Game 1 Move 1 Zorba to play 5-2

[ah_clem]

Zorba shakes a 52. 

[Zorba]

13/8 must be the five to play, then it's between 24/22, 13/11 or 6/4; as 8/6 is unnecessarily safe and inflexible.

6/4 is not very useful, moves a builder in too deep (frontloading) and even more so with the Herd already anchored on my threepoint.

13/11 focuses on building a blockade, a good idea in itself early on, but with the Herd already on my threepoint there are some downsides: it's harder to build a prime vs. the 22pt; it's one more shot at the builder; and the builder may have less use as an attacker than normal, since the Herd is unlikely to split the backcheckers anytime soon.

24/22 mobilizes my backmen when it's still relatively safe; next turn it might be too dangerous. Since the Herd has advanced their anchor to 22, it's more important than usual that I get an advanced anchor as well. Otherwise, I risk getting hemmed in. 24/22 also has the advantage of covering the Herd's outfield, so that bringing down builders is riskier. The risk is getting pounded on by a blitz, but that risk is still relatively small with only 8 checkers in the zone.

24/22 13/8 it is.