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Congo. Animals fight on 7 by 7 board. (7x7, Cells: 49) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Zachary Wade wrote on Thu, Jun 8, 2017 01:22 AM UTC:

I recently started playing Congo and was just wondering if anyone had some good ideas for the strategy? Looking at the game a little, it seems that the strongest opening moves are to move Pf-g3 to give the crocodile a path to the river, Pe-d3 to open some squares for the crocodile and zebra or to just move some pawns to the rank nearest the river to defend against enemy crocodiles.

For me, I think that the crocodile is the strongest piece and should be moved to the river early, and the giraffe is a strong piece which can help pawn promotion on the first file. Promoting pawns on the a- and g-files would be the easiest and give you the super strong promoted pawn. A good strategical idea is to keep your monkey in an edge rank to help to defend it against your opponents monkey.

A good tactical idea is the use of the drowning rule. If an opponent pushes a pawn into the river, just use a different pawn to attack your opponents crocodile/pawn/whichever piece they have that would be easily attacked. It means you can harass their prices and cause their pieces to drown.

From the games that I've played, it seems that crocodiles are important early on along with giraffes and pawns. A good strategy is then to try and promote an edge pawn and commit your elephants to defence, and in the endgame, try and get your monkey near the king. 

I'd like to hear what people think, and what strategies you have.

Is anyone playing Congo? 

Azost12