H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Jun 24, 2023 03:03 PM UTC:
I was thinking about pieces that could only be used once to inflict great damage. E.g. like a Fire Demon, but which also disappears itself on capture. In Tenjiku Shogi a Fire Demon is 'priceless', since it can continue to inflict damage for the entire duration of the game, and this will add up to more that it could ever destroy in a single trade. But with a kamikaze piece the damage stays limited, albeit large. If there is no defence against it, you must simply accept that a certain fraction of your army will be destroyed by this without having been used. But it could be a different fraction, depending on the defensive strategy you employ. After the kamikaze pieces are gone it becomes a normal chess game. And if you wait too long using the kamikaze pieces chances are that you cannot do as much damage with them anymore, because population density went down.
Perhaps a Grasshopper that explodes on capture, destroying itself and all adjacent enemy pieces would be an idea. It has great forking power, so that the only defense against its attack is deciding which pieces you sacrifice to it.
I was thinking about pieces that could only be used once to inflict great damage. E.g. like a Fire Demon, but which also disappears itself on capture. In Tenjiku Shogi a Fire Demon is 'priceless', since it can continue to inflict damage for the entire duration of the game, and this will add up to more that it could ever destroy in a single trade. But with a kamikaze piece the damage stays limited, albeit large. If there is no defence against it, you must simply accept that a certain fraction of your army will be destroyed by this without having been used. But it could be a different fraction, depending on the defensive strategy you employ. After the kamikaze pieces are gone it becomes a normal chess game. And if you wait too long using the kamikaze pieces chances are that you cannot do as much damage with them anymore, because population density went down.
Perhaps a Grasshopper that explodes on capture, destroying itself and all adjacent enemy pieces would be an idea. It has great forking power, so that the only defense against its attack is deciding which pieces you sacrifice to it.