In astonishingly general terms, there are three basic game plans employed. You want to be agile enough to hop between techniques instantly as the action of the match unfolds.
The Blockade
This is composed of creating a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at least as deep as you can manage, to barricade in your competitor’s checkers that are located on your 1-point. This is judged to be the most acceptable tactic at the begining of the game. You can create the wall anywhere inbetween your 11-point and your two-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the match continues.
The Blitz
This involves locking your home board as fast as possible while keeping your challenger on the bar. i.e., if your opponent rolls an early 2 and shifts one checker from your one-point to your three-point and you then toss a five-five, you will be able to play 6/1 six/one eight/three eight/three. Your opposer is now in big-time difficulty since they have 2 pieces on the bar and you have closed half your inner board!
The Backgame
This plan is where you have 2 or higher anchors in your competitor’s home board. (An anchor is a point occupied by at least two of your pieces.) It would be played when you are extremely behind as this action much improves your opportunities. The strongest areas for anchors are close to your competitor’s smaller points and either on abutting points or with one point separating them. Timing is important for a powerful backgame: at the end of the day, there is no point having two nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to dismantle this straight away, while your competitor is getting their checkers home, seeing that you do not have any other spare checkers to move! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have pieces on the bar so that you might preserve your position up until your challenger provides you an opportunity to hit, so it can be a good idea to try and get your opponent to hit them in this case!