Bot Slaying

This page is a collection of various strategies and techniques that seem to work pretty well against the bots. Along with the description of each strategy are links to games that demonstrate it in action.

Feel free to edit and add to this page.

Hostage Crisis

Some of the early Arimaa bots used to be very agressive and moved their camel forward early in the game. This led to very complex and tactical games where the early human players were at a disadvantage. It was soon discovered by Claude Chaunier (clauchau) that using one's elephant to hold the bot's camel hostage next to a trap square simplified the situation and provided a significant advantage. The bot's elephant would be tied down to staying near the hostage camel to keep it safe. One's own horses (and to some extent one's camel) are then free to roam the board and do damage. Here is an early game where Claude uses this strategy: Game 705. Another game which demonstrate this strategy: Game 769. The bots have become more careful now of not allowing the camel to be taken hostage, but apart from Bomb all the bots are still prone to give up a camel hostage in the heat of battle.

Burrowing Rabbit

Frank Heinemann (Belbo) originated a strategy where one's primary focus is to slowly drive a rabbit to goal by pushing and pulling the opponent's defensive pieces out of the way while slowly advancing your own rabbits and other pieces. Here is one of the early games demonstrating this strategy: Game 3364. Frank also used this strategy in the 2005 postal tournament to show that it can work even when the bots have a much longer thinking time: Game 12061.

Bait and Tackle

Christ-Jan Cox (Ceejay) stumbled on a weakness of bot_Speedy that its elephant could easily be given a piece to lure it behind a trap square and then blockaded. Once the elephant has been locked up, the stronger pieces holding the blockade are freed up by replacing them with weaker ones. The bot is then much weaker and can eventually be finished off. Here is the original game: Game 6130. Another game that shows this technique: Game 6151.

It's been proven by now that it still works against the 2005CC bots (namely Bomb, Clueless, Gnobot, and Loc) without exception. Clueless being the one who fights it the most consistently and relentlesly and it requires the giving up of a dog (otherwise it won't go for it) but in the end it can be defeated as long as one stays vigilant. As can be seen in Game 20032 with Gold and in Game 19879 with Silver.

Captain Crunch

A bot that plays too defensively can sometimes literally be crushed. This strategy advances all the pieces towards the opponent's side until the opponent has no room to move. A player who cannot make a move loses the game in Arimaa (unlike stalemate in Chess). Frank Heinemann (Belbo) gave an impressive demonstration of this strategy in the 2nd Arimaa Challenge match; Game 12121.

After an epic competition, Paul Mertens eventually proved that though starting with a heavy handicap (1 horse and 1 dog), one can crush a bot's pieces without taking any of them in a stunning game; Game 17795 and then managed a no piece taken crush of another bot; Game 18992

HEart Attack

In a Horse-Elephant attack one purposely advances a horse towards the bot's trap along with the elephant, threatening to take control of the trap. The bot will bring its elephant to that trap and take the horse hostage. One then uses the greater mobility of one's elephant to pull out weak pieces and trap them. Eventually the bot is weakened to the point where it cannot defend. Karl Juhnke (Fritzlein) discovered this when playing bot_Speedy. Here is a game demonstrating this strategy: Game 10621. This technique seems to be a very safe and sound way to defeat a bot. In fact Frank Heinemann (Belbo) used it repeatedly in the 2005 Arimaa Challenge match. Here is one of those games: Game 11796.

Congestive HEart Attack

This is a variation of the HEart Attack strategy. After the bot's elephant takes the horse hostage, a lot of weak pieces, like rabbits, cats, and dogs, are used to clog the elephant in so that it cannot get out. One's own elephant can be freed by replacing it with a horse or camel. Here's a game that shows this strategy: Game 10619. Another game which demonstrates this (from the 2005 Arimaa challenge match): Game 10619.

Chronic HEart Attack

Naveed Siddiqui (naveed) accidently discovered in a game against bot_Bomb2005Blitz that after starting an elephant horse attack on one side, he could exchange trap on the other side and win pretty quickly. He tried the same technique on bot_Bomb2005CC and it worked just as well. This variation of the HEart Attack is very tricky to execute, but if done properly it provides a faster way to finish off the bot. Here is the game against bot_Bomb2005CC: Game 18022. Another game that shows this technique: Game 18098.

Two for One

Patrick Dudek (Arimanator) found that since the bots are so material hungry he could have the bot trap pieces at both of his trap squares while he concentrates on just one while slowly advancing a rabbit towards it. Even though the bot will temporarily get ahead in material, it will eventually lose more material (and finally, the game) while trying to stop the advanced rabbit. Here is the first game against Bomb2005CC where he discovered this: Game 18229. A second game where this technique is demonstrated even more clearly: Game 18233. This strategy is probably the fastest way to finish off a bot if executed properly. Otherwise it's also one of the fastest ways to lose. This strategy has also shown good results with Clueless2005Fast in Game 19680.

Nickel and Dime

This is a very defensive strategy with a tiny dribble of offense. All the pieces except for the elephant are kept behind the middle line. The elephant actively helps to unfreeze any pieces that are being pulled out so they can return back to their side. If the opportunity arises, the elephant tries to drag out the opponents weak pieces such as rabbit, cats and dogs and hand them off to the stronger pieces so they can be trapped. This process of slowly dragging out one weak piece at a time and trapping it eventually adds up to significantly weaken the bot and finish it off. Such games however can take quite a long time to finish. Patrick Dudek (Arimanator) seems to have originated this strategy in Game 14996 and Game 15042. Karl Juhnke (Fritzlein) showed in Game 20064 that this strategy can also work against bots running at a slower time control.