Tips tumbleweed

Some useful links

There are a number of resources available for this game, which can be very useful to players of all levels:

• Alek Erickson's rules explanation video.
• His Tumbleweed playlist, organized roughly from beginner to advanced.
• https://guide.tumbleweed.games/ which includes advice for beginners, a very detailed discussion of the fundamental shapes of tumbleweed, and a collection of problems.
• https://tumbleweed.antontobi.com/play : an AI that you can play against, designed by the player atari. You unlock a level by beating the previous one. Beating level 10 on size 6 is something only very few players have done.

Introduction

Tumbleweed is a combinatorial, abstract strategy game for two players. There are no draws, or ties, and there is no luck, randomness, or hidden information. The goal of the game is to have more pieces on the board when the game is over. Ultimately, this means the point is to claim more space on the board than the other player. This involves claiming territory where the opponent cannot play pieces. In this wiki, we will have a brief introduction to stacks, lines, groups, shapes, and networks and a brief introduction to life and death. We will find out what are the strengths and weaknesses of stacks, and what factors affect that.

Stacks

Every turn, you must play a stack, which is basically a piece with a number on it. The higher the number, the stronger the stack. In other words, Stack height is defense – bigger stacks are more stable, but see less new areas. The number (or height) of stacks are determined by lines of sight. Each piece can see in all six directions around it. In other words, stacks have lines of sight (LOS). Stacks block lines of sight. That is why your territory is bounded by your stacks - because they block enemy lines of sight (eLOS).

Lines

About friendly and enemy LOS - they are additive with respect to player control. Intersections of LOS increase levels of player control. There are Controlled LOS (only one player can play there) and Contested LOS (both players can play there) versus lines “out of sight” (nobody can play there). The bigger the stack, the less new LOS it creates. But the more links it reinforces.

Control

There are ideas about spreading and ideas about access that are important in Tumbleweed. Score is based on controlling and owning cells (owned plus controlled). You win by “seeing” more of the board. Goal – increase your own control, decrease opponent options. Block opponent LOS and don’t let them block you. Strategic differences between controlled, contended, and unseen areas. Difference between big versus small moves. Play in hot and big areas to gain control. Controlling regions (territory), and difference between territory and zone. Controlling lines, choosing moves that offer more influence. Make a brief word on invading and taking control (will be discussed later). Long-range versus short-range influence. The dilemma of strength versus spreading. Distance in terms of # of moves to reach a particular location , and number of moves to “see” it.

Life and death

Safe/Alive/Living/Dying/Dead. Requirements for life in the corner. Requirements for life only on the edge. Requirements for life only in the center. Simple suicidal moves – don’t do them. 3-stacks will never be simple suicide moves. Stacks help each other live – differences between singleton and collective. Convexity and concavity. Sharp, blunt, and straight angles. Instability of Tumbleweed positions

Networks

fLOS make new stacks, new stacks make links, links make networks. Network thinking in terms of attack and defense. Distance and connectivity. Weaken the enemy networks! Connectivity is key: keep your own stacks strong and connected. Redundancy keeps a network strong, but can reduce influence. Endpoints are weak points. Clumps and groups have different properties. Linear shapes are fragile. Links are the unit of networks. Fences are like walls with holes. Gates are like the holes in a fence. Guards are pieces that have lines of sight on friendly gates. Walls are solid lines of stacks that block enemy LOS from a territory. Strengths and Weaknesses of walls are many. Meshes include triangle, diamond, trapezoid, and you can see the progression. Properties of 1-space , 2-space, 3-space, 4-space, 5-space mesh vary. There are many strengths and weaknesses of meshes in general but it relates to the strength versus the influence of the shape. Being on the corner, versus the edge, versus the center, affects the relative ease for making territory and creating living shapes. There is a dilemma involving central control. The efficiency of network structure might be an important consideration. Move order dependency should be considered in creating efficient networks. Overshooting can help networks get stronger at critical shape points. Forcing moves can be used for building.

Tempo and Initiative

What is tempo/initiative, Value of tempo in general, Subjectivity of tempo / it is possible to play away? Usually yes. Legal moves are affected by each move. Follow-ups determine tempo. Shield tempos, Reinforce tempos, Capture tempos are all examples of how play centers around tempo. There are also futile invasions, and futile attacks, and futile defenses, that can sometimes unfortunately strengthen the opponent.

