Strategy changes (outdated)

The strategy in Crabble is quite similar to that of the existing variant of Scrabble known as Clabbers. There are also significant differences between Clabbers and Crabble. For instance, you can make high-scoring overlapping plays next to not only vowels but also consonants, like the C permitting the Q hotspot beneath it as there are a handful of English words containing CQ in order like "ACQUIRE" and "ACQUITTAL", further allowing an easy 100+ point non-bingo plays starting with QU, and you can make a seven-letter bingos much more easily using specific hooks that would create additional consecutive hooks even further as well as easy seven-overlap bingos due to an extremely inflated number of short words of two to four letters in length, especially if you can recognize any of the common patterns found in tons of English words.

Here are some more detailed strategy changes:

1. Value the Z, and the X to the lesser extent: The Z is the best tile in Crabble aside from blank tiles, even better than the S, due to the abundance of playable two-letter sequences with 44 out of 51 valid pairings of the Z with other letters (all but FZ, JZ, KZ, QZ, XZ, ZR, and ZX), and featuring a healthy dose of bingos to choose from by permitting something like sequences of -IZE words primarily found in longer words like 9+ letter words that the Z would otherwise be bingo-unfriendly, as well as the flexibility of hooking the sequence of words at the end (especially if the partial sequence of the word on the board ends in an I), allowing you to score 70+ points in a turn consistently, as well as easy 100+ point bingos. The Z is worth nearly 30 points on equity in this Scrabble variant, making it extremely valuable to keep no matter the position is. The X is also a runner-up power tile in Crabble, with the ability to make a large number of valid two-letter sequences that will allow you to score well by making overlaps, with 30 different two-letter words, and allow you to make setups using exclusive front X hook onto an existing sequence of word that may further setting up the front E hook for EX- words, permitting the possibilities of 100+ point non-bingo plays, making the X a runner-up power tile after the Z. The X is worth 12 points on equity in Crabble, making the X the second best after the Z.

2. Value the blank more: While the blank tile is worth roughly 25 points on equity in the regular Scrabble, it is worth nearly 40 points on equity due to the flexibility of making high-scoring overlapping seven-letter bingos and the possibility of easy 9+ letter bingos, either a real 9-letter word or a sequence of 10+ letter word on the otherwise constricted board with bingo options confined to 9+ letter sequences.

3. Finding the 9+ letter bingos: Due to the increased flexibility of making long sequences of words, it is not uncommon to see a 9+ letter bingo play, either through a two-letter sequence or through disconnected letters, or even 10-letter bingos and longer. It is important to memorize the common patterns of words that those sequences would likely be a bingo threat. You can even make a freak 11+ letter bingos with specific tile draws that might include high-point tiles as well, sometimes scoring even more than 100 points!

4. Making easy seven-overlap bingo: Thanks to a massive number of valid two-letter sequences, including them that are only valid in this variant, with a whopping 599 different playable two-letter sequences in the North American NWL lexicon (616 in the international CSW lexicon, which has only 17 more), and nearly 10,000 three-letter sequences playable in Crabble, it is not uncommon to see bingo plays that make seven overlaps, which would likely to score well with high-pointers due to the high-pointers making overlaps on the bonus squares on both ways that will often meet with double and triple word scores, and with healthy doses of twos and threes with every single high-pointers, even for the Q and the V. You can make a freak two-letter words that are neither valid in the regular Scrabble nor in Clabbers, such as CE/EC, EI/IE, GN/NG, IR/RI, RS/SR, SS, most of them are common sequences in English words, which would further create a line for nine-letter bingos.

5. Value other letters beyond the blanks, S's, the X and the Z: Certain letters can be more valuable than the S depending on the specific hooks onto partial sequences of words. In Crabble, there will be so many instances where the S underperforms any other flexible letters in the alphabet such as the A, C, D, E, H, I, M, N, O, P, R, T, and Y, especially if there are no exclusive or near-exclusive S hooks available on the board. For instance, if you spot at least one partial sequences ending in -IN, in which the back G hook would likely be an exclusive hook due to the possibility of -ING words and sequences of words, or having the back E hook in addition to the former one, then the G can be as good as the S in Crabble if there are two different sequences ending in -IN that are the opposite parts of the board and take the exclusive or near-exclusive back G hooks. Similarly, if you see a sequence of the word that ends in something like -ALL, -INGL, -NTL and -OUSL, then those sequences would almost certainly take the back Y hook as an exclusive back hook for an -LY adverb form. Lastly, if the sequence of the word ends in a Q, then the U would almost certainly be an exclusive back hook, since there are extremely few words that have the Q not following the U in them.

