Hi all, I'm getting ready to teach a Scrabble strategy & resources class (4 lessons, one per week, starting next Tuesday) thru my local Parks & Rec district. I'll be using Quackle and a projector to have the class look at game situations. I'll certainly create some for this, but I've just started using Quackle and it does take some time to set up game situations.
Since the gcg files are transferable, I would love to receive some game situation files (saved at the decision point would be great, but complete or partial games with a suggestion of "look at Player X's nth move" would be fine). Send to walker at bainbridge dot net. I anticipate enthusiastic but not tourney experienced players, so I'd like to provide examples that teach more basic stuff, with the best examples erring on the side of using better known words, especially the longer words. I won't be even looking at end game decisions until the last class. Some lessons I'd like to teach are 1)hot spots sometimes disguise themselves, eg sometimes the TWS is not at all the hottest spot. 2)trading is sometimes the best option 3)trading is sometimes not best, even though a quick look might suggest it. (an obscure vowel dump would be OK for this) 4)basic rack management examples - both points winning over leave & leave winning over points 5)hook awareness examples (both seeing what's there, & deciding whether to create a hook for your own use or just play the letter. Which brings up a non-Quackle Scrabble question - where are some new post TWL2 valuations of leave letters? I should imagine not greatly changed but for Q and to a lesser degree Z due to QI & ZA. 5)board leave examples (probably in 3rd lesson) **Ahead and should probably close **Behind or relatively even early and should probably open **Can't close effectively so open a second hot spot (or hotter if you are close to a potential hi scoring play that you don't want blocked) Generally speaking I'd prefer examples where most tourney players would agree which choice is better, but maybe without being TOO much of a slam dunk, but anything you find interesting would be welcome, if possible with explanation in the email of what the situation is. Thank you in advance for anything you might be able to send my way.
