The 11th Hour - Guides - Speedrun.com

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The older ways of NG: NG: Branches with Videos, see individual Cases.

Since the AI moves are unpredictable to a certain extent, this Guide is essentially a decision tree. Your First move is where Stauf's first move in NG+ is, which is the upper middle-left point in the shadowy area in the middle of the board, in other words: right here: https://imgur.com/a/BvdgGRD The AI's next move will be next to you, either diagonal or adjacent. Since the Diagonal strategies are shorter AND more consistent, the Speedrun strategy is to RESET the puzzle if the AI's first move is adjacent, and we will now assume the AI moved diagonally. Your second move will be adjacent to your first, but not adjacent to the AI, so (possibly rotated) like this: https://imgur.com/a/8Mb2mQI The AI will try to capture, by putting a piece on that line you have created: Either adjacent to his own (go to CASE 2), or not (go to CASE 1).

CASE 1: Non-adjacent The next move is obvious: Since you don't want to get captured, you extend your line of 2 to a line of 3. Now 2 things can happen: Either the AI will prevent you from putting a 4th into that line (go to CASE 1.2), or it won't (go to CASE 1.1).

CASE 1.1: your 4th move may be aligned with the other three, i.e. the game looks like this: https://imgur.com/a/3Tp8NZG upon which the AI will cap off to prevent a line of 5. Follow up with these moves: https://imgur.com/a/WDdOcBs and the AI will take (Pieces numbered 6 and 1). In this case, replace Piece number 6: https://imgur.com/a/fvDfuzc and win by completing the diagonal. The game should look like this:

CASE 1.2: The AI locks your line of 3, creating a diagonal line of 2 for itself. We attack said line like this: https://imgur.com/a/SP49uHD with the goal of filling the gap in the middle and extending to a line of 5. The next 2 moves look like this: https://imgur.com/a/4xWAJps and the AI will begin to take. Keep filling the gaps in that line of 4 and extend to a line of 5. The game should look like this:

CASE 2: If the AI moves adjacent to his own piece, it will defend before attacking. So we attack by moving here: https://imgur.com/a/B7nx4Wz Now you just keep extending the line you built. AI will take, but lose. The game should look like this: