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The 11th Hour Hints
Strategies
This is a somewhat difficult game, although I at least found it slightly easier than the version in The 7th Guest. Here are a few basic things I'd recommend, in no particular order.
1) Don't give up an entire "colony" of pieces, at least without an even trade. In other words, never give Stauf a move to let him take all of your pieces in an area, unless you can take all of his pieces in another area. At the start of the game, you may want to make such a swap, so you control half the board, and he controls the other.
2) Try not to leave vulnerable spots, with 4 or 5 of your pieces all adjacent to a square within Stauf's range. Fill in the empty square, unless you're reasonably confident that Stauf will want to make another move, or unless he's left a similar position.
3) Remember that once all of the squares adjacent to another are taken, there's no way for the square to change hands, unless you or Stauf jumps out of the square. As a result, it's usually a good idea to focus (although not too much) on playing so that you'll be the last to surround a given square. Similarly, don't give Stauf the same opportunity (i.e., don't leave just one empty space around a square).
4) In general, it's not a good idea to jump after the first few moves. The only exceptions I've found are when you don't have many of your own pieces surrounding the square you'll vacate, and a) you'll end up fully surrounding (as in #3) several of Stauf's pieces or b) when you think Stauf may let you jump another piece back into the square you just left, and you have a chance at capturing all of his pieces surrounding the square. The latter is unlikely, though, unless Stauf is going to get a killer move somewhere else on the board.
5) Toward the end of the game, you may find it to your advantage to have the last move. (Often for me, the game was very close at the end, and whoever had the last move would win.) As yet another exception to rule #4, you may want to jump into a square near the very end (when just one or two squares remain), rather than clone into it -- even if you could clone in to the same square -- in order to let yourself have the last move. Of course, be sure that you'll actually gain something from this strategy before you use it, as its usefuleness depends on the board configuration.
