Arimaa/Lone Elephant Attacks/Defensive Systems and Counter-Attacks

Against an opponent that is pulling strong units with his/her Elephant, there are defensive and counter-attacking options:

• use the Elephant to prevent friendly pieces from being pulled astray - this type of opening can become pointless if neither player makes any progress after many moves
• use a Dual Lone Elephant strategy to target vulnerable enemy pieces
• launch a multi-piece attack on the opposite wing to distract the enemy Elephant
• launch a multi-piece attack on the same wing, possibly turning the threatened piece into an attacker!
• launch a swarm attack to save the piece and possibly blockade the enemy Elephant

Against an opponent that is pulling Rabbits it is best to counter-attack rather than defend. The options are simliar:

• use a Dual Lone Elephant strategy to target vulnerable enemy pieces - if both players decide upon a Rabbit-pulling strategy then Rabbits may become a scarce resource for both sides. Eventually one player will decide to break off the Lone Elephant Attack to preserve a threatened Rabbit and the game will assume a livelier, more complex character
• launch a multi-piece attack on the opposite wing to distract the enemy Elephant
• launch a swarm attack on the same wing as the threatened Rabbit - in effect, the enemy Elephant will pull a Rabbit forward and then several more pieces will voluntarily follow!

Note that many of the counter-attacking strategies discussed above are covered in later chapters.