One-Handed Attack
Strong columns can be used for a delightfully simple and effective one-handed attack, shown in the following examples:
Here Black offers himself as bait:
You can verify that after four moves the result is this:
Black rather surprisingly still has a three-black column, but the two white soldiers have become prisoners. Note that for the attack to succeed the black attacker must have more black men in the column than the white column has white men. Also they must all be able to move in the direction of the attack; in this case, the black men must be officers.
There are no restrictions on examining either your own or your opponent’s columns to see which of the men are officers. Beware of other pieces which could interfere, such as a black soldier at F4 in the above example.
These samples from play should have suggested one outstanding fact about Lasca; it is a game of attack rather than of defence.
Consider this example, where Black threatens the white soldier on c3. Moving c3 to b4 achieves very little; a much better and more aggressive move is b2 to a3.
In Lasca it is important to risk short term losses for a long term gain.