Let Me Go! strategy: when and where to place your walls

Count the shortest path

Every turn, count how many steps you and your opponent each need to reach your goals, following the shortest route round the walls. Whoever is fewer steps from home, with the move, is winning. Everything else in this guide comes back to that count.

The opening

Move forward for the first few turns. A wall placed early is easy to walk round, because there is still plenty of board to walk on, and it is a wall you won't have later when it matters.

When a wall is worth it

A wall costs you a turn, which is one step you didn't take. So a wall only helps if it adds two or more steps to your opponent's shortest path. A wall that adds one step is a draw at best.

The best walls are placed close to your opponent's goal, where their detours get long and they have little room to go round.

Where to put them

No wall can seal a pawn in completely: there must always be a route to every goal, so a wall that would close the last route can't be placed.

• Directly in front of their pawn, across the route they were about to take.
• Next to a wall that is already there, to turn a short detour into a long one.
• Never where it also blocks your own route: check your own count after every wall you place.

Jumps

Face another pawn with nothing behind it and you can jump straight over it. If a wall, the edge or another pawn is behind it, the jump bends diagonally instead. Walking into your opponent's path can give them a free extra square, so watch the jump before you step.

Four players and teams

With four players, each has five walls instead of ten, so every wall matters twice as much. In 2v2 the board grows to 11 by 11 and each player has seven walls. Spend yours on whichever opponent is closest to home, not the one next to you.