ALL MY TIPS! This is the Post to read first.

UPDATE

 XMAS / NEW YEAR 2020/2021

Due to the first and now second confinement, where we live in the French Pyrenees, I started playing again but only with people I knew well.  Of course, WWF has changed and offered some advantages that I'm sure many know but anyway...

At the end of the game when both players have letters left and the game says zero letters left, click on the tile bag and the letters left there are your opponents rack tiles!

You don't have to remember all the obscure 2-letter words. WWF will tell you if a word is invalid. That can be quite useful at the end of a close game. Actually, WWF will tell you if any word is invalid, so I often have surprises.

The radar help has often shown me that I could use a TW square that I had dismissed.

Playing with three good players; Fred, Tom, and Ted, I began to see each one's different strategy. Fred often plays two or three letter words, some with good scores but will block that part of the board. The only way to beat that is to make long words just to open up the board. Tom plays a clever game. I often feel he is teasing me. Ted is great and uses the board well. And gets some super words too.

Lastly, what's your favourite combination of bonus tiles? Mine is the 2 DW tiles in the row before the TW tiles. Span them with a 6-letter word and it's 4 times the points.

BTW if you have any tips you'd like to share, feel free to join in. I'd love a bit of company!!

Finishing a game with Fred now, so must go.

Stay safe and healthy, and take care in the months ahead.

Henry 

November 5th - Guy Fawkes Night in England.

June 11th 2017. 840,000 visits!  

Feb 23rd 2014. Just a thank you for all the positive and nice comments you have all made. I do not play as often as I did when I started this blog but that does not change the fact that I love both Words with Friends and Scrabble - the father of them all.  Life is short and I have so many other interests that need nurturing. My daughter, my sons and my grandchildren, my wife, skiing and making a living! Keep reading, keep playing and I hope this blog has helped. Henry



 “Words With Friends” Tips

(DL TL DW TW refer to double, triple letter, double, triple word squares)
(Words played are shown in Capital Letters. Where a letter is already on the board it is in brackets. Example VA(L)UE - means the L was on the board.)

“Words With Friends”  has two important differences to Scrabble.

(I have been playing Scrabble for years and have recently started to play in French! That is hard as our natural dictionary in our native language is probably 100 times greater but it helps my French grammar.)

1. Bad Word, Good Word? 

Firstly in Scrabble, if you place a word that is not in the official SOWPODS dictionary, it is up to your opponent to challenge the word. If there is no challenge the word stands. If the challenge is valid you lose your turn. 

However, in Words With Friends, you place a word and if it is not in their official dictionary (based on the ENABLE dictionary) you get the message “Sorry. That is not an acceptable word” and you play again and again and again until…   Use that rule to your advantage.

2. Better Value: Secondly another difference between Scrabble and Words With Friends is the placement of the premium squares. Words With Friends has something better that the TW squares and often overlooked! It has the 2 DW squares on the second row from each edge and they are near enough (5 squares apart) that you can get a 2 x 2 or 4 times the word value score.

3. Learn the 2 letter words. There are 98 in scrabble but Words With Friends has 6 more. DA FE FI GI KI and OI. We used to be able to play ZO, a Himalayan ox and I’ve seen one too but alas it’s now illegal. Perhaps they are extinct! Now it’s ZA – a pizza none the less.

4. Remember: Remember the odd 2-letter words like: AA AB AD AE AG AI AL AR AW BA BI BO DA DE DI ED EF EL ES ET FE FI GI HM ID LI LO MI MO NA NE OD OE OM OS OP OW OY PE PI  SI WO

Remember the high-value 2-letter words like AX EX JO KA KI OX QI XI XU ZA 

Remember the interjection 2-letter words like AH AY EH ER HA HI HO MM OH OI SH YA YO

Remember the very useful 2-letter words ending or beginning in U: MU NU UH UN UM UT and XU
or even the notes! DO RE MI FA SO LA TI and then as the song goes "back to DO"!

That's 79 of them. The other 27 should be natural: AM AN AS AT BE BY EM EN GO HE IF IN IS IT MA ME MY NO OF ON OR PA TA TO UP US WE YE

Try to remember some of the strange 3-letter words with J, K, Q, W, X, and Z

JUS KOA KOI  QAT QUA WAB WAT WAX WIZ WOK XIS YOK ZAG ZAS ZAX ZED ZEE ZEK ZOA  
To name just a few. There are more.

5. Study: Go to a Words With Friends website and print out the 2 and 3 letter words. Take them to bed with you and study.

Remember that Scrabble uses the SOWPODS dictionary but Words With Friends uses its own version that is based on the ENABLE dictionary (Google that for a BIG list) and it is constantly updated. SOWPODS and ENABLE do not have identical lists. The Words With Friends dictionary is part of the app so keep your Words With Friends app up to date.

6. How many left? Also, print out this letter distribution and memorise it. There is no point waiting for a U for your Q if none are left!

