Ladder handling

In a ladder situation, the players have two different roles: The player who tries to connect to the edge is the attacker, and the player who tries to prevent the other from connecting is called the defender. Here is an example where Red is the attacker and Blue is the defender, with Blue to move.

R4 C8 Vb2 Vc2 Vd2 Ve2 Ha3 Hb3 Hc3 Hd3

Generally the attacker has the initiative. The defender's moves are usually forced; he has to defend or else the attacker will connect.

Defending
The defender has two options: he can push or he can yield. Pushing means to play a move on the same row as the earlier moves, while yielding means to allow the attacker to get one row closer to the edge. The two possibilities are marked with a star in this diagram:

R4 C8 Vb2 Vc2 Vd2 Ve2 Ha3 Hb3 Hc3 Hd3 Se3 Se4

It is usually best to continue pushing until the attacker does something else, but occasionally it is essential to yield in order to avoid one of Red's outposts, as in the following diagram:

R4 C9 Vb2 Vc2 Vd2 Ve2 Ha3 Hb3 Hc3 Hd3 Hf1 Vg1 Se3 Se4

If Blue pushes in this diagram, Red will be able to connect to the bottom. If Blue yields instead, Red won't be able to. It is important for Blue to yield at precisely the right moment. Had he done it one move earlier, Red would have connected to the bottom.

Attacking
Red usually has three options: he can push, break or jump. The possibilities are shown in the following diagram:

R5 C10 Vb3 Vc3 Vd3 Ha4 Hb4 Hc4 Hd4 Se3 Sf3 Sf2

Pushing means to continue with adjacent moves on the same row. Breaking means to play on the same row, but skipping one hex. Jumping means to go one row further away from the edge. Note that jumping is a move similar (symmetric) to the defender´s yielding; however jumping is usually an offensive move, while yielding is very defensive, hence they have different words.

Jumping is used when the attacker has a ladder escape but needs to get further from the edge to use it. Here is a standard example:

R5 C10 Vb4 Vc4 Vd4 Ha5 Hb5 Hc5 Hd5 Vg1 Vh1 Sf3 Ph3

Red first jumps to (*). If Blue makes the standard response, Red's next move is (+), making a connection to the bottom.