The placement phase is a fight for space
While men are still coming onto the board, it is tempting to treat the phase as a race for the first mill. It is really a fight for space. If nobody has been captured, only six points are still empty when placement ends, and the player whose men can reach them controls the movement phase.
So the first question for every man you place is not whether it builds a mill but whether it will be able to move later.
Take the junctions first
The four points in the middle of the middle square, d2, b4, f4 and d6, each lie on two lines and have four neighbours. The midpoints of the outer and inner squares have three, the corners only two. Early men belong on the junctions or on the side midpoints, where they keep options open in several directions.
Why the first mill is often a trap
A mill made in the first few moves removes one enemy man, but your three men now stand on one line, usually an outer side, where they block each other and are easy to wall in. Meanwhile your opponent spends the moves you used on the mill building two threats elsewhere.
A useful rule of thumb: close a mill during placement when it also blocks something, or when your opponent cannot answer with a mill of his own. Otherwise, an open two that you could close later is often worth more than the mill itself, because it ties down an enemy man.
Forks: the only reliable way to win material
A single open two is easy to block. Two open twos made with one man are not. Look for points that sit on two of your half-built lines at once, and look even harder for the same points on your opponent's side. The defensive version of the fork is to place a man that blocks one enemy two and starts one of your own.
Counting the end of placement
Light places men one, three, five and so on up to seventeen; Dark places the eighteenth man and then Light makes the first slide. Before your last two or three placements, count how many legal slides each side will have once the board is full. If the answer for you is zero or one, change plans immediately: a blocked position at the start of the movement phase is usually lost, however many men you have.
It also pays to know who places last. The last man in hand is a powerful defender, because it can go anywhere. Keep yours in mind when you decide how far to push an attack.
A short checklist
- Does my opponent have an open two? Block it, ideally with a man that starts my own line.
- Can I create two open twos at once? Then do it.
- Will this man still have a free neighbour when the board is full?
- Am I closing a mill only because I can?
Practise it
Play a few games against the Squire, concentrating only on the placement phase, then look at how many moves you have when it ends. The placement problems in the cellar train exactly the fork patterns described here.