on the next turn or two.

don't overinvest, that is, sink too many resources into things with long-term payoffs at the expense of the short term.

don't attack just to have areas you conquer retaken the next turn, when if you had done things a little slower you could have defended them after the attack

don't start wars out of fear

in things like CCGs (collectible card games), where you 'construct a deck', consider the 'mana curve'; your deck should have a lot of things for the start of the game, as well as a lot for the end

some moves/cards are 'must answers', in that they force the opponent to answer them quickly lest they set you up for great gains later. These are valuable.

In games where you can purchase 'minions' who then act on each turn, these tend to pay off many times over, if you can keep them alive

In some games, it's better to have two 'level 1' minions than one 'level 2' minion if each minion can only attack once per turn, or if there are things that can kill any 1 minion

some conceptual categories for pieces/moves: control (can stop the opponent from doing what they want) vs block (tank) (can protect other units from damage) vs area effect (can hit many enemy units at once, and/or can hit 'untargetable' units) vs things that grow (feeders) (over time they become more powerful)

things that grow are most powerful. multiplicative growth effects are powerful.

unit health is more important than attack strength. one metric that is sort of important is (health*attack_strength), this is the amount of damage you can do to the enemy assuming each attack generates a fixed amount of damage.

if there is a 'lifeforce' such as player HP in some collectible card games, then don't let lifeforce get too close to zero, because the opponent may have a surprising combo that can do an unexpected amount of damage in one move. Similarly, if there is a 'point' system where the first player to get some amount of points wins, when an opponent is getting close, hurry, because they may have a surprising way to gain many points at once.