Whirlyburly: Chests
Lesson 2

If you missed lesson 1, you can read it here. If you’re completely new to Whirlyburly, you shouldn’t even be looking at these lessons yet, as they dig into what James Earthwalker already explained the basics of. You can find his introductory guide here.

Today’s lesson will be all about chests!

Points for Chests

Capturing your opponents’ chests will give you ten points for each. Get both and you’re pretty much certain you’ll be victorious. This is something to keep in mind during all of the game.

The Beginning of a Game

The beginning of a game has a huge impact on how likely you will reach the chests.

In the example below, we’re looking at the very beginning of a match. We have Orange spreading out near the top, Red making little to no movement yet and then there is me, planning my next moves. I got pretty good cards. In the upper left corner you can see the cards I picked. My Hunter and my Charger both have a special card with an H and a C. That means all the hexagons around the one they get to will turn blue as well.

If you study this board well, you might see I ended up not taking full advantage of my Charger’s card. A move upwards diagonally would have been better in combination with Scrapper’s move. I could also have made the Scrapper go upwards more. If I have to guess why I played them that way, I’d say I probably decided to fully focus on chests that game. All three are moving towards the other chests.

The above screenshot also shows you my tendency to branch out left and right rather than upwards. I would suggest you do the same. The chests are one reason for that, but there’s another, more important, reason that I will address in a further lesson (patience!).

Choosing Chests over Hexagons

Chests are awesome because they give you 10 points. If you have to choose between turning 10 hexagons your color, OR capturing a chest, choose the chest! While capturing hexagons is one way to get points, these points can be stolen from you. By this I mean that, when your opponent captures a hexagon that was previously your color, you will lose a point. The 10 chest points can’t be taken away from you in any way. They’re a better investment than the hexagons.

Approaching Chests

I don’t know how many times I’ve been close to a chest and then, due to picking the wrong cards, have been unable to capture it. So close yet so far away! During the game, it can be hard to see clearly where a specific card will lead. I have only one piece of advice for those frustrating situations: if you can, give the pawn a long, curvy card to play.

It might seem great to use a card with only 2 hexagons when you’re really close. However, if you’re anything like me, you will misjudge where this short path will lead you. With a card that has a long path (especially one that isn’t straight, at least you increase your chances to get it.