Strategy
WallRush strategy guides
WallRush is simple to learn and hard to master. These guides turn the rules into habits: how to count a race, how to build a trap, how to handle the moment two pawns meet, and how to play when there are four.
Every diagram is a real position and every number in it was measured by the game’s own engine. The ideas apply to Quoridor too, because the core rules are the same: see WallRush and Quoridor.
The guides
When to wall and when to raceCount both routes, then decide. Why one wall in the open wins a single step, and where a wall wins eight.6 → 7 stepsWall patterns: pockets, lanes and trapsThree walls that do nothing alone and a lot together, and how to keep out of them.6 → 14 stepsJumps and face-offsWhen two pawns meet, one gets a free square. Learn which, and why you should often wait.5–5 → 4–3Four-player strategyThree rivals, five walls each. Who to block, when to keep your walls, and the jump that wins the race to the centre.2 → 4 steps, and pink leads
Eight quick tips
The short version of the guides. Each tip links to the guide that shows it on a board.
- Count both routes before every move.Yours and your rival’s, by the shortest way round any walls. How to count.
- Level or ahead? Keep walking.A wall costs you a turn, so it has to win back more than it spends. When to wall and when to race.
- A wall in open space is worth about one step.Your rival’s route went from 6 to 7 steps, and the wall cost you a turn.
- Look for edges and other walls.Three walls turned a 6-step run into 14. Wall patterns.
- Check whose route a wall touches.When both pawns share a column, a wall across it slows you as well.
- Count the jump when two pawns meet.A jump moves a pawn two squares in one turn. Jumps and face-offs.
- With four players, block the one who would win.A wall on the leader can just hand the lead to the next player. Four-player strategy.
- You can never be sealed in.Every wall has to leave a route, so a wall can cost you steps but never the game.
Where to start
- New to WallRush?Read how to play first. It takes a few minutes and you can try every rule on a board.
- Know the rules?Start with when to wall and when to race. It is the idea the other two guides build on.
- Playing with four?Read four-player strategy and the four-player rules, then play 4-player WallRush: three computers, a quick match online, or four people on one device.
- Want a sparring partner?The computer’s four levels let you practise each idea at your own pace.