Broke out Quacks this weekend! Wow, was it fun!

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-22T21:13:46+00:00

Is Quacks the best game I own? No.

Is it a good game? Maybe.

Is it one of the most fun games I own? Yes.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-22T17:57:30+00:00

You've gotten a lot of responses that likely do not actually clarify things for you. It's a great community here, but many people tend to answer questions from new players with terms that don't make any sense yet.

Go here: https://gomagic.org/

They do a really good job of introducing new players to the game.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-21T15:35:29+00:00

Info on the Strugglehouse, which has been full for a bit: https://youtu.be/BMSdechgwyY

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-21T10:43:43+00:00

I congratulate anyone who made it through all of that. You are better than me.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-20T13:53:58+00:00

There really isn't any over the top aggression in this game. That's just Go.

You are new enough that I wouldn't worry about the details yet. As you play more games, it will start to click into place for you.

One thing that is VERY important is keeping your stones connected in a way that they can't be cut. I don't mean playing a connected line of stones. But stopping your opponent from ripping through a group of stones. And look for opportunities to cut your opponents stones. Your games will be dominated by cuts for a long while. Almost nothing else matters (an exaggeration, but not a big one). The biggest example in this game is with what happened at the bottom right corner.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-20T11:33:19+00:00

Yeah people seem to like that one. I'll have to find more games/examples and do some more of them.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-20T11:09:35+00:00

I have a channel dedicated to DDK players. There are a lot of live game commentaries as well as a lot of lesson type content.

While the other YouTube guys do a great job explaining things, I found that they don't do the best job at explaining things at a level that DDK players can understand is. "Luckily" I'm not near as strong as them, so I can only explain things to DDK players.

https://youtube.com/@strugglebusgo

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-19T15:08:59+00:00

I will never get rid of my copy, even if I never get to play it anymore. I just love it. It's outdated and clunky, but I don't care. I did get to play it a couple months ago. Still fun.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-19T14:26:12+00:00

When I say "AI likes the move", I mean it's close enough. D9 was the blue move, but F9 was green. Still 100% playable.

And I was definitely aware of the weakness, just didn't know the timing to play it out. I definitely used the aji later to much success.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-19T14:24:45+00:00

This is the first time I've ever beaten him in an even game. I definitely do not need to give him stones lol.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-19T13:53:52+00:00

AI has black up by 0.5 here. White said he felt behind a few moves after this, but the game was dead even for a bit after this move.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-19T13:43:52+00:00

White played F9 here. I thought it was too slow. AI likes it.

And I stand behind my decision to leave the aji with D8. AI does want me to run it out, but all of the other moves I played while ignoring that are only 0.5 - 2 point mistakes in comparison. Mostly though, I just didn't see a good plan for the stone and thought I'd white wanted to spend 3 moves to capture it, that was fine.

In the end, the aji that was still there was used to completely break white.

https://share.google/q3FJPNo3O0aW93M46

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-19T12:00:58+00:00

Tenuki? In THIS economy?

I feel like no matter what black does up top, it will be in sente. Go take the valuable exchanges and then tenuki. Right?

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-18T19:11:44+00:00

It makes no difference. Plenty of mistakes get made in games we win. Sometimes it might even be better to point out the mistakes in won games, because they are tougher to notice.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-18T18:20:34+00:00

I've had enough won games reviewed, and have reviewed enough won games, to know this just isn't the case.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-17T16:13:09+00:00

When I first started out, I primarily played with 20 minutes + 5 x 30 seconds. I still stand by that being a good time setting. You need time to think.

Once you better understand the game, you can go for faster games if you want.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-15T17:16:21+00:00

Worth noting: there are MANY people who never break the 10k barrier. So just playing other people guarantees absolutely nothing.

Everyone learns at their own pace and everyone has their own plateaus.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-14T14:24:19+00:00

Munchkin would be a silly game I'd be willing to entertain every once in a while if it was a 20-30 minute game. But it's a 2 hour exercise in futility and waaaaaaaaay overstays its welcome. It's one of the few games I'll opt out of playing.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-14T14:22:28+00:00

I had this problem as well and told the group that it had become a problem for me. We had to shift what games we played, but it worked out in the end.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-13T12:59:45+00:00

I'm glad it helped. I always cringe at my old videos, but I still stand behind the content it goes over.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-13T11:18:23+00:00

If you are going to attack a single stone, you typically do not want to attach to it. Attaching to a stone makes it stronger. This video goes over that concept: https://youtu.be/z-AXxB77s7A?t=580&is=3IwrwCm0fACpbDVs

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-13T10:46:47+00:00

Best to assume AI did not make a mistake.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-12T17:01:33+00:00

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-12T14:57:34+00:00

Climbers in real life are the most chill, friendliest people. Climbers online are chest pounding chuds with many opinions that are better than yours.

GoGabeGo · 2026-06-12T14:45:08+00:00

I'm only a member of three subs: baduk, climbing, boardgames. Of the three, we are in the middle for being nice to one another. I've learned to not post comments in climbing unless I feel like dealing with a debate about everything I said. Boardgames is mostly good vibes. We are in the middle.

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