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ok... i like the idea of the artillery opposing the colonels on the
diagonals... the thing with the pawns on the respective 3rd rather than
4th ranks... that is how the pawns originally were... i moved them up to
the 4th in order to speed the game up...... as for the missiles... i'm
happy with how they are... as someone else alluded, they add a real
'tension' to the game... another thought on this is that, although the
missiles are very powerful, the pawns are such that building mutually
supporting positions - defensible against missiles - is fairly easy...
also, originally the game had 13 ranks and there were 2 'air force'
pieces which precluded any missile from attacking within 3 squares of
them.. that was the 'air force' piece's sole function... defense
against missiles... i started to think that was too 'wargamish' and not
'like chess' so i took the 'air force' pieces out.... but then the
missiles were way too deadly so i came up with the idea of the backline
being a safe zone... the tension created by the missiles is a feature of
the game......  i might go with - as larry suggested - the pawns on
respective 3rd ranks and spread the artillery out onto the diagonals
opposing the colonels... whether or not the pawns should be moved
'back,' the idea of the artillery spread out is good......  i kind of
like the colonels being 'slow'... reminds me of their counterparts -
horses - in xiangqi... from what testing i've done they tend to come
into
play toward the end of the game...... but all the same i have thought
though of increasing the colonels to 3 squares instead of 2... but will
have to think some more ... get more feedback ...on that ........ i
definitely wanted to keep this variant short in playing time... thus
wanted 50 turns to be fairly inconceivable... that's my main concern
about moving the pawns back to 3rd rank... will it develop quickly enough
in human/human?... one reason i want to 'force the issue' with this
variant is because of the large numbers of pieces... 25 per side... i'm
looking to make it 'unbalanced' quickly... that is why the promotions
are so high..... i've played a little shogi and the 'easily
unbalanced'
was something i wanted to bring over at least in part from shogi...... it
seemed like an 'american' idea too... kind of like 'go go go... hurry
and finish this game so we can start another one'....... anyway, moving
the pawns back... spreading the artillery... maybe it will still fit
within 50 turns... also, i could dispense too with the turn limit
altogether... i'm fairly certain most games would be done within 60+
moves, even with pawns at the 3rd ranks at the start... .......a bit more
on the piece naming... if i didn't already mention about the colonels...
it's because of the 'bird' ('full bird colonel') an american colonel
is 'marked' with... the colonels in american chess 'jump' or 'fly'
so i thought the colonel analogy apt... as for the 'tank brigades'...
well i have always seen rooks/chariots in fide/xiangqi as 'armor' or
'tanks'... it's probably because i come from an avalon hill gaming
background.. chess is fairly 'new' to me... so by adding the word
'brigade' in there i could take out the 'r' and notate the 'tanks'
with that... same with the 'recon battalion'... added 'battalion' in
so i could use the 'b' to denote them... since they are identical to
their counterparts in 'FIDE' (?) chess i thought using the same letters
would be a good idea... and 'colonel' came about also partly because of
the 'n' in the word... i'm not sure how 'artillery' begets a
'c'...
 grins... but whilst playing xiangqi i'm always referring to the cannons
as 'artillery'... it is just a coincidence that 'missile' has an
'm'
and these are in similar position to 'ministers' in xiangqi...
obviously
the similarities for these pieces end at that... the 'soldiers' or
'privates' or 'pawns' of course are denoted with 'p' ... and
'generals' with 'q' because they are exactly as queens in 'fide'...
anyway, thanks again larry and the rest of you for your feedback/help...