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Game Reviews by AntoineFourriere
I believe it would be very useful for Immobilizers when they are mixed with Orthochess pieces. A Queen/Immobilizer or an ImmobilizerW/ImmobilizerF (with ImmobilizerW paralyzing enemy pieces which are adjacent by a side and ImmobilizerF paralyzing enemy pieces which are adjacent by a corner) should lead to a more balanced game. If each side had two such pieces, it would bring an exit for frozen immobilizers. (If each side had only one of them, it would be much easier to free frozen pieces, but that would already be true if only the moving piece changed its path.)
The game is certainly interesting - I welcome in particular the Basilisk and the Coordinator -, but it may need refinement with the help of Zillions, which is not good at evaluating capture modes, however. (Zillions also believes a Pao to be worth a Rook, when XiangQi masters think it is worth only half a Rook, though on a less crowded board.) I believe you're right to limit the custodian capture to a pair of Pawns. Robert Abbott has long complained that the Pincer Pawns are too strong in Ultima, whose armies are certainly stronger than they are in Orthochess or in your game. Still, if the capturing force of one Pincer Pawn amounts to nothing, the capturing force of two Pincer Pawns is also less than threatening, and the players would decline to capture the last pair of Pincer Pawns. Robert Abbott also wanted to use a pair of rookwise-moving Coordinators, which would capture by coordination with each other. Why not decide that the Pawns are Pincer Pawns until they are reduced to three units, Coordinators - working with each other - when they are reduced to exactly two units, and something else, maybe uncapturable and uncapturing - but probably not unimmobilizable - Rook, or Withdrawing Rook, when there is only one left?
If the setup were symmetrical, Black would have a sure draw available. But logically, Black should choose who gets the outer royalty. It seems better to have one's Knights closer to the enemy King, and one's Bishops not hampered by the inner frontier. (Upgrade my rating to Excellent if it isn't.)
9x9 fits both Knight and Camel, and the promotion rule is a nice way to allow Marshals and Januses (Jani?) without having to start with blockbuster armies. (I like the Janus more than the Marshal, so if that idea had occured to me, I would have decided promoted Rook = Rook + Bishop = Queen promoted Bishop = Bishop + Knight = Janus promoted Knight = Knight + Camel = Wildebeest promoted Camel = Camel + Silver = augmented Omega Wizard well... promoted Pawn = Gold, and promoted Silver = Silver + promoted Pawn = Commoner) It seems this game will find a bracket before I enter the PBEM design and play!
LOTS of excellent ideas, the equine King, its cylindric ability, fewer Pincer Pawns, the second way to win, and a piece which is immune to Immobilization. But why should that piece be the Mage, and not the less powerful Guard?
I haven't tested the game, and am a bit afraid that the two-way capture makes the pieces too powerful. But the game looks promising, to say the least. So I give it a rating of Excellent as it is, or, if need be, with some twisted rule which decides at any time whether the piece captures by replacement or by jumping, or with your suggested rule that capture by jumping is possible on an adjacent piece. (I believe you're right to pit the 64-square version for PBEM.)
I'm presently losing my game of Pocket Mutation Chess against Peter Aronson in Invent-and-Play Section 2, and it is obviously a very enjoyable game. I blew up my position at move 5: 1. Rook h1 - WP = Nightrider 1. Pawn d7 - d5 2. Nightrider WP - f4 2. Queen d8 - BP = CardinalRider 3. Rook a1 - WP = SuperBishop 3. Pawn g7 - g6 4. SuperBishop WP - e5 4. Knight g8 - f6 5. SuperBishop e5 x c7 ?? 5. CardinalRider BP - g5 6. Knight g1 - f3 6. CardinalRider g5 x c7... Despite this outcome, I am afraid that the sole advantage of being White was bound to give me a quick win. (Peter is not so sure.) The Nightrider can be dropped on c4, threatening King and Rook, or f4, threatening Queen and Rook. It is forking a fork, so to say. So, I think that White should be barred from using the Pocket at his first move. (Peter agrees with me on this.)
Well, King John was himself replaced by his infant son in 1216. Doesn't it open the way to a calibrated number of (King-moving? Wazir-moving? Firz- moving?) Princes, which could act as substitutes, instead of a Queen? Maybe the French provinces call also for a second 4x4 (5x5?, 3x3x3?) board, with a crossing of the Channel which would take a delay of two or three turns... (3x3x3 is of course debatable, even if it allows your Duke, but shouldn't there be different laws regarding succession in England and in France?)
The problem, if any, would be that it is always the Anti-King which gets checkmated, and that the King is here only to prevent the players from discarding all their pieces or to lose by double check. So, if you want to checkmate the King nearly as often as the Anti-King, it's no use weakening the Anti-King by allowing the enemy pieces to jump it. Stronger armies, say with a Cardinal and a Marshal on a 10x8 board - not 10x10 which also weakens the Anti-King, unless you post the Pawns on the third line as in Grand Chess -, make the King more vulnerable, but the setups of Capablanca Chess or Gothic Chess make it also more difficult for the Anti-King to avoid mate, because the Cardinal and Marshal have less difficulty in escaping the zone of the Anti-King than Rooks, Bishops or Knights, and it might be better to report them on the outer files.
I find this game really enticing, and was surprised it didn't get a prize in the recent 84-square contest. The Flag-ignited Bomb is a great idea (although I have chosen another mechanism to launch the Bomb in my own Chess on a Larger Board with not-so-few Pieces Dropped) and the Tank is also a very good piece. As is usually the case with baroque capture, Zillions is a weak opponent, and I would like to try Invasion on the Game Courier. Would you mind if I made a preset for it?
It isn't easy to come up with an interesting variant when you limit yourself to the usual pieces, and Viking Chess passes that test with flying colors. I was surprised it didn't make it to the final in the 84-square Contest, although it was certainly in the strongest bracket. Would you mind if I made a preset for it on the Game Courier?
Yes, Rococo and Ultima should both thrive, somewhat as the open standard and as the closed standard of the same kind of game. That open or closed - strategic - character derives from the Pincer Pawns in Ultima and from the edge squares and Cannon Pawns in Rococo. Where I disagree is about tactics, that is, the officers. I would enrol one Coordinator, one Swapper, one Withdrawer, one Advancer, one Long Leaper, one Immobilizer and one Chameleon in both games. I don't see what makes the Advancer, the Coordinator or the Long Leaper worthwhile only in Ultima or only in Rococo. Indeed, I find the lack of either frustrating. (Should one or two new pieces - not pieces capturing by replacement - prove valuable in a future Ultima-Rococo spin-off, I would also call for adding them.) As for evaluation, well, I would reverse George's values for the Advancer and the Long-Leaper and also for the Swapper and the Chameleon.
Can one castle under or through check, now there is no check? (Zillions' own zrf keeps castling as usual, but it's no proof, since their zrf for Berolina Chess has no en passant.)
I have just added the GC code for the above game between the inventor and Ben Good. There seems to be a contradiction between this game and the zrf and GC Preset. Do the Queens face each other? (I have also changed the illegal 18... Le5 to 18... Le6; there may be other errors in the transcription, since some moves look a bit strange.)
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