Corsairs of Umbar Gunning 101

With this information, we can start to look for a gunning board that will help us set up a loop. Like I said before, a lot of a gunner’s success is lies in the board they’re using. A one-arrow board is preferable to a two-arrow board, so that you might try to load two cannons at a time. Be careful though, working on two cannons at once is tricky, and if you’re not quick you could mess something up and take even longer to load those guns.

The first places I look on a new board are in the upper right and lower left hand corners. What those corners can give you will tell you if the loop path can include that side of the board. Some examples of corners are:

The dead end Any pieces that go past this cannon will return back out. This corner will prevent you from including the upper cannons.

The workable corner While this corner does not lend itself easily to the loop, a well-placed arrow will take the pieces and move them past any blocks or obstacles.

Another workable corner One arrow will allow the loop path to cover this half of the board.

The helpful corner This corner gives you what you need to maintain a loop without needing an arrow.

If the corner is helpful to the loop, look past it to see if the rest of that side can work with the loop. If so, it’s a keeper!

The perfect corner No arrow necessary! If there is a clean path to the other side of the board then consider yourself lucky that you have a board that needs at most one arrow.

And the mish mash This is a corner where the blocks make it impossible to work with.

When facing a board with mish mash, unless the other half of the board can be included in the loop with one or no arrows, I will pass and try to find a better board.

While one arrow can steer the pieces away from the dead end, another arrow is required to keep the pieces on a good loop. Not an ideal board.

If the other side of the board contains something useful (like a perfect corner or a helpful one) then you can just place one arrow and make a loop that doesn’t include the mish mash. A one arrow, two cannon board.