In extraordinarily general terms, there are 3 main plans employed. You must be able to hop between tactics quickly as the action of the game unfolds.

The Blockade

This comprises of creating a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at a minimum as deep as you might achieve, to lock in the opponent’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most acceptable course of action at the start of the game. You can assemble the wall anywhere within your 11-point and your two-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the game progresses.

The Blitz

This involves closing your home board as quickly as possible while keeping your competitor on the bar. For example, if your opposer rolls an early two and moves one piece from your 1-point to your 3-point and you then roll a five-five, you can play 6/1 six/one 8/3 eight/three. Your opponent is now in big-time difficulty seeing that they have two pieces on the bar and you have closed half your inner board!

The Backgame

This strategy is where you have 2 or more anchors in your opponent’s inner board. (An anchor spot is a point filled by at least two of your pieces.) It would be played when you are significantly behind as this strategy greatly improves your circumstances. The strongest areas for anchors are close to your competitor’s smaller points and either on adjacent points or with a single point in between. Timing is critical for an effective backgame: besides, there is no reason having two nice anchors and a solid wall in your own home board if you are then forced to break apart this straight away, while your competitor is shifting their checkers home, seeing that you do not have other extra checkers to move! In this case, it is more tolerable to have checkers on the bar so that you are able to maintain your position up until your competitor provides you an opportunity to hit, so it can be an excellent idea to try and get your competitor to hit them in this case!