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Capitals Strategies & Hints: 5 Advanced Tips to Beat Your Opponents

In the first part of our Capitals strategy guide, we provided you a quick primer explaining what the game is about. But just in case you missed that, we’re giving it to you once again, in our own words. Capitals is an iOS-only game developed by NimbleBit LLC, and you can say it sort-of combines scrabble and checkers, though it’s a completely different animal if you come to think about it. Your goal is to protect your Capital as you face up with opponents from Game Center, may they be your friends or randomly-selected opponents based on Capitals’ match making system.

As for the second part of this Capitals strategy guide, we’ll be dealing with more advanced tips that should be of good use once you’ve mastered the basics.

1. Play Long Words If You Can Close Off A Part Of The Board

Now, if you’re able to seal off a part of the board, that would be an opportune time for you to play a longer word, say one that’s about six letters or longer. Sealing off the board would give you some additional peace of mind, so to say, knowing that even if your opponent neutralizes the barrier, that’s pretty much all they’ll be able to do. That said, this would also be a great time to further bolster your defenses.

2. Use Extra Layers Of Tiles To Protect Your Capital Further

In the first part, we touched briefly on some of the simpler ways you can protect your Capital. But once you’re in the heat of the battle, it’s never a bad idea to further protect your Capital by playing another layer of tiles. Still, while you’re doing this, you should always keep on applying pressure on your opponent.

3. Sometimes Check Can’t Quite Turn Into Checkmate

There are some occasions where you may have a hard time landing that finishing kick that would put your opponent away. If this happens and you find yourself going back and forth with your opponent, see what you can do about filling in whatever open tiles remain on the board. This would reduce the number of letters your opponent can play. And always take advantage of that extra turn to finish off an opponent once you do capture their Capital.

4. Don’t Create Awesome Words At The Expense Of Your Capital

This is a very common mistake among Capitals players – you see the opportunity to play a really impressive word, so you hit on “submit” and celebrate your imminent victory. But as it turns out, you realize you haven’t protected your Capital after all, and it’s vulnerable for your opponent to strike. You don’t want that to happen, so always, always make sure your Capital is sufficiently defended before you play an impressive word.

5. Abandon Your Capital At The Right Time

Then again, there are some situations where the best thing to do, alas, would be to leave your Capital without any defenses. That would be when your opponent’s got you painted into a corner, seemingly with no chance of surviving their onslaught. In that case, you can forget about protecting your Capital, and just attack, attack, attack – you just might find some awesome words to play that may give you an extra shot in the arm and help you survive at the end of the day.