1. In Tak, capturing a stack of only one stone is generally bad.

The goal of the

game is either to make a road or else to increase the flat differential between you
and your opponent as high as possible in order to win if the game should end
without either side having a road. Using your flat, wall, or Capstone to capture
another player's single flat covers one of their flats, so it increases the flat
differential by 1. However, you can much more easily increase the flat differential
by 1 by simply laying a new flat. And this has a distinct advantage over capturing
because when you capture you are left with a prisoner which may be captured by your
opponent at a later time. This means that it is generally a concession to have to
capture a small stack.

2. A corollary of the first point is that forcing your opponent to capture in such
a way is advantageous. This means that if you are threatening to create a road
faster than your opponent is, your opponent will generally have to make a
concession, either by capturing (which as stated is often bad), or by placing a
wall or committing a Capstone. This means that whoever is winning the road race has
a sizable advantage, all other things equal. (This is why white is said to have
such a big advantage under the standard rules of Tak).

3. Stacks can be strong because they threaten to capture in so many different ways,
but if they can be blocked off or captured by an opposing Capstone or Wall then
they are usually weaker than if flats were already spread out. Generally the
strongest form of stack is a stack featuring your capstone and directly underneath
it is your own flat. This type of "hard cap" can smash an adjacent wall and retain
control of the stack it left behind, which is greatly important in making road
threats.

4. Walls are exceedingly useful. They can only be crushed by the opponent's
Capstone, which means they can be used to hoover up prisoners all by themselves.
Using walls offensively to reclaim lost flats is a large part of high level
strategy, and it makes capturing stacks with flats even less desirable.

5. Learn / Practice basic Tinue sequences. Tinue is the term for an unavoidable
road. Roads are generally hard to achieve because walls and capstone are so
powerful defensively (and placing them is often not so disadvantageous because of
their offensive pressure later in the game). However, there are certain patterns
that are very common for forcing Tinue. You will learn these with practice, but you
will also learn these from puzzles—there are a fair few of them posted on the
subreddit, mostly from Rabbitboy. Generally the most important thing is that your
road formation should not have any gaps in the middle, because the opponent can
throw a wall in the empty space and the threat usually dies right then and there.
But Tinue threats are a powerful thing, even if you are not able to achieve them,
the mere threat of a Tinue generally forces the opponent to make undesirable moves.