First Moves

In a first move on the 'regular' Wordscraper board there are no doubles or triples so you don't want to waste the higher scoring letters that could be played in a later turn. You also want to work strategically, throwing away letters that are disadvantageous. I usually put a short word unless I have a bingo. On the following board I was dealt three T's. You want to reduce the number of T's because you are less likely to get higher scores with multiples of one letter later. I also only had one vowel, so I had to use the A. The aim is to have a nice balance of vowels and consonants, but I had no option here but to throw in the A. By putting the T beside the 2L you are making your opponent to have to put a vowel on the 2L if they put a word parallel on the next move. Vowels only give you one point, so the most they could get is 4 points for a vowel on that spot unless they run a word perpendicular with a P or an H beside the T, but that way they wouldn't be doubling the letter twice, only once.




I could have also centred the word on the board, but my opponent would have been more able to put a Q, X or Z on the 2L. My one risk here is that they would be able to put TATS or STATS and a word perpendicular running to the 2W. But the advantage of that is that it would open me up to the 4W or a 2W/4W combination on my next move.