Opening

Pie rule - Host sets up the game with a red and white stack, while Guest chooses whether to play first with red, or second with white. Value of pie rule is to balance the game. Characteristics that make a pie better for red/white - red should be blocked by the neutral but white should not. Pies that allow for early attacks are bad for the Host because the guest can simply swap and attack immediately with Red. Positioning the pie with respect to the neutral is crucial to block Red from having as much influence on the board (to compensate for first player advantage). Several pie rules that have been considered, and some people have suggested to use Komi instead, although the official way to play is currently with the pie rule as written in the rules, not komi. Neutral blocks line of sight, so that is the reason why we put the red stack facing the neutral in the preferred pie offers. Neutral is like a capacitor for tension in the game, especially when players try to capture it. Getting a strong position in the opening is clearly important. Playing higher stacks early is one way to be safer, but you might lose out on new lines of sight that can be useful later. Triangles are efficient way to make higher stacks. Playing inside the triangle can be dangerous. Playing next to the link can be dangerous. Meshes have advantages (strength) and disadvantages (low influence). Observed strategies include Frameworks (make a big wall), Capturing the neutral (or trying to), using the Line attack (blocking enemy triangle), or simply getting out early from underneath the neutral and allowing White to build first.

If in doubt, A1 (red) and D5, E7, or G8 (white) starts are thought to be fairly balanced, as of June 2022.

Endgame

In the endgame you need to begin calculating the size of a move. Partially this involves an understanding of calculating life and death Closing off and sealing off territories becomes important as well. Strong walls are sometimes needed but not always. Some walls need not be built at all. Wings on the ledges of walls can score tons of points, if you can get lines of sight running across your own walls. There are life/death puzzles with problems and detailed explanations of answers with variations and schematics on the BGG page for endgame practice.

Fighting

Knowing when to fight is important. Some battles are surely lost, and some other battles are surely won, but offer too little to be worth the time (stop pyrrhic victories). Fight for big and hot areas. Attack enemy stacks that can be weakened. Groups and networks can be “eaten away” from the edges. Approach weak enemy stacks with stronger stacks. Don’t let your weak stacks see the opponent's strong stacks unless you plan to use it temporarily or as sacrifice.

Cut

What is a crosscut? Cutting links disconnects the enemy network. Take control of cutting points. Take control of multiple cutting points. If you can shield after cutting you could take control of entire lines. Think about if cutting is safe, and/or keeps tempo. Most cuts in opening are 2-stacks. Most cuts by definition start with 2 eLOS, so they can immediately be attacked. Make sure you can anticipate the likely enemy response to your cuts. Larger cutting stacks are safer. Cutting links between smaller stacks is good. Cutting stacks that come with a direct attack are safer. Cutting small links is more dangerous.

Attack

Put LOS on multiple enemy stacks. If you have enough LOS to capture but the enemy has less LOS on a stack, it may be impossible for them to defend. Single attacks are forcing moves – that can allow you to achieve some goal using the additional lines of sight from a move. Double attacks have follow-up no matter what. Find the move that threatens to capture multiple stacks. Clamps and short-range attacks cannot be shielded as effectively. Distance matters. Use multi-purpose moves.

Capture

Capture removes a stack and replaces it with yours. Capture also replaces all enemy LOS with your LOS. It is good to capture when it weakens enemy network and has follow-up attacks. Sometimes it can be not so good to capture due to tempos and lack of follow-up. Every capture must be carefully analyzed. Suicidal moves are possible even when capturing. Sometimes, a capture can be recaptured inevitably, even if not immediately.

Defenses

There are multiple ways to defend against attacks in Tumbleweed. Blocking: placing a stack to block an eLOS into an area. Shielding: to defend against attacks. Usually it is good to make stronger shields – make shield so that your next shield is a higher stack. Shields deprive enemy of LOS – extend your shield to push harder. Multiple attacking and shielding moves on the same stack can result in a pinwheel. Attacker can use pinwheel pattern to get free moves on the outside, but usually cannot capture: Parrying: one can also increase friendly lines of sight to defend a stack under attack. Usually this means putting 3-4 lines of sight on a 1-2 stack that has 2-3 enemy lines of sight. The key is to make enemy captures suicidal. Redundancy of links makes cutting harder. Reinforcement: if fLOS=eLOS on a friendly stack, you can reinforce. However, a useful rule of thumb is that reinforcing to a 2-stack is always bad (except if it's on the edge of the board).

Invasions and Reductions

Attacking walls can be done by apple picking (eating away from edges), getting underneath, or cutting before it closes. Select moves that give you two lines of sight inside instead of just 1. Securing life in enemy sphere of influence can be done by offering yourself whole-board support a priori. Say, "I Don’t need to invade, I already have stacks here". Otherwise do it by using forcing moves. Try using invasion points to make heavier stacks. Use temporary sacrificial shields when possible to increase your options Sometimes just throw 1-stacks in enemy territory like a sneaky invasion: it's called a message in a bottle – gaining links in enemy territory is good.