Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
Derek Nalls wrote on Fri, May 2, 2008 03:37 PM UTC:
Yes, your test example yields a result totally inconsistent with
everyone's models for CRC piece values.  [I did not run any playtest
games of it since I trust you completely.]  Yes, your test example could
cause someone who placed too much trust in it to draw the wrong conclusion
about the material values of knights vs. archbishops.  The reason your test
example is unreliable (and we both agree it must be) is due to its 2:1 ratio of knights to archbishops.  The game is a victory for the knights player simply because he/she can overrun the archbishops player and force materially-disadvantageous exchanges despite the fact that 4 archbishops indisputably have a material value significantly greater than 8 knights.

In all three of my test examples from my previous post, the ratios of
archbishops to chancellors and archbishops to queens were only 9:8.  Note
the sharp contrast.  Although I agree that a 1:1 ratio is the ideal goal, it was impossible to achieve for the purposes of the tests.  I do not believe a slight disparity (1 piece) in the total number of test pieces per player is enough to make the test results highly unreliable.  [Yes, feel free to invalidate my test example with 18 archbishops vs. 16 chancellors and 18 archbishops vs. 16 queens since a 2 piece advantage existed.]  Although surely imperfect and slightly unreliable, I think the test results achieved thru 'asymmetrical playtesting' or 'games with different armies' can be instructive as long as the test conditions are not pushed to the extreme.  Your test example was extreme.  Two out of three of my test examples were not extreme.

Edit Form
Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Avoid Inflammatory Comments
If you are feeling anger, keep it to yourself until you calm down. Avoid insulting, blaming, or attacking someone you are angry with. Focus criticisms on ideas rather than people, and understand that criticisms of your ideas are not personal attacks and do not justify an inflammatory response.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.