I agree with you that very long leapers are bad design because of being very hard to defend against. On the other hand if you give 16-24(I'm more for 16 and maybe accept 20) path mover (lame leaper) moves they become useful. The reason for that is that moves from the opponent in the mid game need to be calibrated so that it won't unblock such pieces. These path movers (lame leapers) in the mid game threaten terrible forks but are quite useless in the endgame providing an interesting strategic choice for the players. I like the strategic choices that are offered by unblocking paths (this is why I use all sort of bent riders). In exchange I don't like having many leapers. A disadvantage though as Jean-Louis always says is that these moves are difficult to see by humans.
@HG,
I agree with you that very long leapers are bad design because of being very hard to defend against. On the other hand if you give 16-24(I'm more for 16 and maybe accept 20) path mover (lame leaper) moves they become useful. The reason for that is that moves from the opponent in the mid game need to be calibrated so that it won't unblock such pieces. These path movers (lame leapers) in the mid game threaten terrible forks but are quite useless in the endgame providing an interesting strategic choice for the players. I like the strategic choices that are offered by unblocking paths (this is why I use all sort of bent riders). In exchange I don't like having many leapers. A disadvantage though as Jean-Louis always says is that these moves are difficult to see by humans.