Bilging: Slow and Steady / Building Bingos

One of the common problems I see from bilgers (I myself was guilty of this for quite some time) is that they try to bilge "too fast." People want to swap pieces as fast as possible and make as many clears as they can in order to keep pieces moving through the board, release crabs, and feel like they're getting somewhere. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate well into emptying the bilge of the ship. To keep your bilging indicator sparkling, you generally want to go slow and look for efficient clears. You can actually have a good amount of downtime between moves. I believe I've heard that you can have up to 8 seconds between moves, but I've never tested it, myself. It does seem to be in the ballpark, though. So keep in mind that taking some time to observe and plan is perfectly acceptable.

In bilge, you score far better making combo clears than just straight lines. By that, I mean simply that a 3x3 will score better than a 3 piece clear followed by another 3 piece clear. Seems simple enough, right? The real goal is to clear the largest combinations using the smallest number of moves possible...and somehow coming to a nice balance between the two. For example, is a bingo that requires 5 moves more valuable than a 3x3 that requires only 1?

Here's my strategy for high-end bilging. Look for bingos. Constantly. They're actually not that difficult to spot and build. Here's the approach I use.

CONSTRUCTING BINGOS

1. Look for 3 common pieces in the same row

Here's an example of a beginning bilging board. The first thing I do is look for three common pieces in a single row. I've highlighted the first group I spotted.



2. Look for that same piece in the rows above and below that row

The next step is to look in the rows immediately above and below the row where you found the three common pieces. Our goal here is to be able to clear the row of three at the same time as we're able to clear a column of three. So, we either need one in the row above plus one more in the row above that, or the same thing on the bottom, or one above and one below. If you have more than that, great. If not, no big deal. The key here is 3.

So here's the next thing I look for:



3. Look for a column of 3 of a different piece, in those rows

If we've managed to find both of the first two pieces, we've almost got our bingo. The last thing we want to do is to find a column of at least three of some other piece that overlaps with our row of three. Here's what I spot:



Notice that I can also make a column of three of the pentagonal pieces on the left, as well. It just so happens that they're farther away, so I don't need to concern myself with 'em.

4. Build your Bingo

Notice that, as of yet, I haven't moved anything. Everything that I've done thus far has to do with observing the board. With bilging, you want to conserve your moves, so it's important to plan carefully what you're about to do. Once you have your plan, execute it. At this point, I have my plan. Here's what I intend to do:



Okay, we're all set, right? We've got our plan - now we just need to move the pieces into position. The important thing to keep in mind here is that we want to be as efficient as possible when moving our pieces. Try not to waste any moves. Here's the most efficient movement plan (I've numbered the pieces so that I can discuss movement more easily - individual pieces are numbered, while positions are lettered):



Our final move must be the swapping of pieces 1 and 2. With that in mind, let's look at how to move the other pieces into position.

1. Move Piece 5 to Position C - requires 2 moves
2. Move Piece 3 to Position A - requires 1 move
3. Move Piece 4 to Position B - requires 1 move
4. Swap Pieces 3 and 4 - requires 1 move*
5. Swap Pieces 1 and 2 - requires 1 move

That's it! We just built a 6 move bingo!

Pay special attention to Step 4 above. Pieces 3 and 4 need to cross. We could have moved Piece 4 all the way to Position A first, right? That would put Piece 4 into position. However, if we were to do that, when we crossed Piece 4 with Piece 3, in order to get Piece 3 into position at B, we'd be pushing Piece 4 out of position. Then we'd have to waste a move getting Piece 4 back into Position A, where we wanted it, in the first place. That would take us 5 moves. As I illustrated above, it can be done in 3. Whenever you have to cross pieces, be sure to pay attention to this.

5. Rinse and Repeat

Now that one Bingo is complete, start looking for the next one. You always want to be looking for big combos that don't require many moves to complete. In general, I try for constant Bingos, for better or for worse. Sometimes, though, there just isn't a Bingo available. Sometimes, you can't find any pieces that meet the criteria laid out in steps 1, 2, or even 3. In those cases, you really need to look for other combos that can be done easily. Perhaps you can spot a quick 3x3 or 3x4. Maybe you can't even find one of those. Hit a single move clear of 3 or more. You only want to resort to such small clears if you really have nothing going for you on your board, but it is necessary, at times.



Watch for "Accidental" clears

When you're setting up your Bingos (or anything else, for that matter), watch out for clears that you don't intend to make that may goof up your plan. Let's look briefly back at my positional picture, from before:



What would happen if we were to use this set of moves?

1. Piece 5 right one position (Still left of C) - requires 1 move
2. Piece 4 to Position B - requires 1 move
3. Piece 3 to Position A - requires 1 move
4. Swap Pieces 3 and 4 - requires 1 move
5. Piece 5 to Position C - requires 1 move
6. Swap Pieces 1 and 2 - requires 1 move

6 move Bingo, right? Not so fast! Order matters!

In this case, we started by moving Piece 5 one space to the right. Note that this actually makes an inadvertent clear of the 3 green balls. In this case, that's fine. It all happens below our Bingo and won't mess anything up. However, you may be surprised by it and move on to another part of your plan, rather than getting Piece 5 all the way to Position C. So you start working on the top half of your Bingo, moving Piece 4 Over to the left. Then you move Piece 3 to the right so you can swap them.

Oops!

You just cleared a column of three octagonal pieces - the three pieces you were planning on using to complete your Bingo! Now you've spent a bunch of moves on some crummy clears and your plan has gone to pot. Time to pick up the pieces and try to recover.

Try not to let this happen. Watch for inadvertent clears. If you can see that it won't goof up your combo, great - more points for you. If, however, it's going to screw things up, watch it. See if you can avoid it. In this case, avoiding the inadvertant clear is simple; be sure to move Piece 5 all the way to C before working the top half of the Bingo.



Conclusion

This technique takes a bit of practice (especially in recognizing the patterns), but it's not particularly difficult. Just keep in mind the steps I laid out and see what you can do. Hopefully, you'll find that your Bilging standing will increase without nearly as much effort.

I'll try to post a video of this technique in action, soon.