Taking Advantage of Chokepoints in Strategy Games

Strategy war games almost always have scenarios where there are chokepoints. Chokepoints can be a huge advantage to winning a strategy game. This article will explain what a chokepoint is and how it can be used.

A chokepoint is a small narrow path where enemy troops have to funnel through in order to reach another area. These chokepoints are usually bridges or paths between forests and mountains. Basically, chokepoints are where you can expect enemy soldiers to move through in some point of the game.

To take advantage of this, you should try to overwhelm and dominate chokepoints as soon as possible. This will cause your enemy to be cut off from a passageway. This also makes you more maneuverable. If the enemy can’t get there and you can, you can collect resources or create a strike force, or do something useful with the space your enemy doesn’t have.

One of the best examples of using a chokepoint is playing on Advance Wars. I’ll quickly explain a scenario that I encountered during gameplay. In short, there was a bridge. The enemy had tanks, but I only had infantry. I had more resources, but I needed time to build ordnance. I placed the infantry on the bridge to stall the tanks and wait for reinforcements. In the time my infantry bought, I was able to produce more and even stronger tanks than the enemy, which provided me a very easy win.

In another example, chokepoints can also be used as excellent spots to hold an ambush. As explained above, the enemy and you will some point have to traverse through chokepoints on the map. Say that a chokepoint is made due to forests on either side of the road. You know that the enemy will be sending a large battalion of tanks and infantry. In response, before the enemy send the attack, you place your own infantry equipped with anti-tank and personnel weapons (explosives all the way!) behind the bushes and trees. As the battalion moves through the forest, your ambush can quickly eliminate the opposing forces, or at the very least do very significant damage.

Chokepoints in strategy games are tactical positions that should be held early on in the game to provide an advantage in the middle-game stage. Just remember, whoever gets to the chokepoint first owns it!