A=9 B=2 C=2 D=5 E=13 F=2  G=3 H=4 I=8 J=1 K=1 L=4 M=2 N=5 O=8 P=2 Q=1 R=6 S=5 T=7 U=4 V=2 W=2 X=1 Y=2 Z=1 Blanks=2 (Total 104)

Or put another way there are:

13 E

9 A

8 I O

7 T

6 R

5 D  N  S  

4 H L U
3 G

2 B C  F  M  P  V  W Y 

1 J K Q X  Z

2 Blanks

7. Waste not, want not: The ‘S’ and the Blanks are very valuable. Try not to use the S in the middle of a word or just at the end unless those hit the TW score. Rather use it to hook two words together. 

Now let's play

8. Play on or Resign? : Please do not resign too quickly. Being far behind is in fact a good reason to stay. OK, you have lost but Words With Friends needs practice, to get better. In this case, you can experiment with placing words where you might not have done and giving your opponent openings that might help your game later. You can exchange letters at will etc. 

9. When to Pass: There is probably only one time to pass and that is at the end when you cannot go. In the middle of the game, it is better to exchange letters or at least some. At the end no letters left, no place to go with yours and you are ahead by only a few points. Pass and hope your opponent will be those few points short of a win. He might be left with a high-value letter Q? (see tip 20 below) that's a difference of 10 points in your favour. (It's 20 if you've emptied your rack)

10. Opening move: The opening is important. If you like to play an open game then play a long word to the left of the centre star. That forces your opponent to play that side and it is easier to add to the end of a word than to the beginning.

If you prefer a closed game (I hate them!) play a short word to the right.

11. Placement: Sometimes you see a nice word and down it goes for a dozen points. However, had you looked closer at the board you could have played fewer letters and scored say 16. (I've lost games I should have won because I didn't look around enough) As they say, look outside the box when playing Words With Friends. When you are playing a quick game you should study the board and look for higher scoring placements than the obvious ones. When playing a game over several days take the time to do the same.

12. Use the board letters: Use any high-value letters already placed on the board. In fact, this strategy highlights why some players get consistently high total scores. Their average score per letter is high. Placing an A to make ZA is 11 minimum where the A only is only worth 1*.

13. Long is not always best: Look for premium squares that could be used twice. Say that already on the board are the words (down) ‘BETTER’ (and across) ‘FLIPPER’ both sharing the ‘R’ then placing an H to form ‘HE’ twice, nets 8 if the ‘H’ falls on a premium square then it’s 14 (DL) or even (20) TL just with one letter*. Make the ‘HE’ into a longer word-combining TL and TW makes for very high scores. In the above game look at "HILLY" on the right. The L on the TW and the H  was on a TL so on its own the H earned 10 across plus 30 for its part in HILLY (64).

14. Word beginnings and endings: Look at your letters and put those letters that form word endings to one side and see what’s left. Letter groups like “ER” “ATE” “ITE” “ED” "IER" etc. “PR” “RE” “TR” “TH” "TION" with of course “S” "ST" and "SP"

15. Seven letter words. You nearly have a 7-letter word on your rack but you are missing a letter. How long do you wait? I think you only wait if you can only score a few points. The value of your “perhaps” 7-letter word diminishes rapidly the longer you wait. You sacrifice say 10 points by waiting and that’s a third of the bonus!

You have a 7-letter word on your rack but there is nowhere on the board to place it, sigh and move on.

16. Exchange or not?  If you have all vowels or all consonants and the scores are about level, is it better to struggle for a few points or exchange the rack? Probably exchange is best.

If you have a “Q” or “Z” and cannot place them, you lose too many points by waiting for a ” U” or the other “A”. If I can't use them to score big I will play “QI” or “ZA” but I would exchange them as a “10” value letter left in your rack is worth -20. +10 to your opponent for finishing and -10 to you as a penalty. BUT be a good sport and don't dump them on your opponent if they have no chance of using them. Gamesmanship?

17. Prevention 1: Try to block your opponent if they place a high-value letter that could be used again but you can’t use it.

18. Prevention 2: Do not leave premium TW squares available for your opponent. Rather use them with a small score. Example: you could score 30 somewhere else but only 21 on the TW. If your opponent is left the TW your 9 point advantage is soon gone.

19. Be careful: Most high scores come towards the end of the game when the TW or the 2 DW squares become accessible. Work towards them but try not to give direct access. Leave that to your opponent to do for you.

20. Count: I said before that you should try to remember what letters are left. That’s where the word count is important. It makes a difference if there are no blanks left and you have the only “S” Knowing how many letters your opponent has left at the end can be the difference between winning and losing.

21. Your rack: You just played and have some new letters. Look for obvious words but remember they have to hook onto something. Look at the board and see if there are any words that take a letter that you have. Example from the above game: onto "VIA" I placed an "L" and then I saw that 7-letter word. First I saw Lapse then I saw that the D made lapsed then the E made elapsed.  As I say often "Use the board to try placements while you are waiting for your turn. In Words With Friends, your opponent cannot see the letters you are placing and if Words With Friends says "Sorry that word is not acceptable" try again. When the play your letters get returned automatically to your rack.

22. End game: The value of the letters left on your rack when your opponent finishes will count double for them. (See “Exchange or not?” above) So if there are only a few points between you then play the higher value letters first because the value of your remaining letters count DOUBLE against you at the end! 

Play a lot and those funny words become implanted. Enjoy the game.

Henry (user name if you want to play me is Henryb65)

PS I scored 500 in that game above. One of my best scores. 

PPS Must go now as I have 4 games waiting for my move.