Tips and tricks

Double ladder on 2nd line escape
Suppose we have this situation. There are two linked ladders here

R6, C9, Q1, Vb1, Vb2, Vb3, Vb4, Vb5, Vc3, Hi1, Ha6, Hb6, Hc1, Hc2, Hd2, He1, Hf1, Hg1, Hh1, Hc4, Vd3, Hd4, Vc5, Hc6, Hh2, Hi2, Hi3

Red to move. Can he win? The answer is yes. The double ladder escape and the only winning move is f4.

R6, C9, Q1, Vb1, Vb2, Vb3, Vb4, Vb5, Vc3, Hi1, Ha6, Hb6, Hc1, Hc2, Hd2, He1, Hf1, Hg1, Hh1, Hc4, Vd3, Hd4, Vc5, Hc6,         Vf4, Hh2, Hi2, Hi3

Blue can't play:


 * d5 due to the threat at e3
 * e3 or e4 because then f4 is a ladder escape from the 2nd line.

So the only move not losing yet is e5.

R6, C9, Q1, Vb1, Vb2, Vb3, Vb4, Vb5, Vc3, Hi1, Ha6, Hb6, Hc1, Hc2, Hd2, He1, Hf1, Hg1, Hh1, Hc4, Vd3, Hd4, Vc5, Hc6,         Vf4 He5, Hh2, Hi2, Hi3

Now Red should play g3 (or d5, d6 first) and thus make a double threat. Observe that one connection involves hexagons e4, d5, d6, and the other one e2, e3, f2, f3, g2; so they are separate from each other and Blue can't stop them both with one move. You can also check for yourself that the f4, g3 group is connected to the bottom.

R6, C9, Q1, Vb1, Vb2, Vb3, Vb4, Vb5, Vc3, Hi1, Ha6, Hb6, Hc1, Hc2, Hd2, He1, Hf1, Hg1, Hh1, Hc4, Vd3, Hd4, Vc5, Hc6, Vf4, He5, Vg3, Hh2, Hi2, Hi3