6. Adjust the equity values of certain letter combinations: Since the tile equity values are inflated as we mentioned in the previous strategy number, several rack containing some assortment of high-pointers are really good for scoring and even bingoing for over 100 points. For example, the leave of EHPRY is worth a whopping 42 points in Crabble as opposed to only a meager of 7 points in the regular Scrabble, due to the possibility of high-scoring HYPER- words with many 9+ letter sequences to choose from while preserving a solid bingo chances that would allow you to score at least 70 points consistently. Holding onto two I's is not bad in Crabble, especially when accompanied with some extra consonants, since there are so many long words containing at least two I's in them, perhaps those words containing multiple I's are constructed using varieties of prefixes and suffixes like -ING, -TION, -ITY, -ISM, -IC, and TRI-; for instance, the CIIMR leave's equity value goes from a not-great -4 points to a respectable 15 points.

7. Adjust the equity values accordingly on an exchange: Exchanging is likely a correct play in Crabble even if the 40-60 point plays are available, especially if those play come at the massive cost of downright horrible rack leaves. It is not worth taking the automatic 50-point X play if it keeps the outright horrible four-, five-, or six-tile leaves that consists of a surplus of garbage letter combinations, such as BFGPV, GKUUV, GGKQT, and AIUUUW, which in turn will saddle yourself with a liability for multiple future turns like 3-5 turns in a row while leaving your opponent whole remaining openings to work with to mount an easy comeback with flexible tile draws in multiple turns in a row. So we should definitely adjust the rack leave equities for downright horrific 4-6 tile leaves, for instance, the BDFGV leave is worth a whopping negative 45 points in Crabble as opposed to only a negative 26 points in the regular Scrabble. This also applies to the nightmare three-tile leaves as well, mostly combinations that involve two V's or the QV combination, so QVV is worth -37 points on equity in Crabble. And even in the worst-case leaves, the leave of GGQVV is worth a nightmare -65 points on equity in Crabble!

8. Adjust the point spacing accordingly: In Crabble, expert players score 60 points per turn on average, which is much higher than the average of 35 points in the regular Scrabble. So making a 15-point sacrifice is not as substantial as in the regular Scrabble, due to other factors such as inflated tile equity values and luck factors, and the 120-point lead in Crabble is as big as the 70-point lead in the regular Scrabble. Even though you are in the big lead, you don't have to be afraid of 140-point triple-triple plays, since it won't score enough points and you are way too likely to outrun it, as seven-overlap bingos or non-bingo plays using power tiles (JQXZ) on the triple would likely score on par with lower-scoring triple-triples due to the inflated scoring flexibility. Such open boards often have low entropy as you are scoring at least 80 points on average turns. In those particular boards, you have a free shot to score over 200 points on just two turns.

9. Avoid strictly suboptimal-scoring bingos: In Crabble, bingos score 80-odd points on average, so making a 60-bingo is not worth it in Crabble unless there are no other strictly higher-scoring bingo available. As we discussed about the point spacing adjustment in the previous strategy number, it is definitely worse than a 50-point non-bingo plays that keep excellent rack leaves for both scoring and bingoing in Crabble such as CEIPR and EHPRY, and making 60-point non-bingo plays that retain the Z much better than making an 80-point bingo that use the Z, as we mentioned above, the Z is worth a whopping 30 points on equity. It's doesn't really matter if you have a non-bingo play that score 15 fewer points that retains the Z if you have a 80-point bingo available, it's definitely worth forgoing it. It's too valuable to spend it.

10. No tunnel vision: In Crabble, expert and elite players tend to focus on hard-to-see options, so you can't develop too much tunnel vision as in the regular Scrabble, as there are so many openings that create multiple flexible candidate plays that allow you to score in the 40-70 point range consistently if you don't have a bingo. So, it is not easy to miss a nine-letter bingos through disconnected letters that meet with only a one- or two-letter gap, which are parts of common patterns that would likely score well in Crabble.

11. Different defense: In Crabble, playing defense is completely different, vastly changing in-game strategy. This is usually done by making three-letter or longer sequences that take relatively few hooks via overlaps that limit the number of hooks to very specific hooks, or making setup plays that is reliant on very specific exclusive hooks that your opponent cannot block effectively. Some of the most defensive three-letter sequences are QAT, VVE, MUU, EEE, SHH, and HMM.

12. Endgame: In the endgame where the bag is already emptied, the strategy is only slightly different from the regular Scrabble. There is not much in difference. Unlike in the regular Scrabble, it is extremely difficult to stick your opponent with any tiles, even for the Q and the V, since every single tile makes two-letter sequences of words with multiple unique letters, and requiring the board to be tightly packed with multiple intermediate-length sequences like three- and four-letter sequences. And even for the really flexible letters such as the E, the R, and the S, they are practically impossible to get stuck in the endgame.

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