I tried to get one tile off, but I cracked it. This is a job that requires a delicate touch, lots of patience, and a large dose of luck. It is possible to remove ceramic tile from some surfaces, but in certain cases you can indeed waste lots of time. The fact that the tile was glued directly to a wood substrate is a good sign. You must be living well.
Ceramic tile is a brittle material.
In many respects, it resembles concrete. Both have high compressive strength. This means you can squeeze or compress them, and they often will not break. But tile and concrete have low tensile strength, often as little as 10 percent of their compressive strength. Bending or twisting a material subjects it to tension.