Armada

Strategy Guide

(by Aurelius7 & Kulana)

When you begin the game, the board will look like the image below.  If you started the game, your ship color will be white and your opponent will be black .  You will each have 2 fleets of 6 ships (at opposite corners of the board) for a total of 12 ships each. 

There are two possible moves in Armada. You can click on your piece and then click on any adjoining empty space (duplicating move) or you can "jump" any adjoining space (jumping move). A jump will actually move your piece to the new space. Non-jump moves create a new piece.  To show you an example , we have numbered the squares on the board below. 

Example 1
If you are black, you will have ships in squares 0, 7, 8, 16, 17, 18.  If you click on your ship in square 0 and then click on square 1 it will create a new ship in square one (duplicating your original ship) and increase your total ship count.

Example 2
Now, if you click on your ship in square 1 (the one you just created) and then click on square 3 it will jump the ship to the new square (you will no longer have a ship in square 1 and your total ship count will remain the same.

There are two ways of winning this game.  Either have the larger number of ships at the end of the game (i.e. when all the cells are filled with ships), or prevent your opponent from being able to move (i.e. when you form a wall and your opponent is unable to get ahead of you).

This is a game of having the upper hand.  If you play smart, your opponent will have an increasingly difficult time trying to make up the difference in scores towards the end of the game, but just like in the game of Othello, big swings in the score are still possible if you slack up.

Think offensively first, then think defensively.  You want to get the jump on your opponent while preventing them from doing it to you first.  Always think ahead.  A jump may net you 4 ships from your opponent, but does this leave you open for your opponent to get 4 back from you?  Then you gained nothing.  Rarely jump unless you have to.  Moving will at least increase
your score by one.  Think seriously before you open up a hole.  This happens when you jump from an interior position to hopefully score several ships from your opponent.  Unfortunately, most of the time he or she can then move to fill the hole you created and win back what you gained.  Remember to wall in your opponent whenever possible.  This is easiest to do at cells in the light-blue sections in the numbered armada board above.

Always stay ahead of your opponent so that he or she doesn't wall you in.  Know when to play conservatively.  Sometimes it is better to concede an area of the board if it wont be ultimately more beneficial.  Meaning, let your opponent fill in small areas so that you can wall them in.