What would you do as white in this position?

I'm playing as white against the Nelson bot. I can usually beat him, but often get into these sort of frustrating positions. It seems really closed, we are many moves into the game but no material has been taken yet and many of the pawns seem blocked and static. 

This probably has some sort of relation to my playing style. I'm trying to understand this sort of situation a bit more. 

I'd love to get input on these questions:

1) What would you do as white for your next move?

2) What sort of tactical plan(s) does white's position suggest?

3) How would you describe this sort of game/position?

4) Why do you think I tend to get into these sorts of positions?

After reading here, I did the exchanges on g6 and ended up winning pretty handily. I just wish I would have found it myself. 

Don't tell Nelson!

At a glance, Nhxg6... if I had to think longer I might go for the a4 pawn break instead. Both are probably winning, although maybe you'd want to prepare a4 with Ra1 or Qe3 first.

Plans and tactics are two different things so it's a hard question to answer... the plan is to use your space advantage... the board is basically cut in half for black, meaning the pieces on his queenside can't help on the kingside and vice versa. So the plan is to open lines and overwhelm black because only half of his pieces will be able to participate. Typically you open lines with a pawn break (like a4), but the other way to open lines is by sacrificing pieces (like a knight capturing on g6).

Poorly played

Black isn't developed at all, so white probably had an opportunity to open lines on the queenside earlier and in a way that was winning. The move b4 gave up control of c4. Unless the move b4 was played early in the game then it was probably a mistake.

Also, it's most likely that the d4-e5 pawn chain was set up early, meaning white's natural play will come from the kingside. Playing moves like a3 and b4 typically help black get counterplay on the queenside, so b4 was probably a mistake for that reason too.

But ok, that's not what you're asking. I'd describe it as closed and black is undeveloped and white is winning.

You're not preserving your pawn breaks. b4 + d4 gives up your pawn control of c4. If the pawn were on b2 then playing b3+c4 would be an option (maybe after preparing it a bit or maybe you could play it right away)... even though I mentioned the queenside is black's area, after falling so far behind in development it doesn't matter anymore, you can invade on either side to win.

You can land something at g6 immediately, or you can prepare your kingside offensive with something like Re1-e3-f3.

It doesn't seem to be much of a difference, as Black's counterplay is zero- at best he can plant a knight at c4, where he is doing nothing special.

As others have said, you can sac on g6. I don’t see a difference between Nfxg6 and Nhxg6, but it’s likely Stockfish would disagree lol