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Bob Greenwade wrote on Sun, Mar 17 03:09 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 08:01 AM:

My reactions to this analysis, regarding both names and moves:

1. Pieces with such forward-biased moves as the Charging Zebra and the Forfrulqubakzeking (more on that one shortly) are ones that I'd reserve for a row of Spears, stationed behind the Pawns on a board of at least 12x12 and ready to promote like Pawns. The last part is the important distinction; they move poorly backward, so they need that boost to get out of the far rows.

1a. The Charging Zebra could become less Spear-like if the backward moves were expanded, perhaps to as much as sW3bhK4.

2. Perhaps you could balance out the team overall by replacing the Forfrulqubakzeking with a simple Malkia (QZ). Alternately, you could add steps to the backward Zebra move, to Z2 or Z3.

2a. If not, the usual practice that I've seen with pieces that move forward like one piece and backward like another is to either call it a form of Hunter (I'm not sure of the specifics of the convention in this case), or mash the first part of the name of the forward mover with the last half of the name of the backward mover. In this case, the backward mover is a King-Zebra compound, which I've dubbed the Jikilele, so if you were to run with that name putting it with the Queen like this would make it a Queekilele (which is simpler than Forfrulqubakzeking, and in my opinion more fun to say out loud.)

3. For the Bifferbuberz (and that is a fun name to say out loud), perhaps more sideways movement would help, whether as Zebra or (my preference) Rook.

4. The Ferzzreb is basically a Zebra Crab, and rather fun in that context; I do find the first name fun to say, but the second does conjure up a piece image in my mind. If you buff the other pieces as above, you might be able to get away with leaving it as-is, or you could also add sW2 or some such. Turning it into basically a Fibzif, so I look forward to seeing what H.G.'s result is with Zebra Crabs vs. Fibzifs. :)


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