Comments by BobGreenwade

Hia Power doesn't affect leapers, but I don't know of any rule regarding how it would affect riders; turning riders into single leapers makes sense. At the very least, slow would turn sliding moves into single steps, and immobilize "ski" moves.

32. Helepolis. This piece is named for a very large ancient Greek siege tower. It moves like a Rook, but when moving laterally (left or right) it mows down anything in its path -- and why not? Those things were 130 feet tall, about the size of a modern 12-story building. (I would've done the same thing for forward and backward moves, but that would've been too overwhelmingly powerful.)

On its initial move, the Helepolis can jump over the first piece in its path, but cannot capture if it does. (Rsb(caf)RifpafmR)

This is actually meant for a larger board than the 8x8 used in this illustration; it's featured in, and was originally created for, Vanguard Chess, where it's undergone more changes than Jimmy Olson (as of this writing, I haven't even edited in the change to the above move yet, but this is what it'll be going forward whenever I use it).

Yes, a "leaping ski" should be allowed its full move; I'd rule against a "lame ski" being able to move, though. To my mind, at least, a lame leaper is as good as a slider.

33. Owl. and 34. Pussycat. These are a couple of pieces I devised on a whim while developing fifth-perimeter leapers, and I rather fell in love with them.

The Owl moves one square orthogonally, or leaps to one of the next four spaces from there diagonally; it becomes a combination of Wazir, Knight, Zebra, Antelope, and (what I call) Klipspringer (4,5): WNZNYZY.

I don't know why it struck me that this combination should be called an Owl. Somehow I just looked at the move diagram, and imagined an owl flying along those lines.

And then I thought about what would go the other way, rotated 45 degrees, and the only thing I could think of was Pussycat (from the old Edward Lear poem The Owl and the Pussy-Cat). This combines the Ferz, Knight, Camel, Giraffe, and Ibis: FNCFXNX.

As with any other fifth-perimeter piece, I generally recommend these only for variants on boards of at least 12x12 (despite my plans for using the Owl in an upcoming 10x10 variant).

They're not perfect (the Owl's neck and the Pussycat's face could use some tweaking, and I'm still debating whether I should put wings down the sides of the Owl), but I'm overall fairly pleased with how these came out.

Mats, I will tell you that the Scorpion is at least interesting enough for me to want to print my own and use it in a couple of games (which I haven't posted yet).

I'm calling it the Scorpion Pawn, since it'll be in the line with other Pawns (regular and others), but it's basically this piece.

Now these two have me wondering if there's anything anywhere that's WNZ and FNC.

Absent any objections or further notes, I think this game is good to go.

36. Butler. The Butler moves to any adjacent space, or can capture with a Knight's move (KcN).

It's not greatly innovative in terms of its move; but if you ever want a Butler in your game (without just using a Mann), now you can have one.

This mentions "pieces that push other pieces," but there's no instruction (or case study) on how to implement that, at least that I can find. I'm thinking specifically of ways to push (or pull, or otherwise move) opposing pieces.

37. Jackalope.  The (2,4) leaper is alternately called the Lancer, the Stag, or the Hare, and it's the last one (its original name in German was Hase, which means "hare") that this piece exploits. Combine a hare with an antelope (1,4) and what do you get? A Jackalope, naturally! (DYNY)

Both the Hare and the Antelope have appeared in fairy chess problems, but not in any actual games that I'm aware of. The Jackalope may suffer the same fate... though I may yet drop it into a variant (there's a "random pieces" game I have brewing).

Aha! Thanks!

I potentially have something a bit more complex in mind, but this will do for that.

38. Cloud Eagle. This is a historical piece, coming from larger variants of Shogi (despite its Native-American sounding name), that I don't think gets enough attention. It moves forward or backwards like a Rook, up to three spaces forward diagonally, or one space in any other direction (fbRfBK).

I'm not typically a fan of pieces with asymmetrical moves, but this is one exception. It's clearly an offensive piece, and a potentially effective one, but one that could get into trouble if its main retreat is cut off.

This isn't quite ready for posting yet (I fully intend to include move diagrams with this one), but it is ready enough for feedback and commentary.

Nice! At first I thought the positions of the Rooks would have them dominating the game in fighting each other, but a couple of rounds with the ID showed me that that's just not the case. It makes for an interesting game.

Trivial side note: In Shogi, the Q3 is known as the Lion Dog, the B2 is the Flying Dragon, and the R2 is the Violent Ox. Call them what you will for this (and I wouldn't change it, personally), but I think that's worth noting in the text (in the Notes section, if not elsewhere).

39. Dayrider. Adrian King created many interesting pieces for his games, most famously Scirocco, but this one is from Jupiter (the game, not the planet; at least, this is the earliest reference I can find for it). He created it as a counterpart to the Nightrider, and I think he did better than I would have.

The Dayrider's main movement is that of an Alibabarider -- that is, it moves orthogonally or diagonally like a Queen, but can only stop on every other square. To keep it from being colorbound (not to mention bound to every other row and every other column), the Dayrider can also move without capturing to any adjacent space (AADDmK).

The evolution of the piece design was a fun one. I started with the Alibaba, without thinking it would go much further; I just took the turret from the top of the Dabbaba and put it on the Alfil (which is basically an Elephant), much like the icon I've generally seen for the piece (one that I happen to find very cool). Then, for the Alibabarider, I added "rider's wings" to the back. Learning of the Dayrider, I evolved the piece one more step, putting a King's crown over the turret. (I'm open to suggestions for something else besides the King's crown, but this will work in the absence of other ideas.)

It also has me wondering what else I can add, for an even more complex piece. Giraffe's horns, perhaps? I also have bits I can add for the Displacer (switching places) and Immobilizing powers. What else is there? [Sounds of evil cackling]

The name "Canvasser" seems to have stuck by now.

However, if it was me, I'd go with Hakim (the Arabic word for "governor"), or perhaps Medir ("administrator").

I use the straight white arrows to indicate any sort of infinite-range move, whether slide or ride. (To be fair, though, I should've extended the ones on the left and bottom of the second diagram to the edge of the board.)

In the case of the Dayrider, the situation is complicated somewhat by the non-capturing King moves. But at least there is the Betza; and I always use a text description to describe possible moves, leaving the diagram for visualization. Sometimes the diagram is clear enough on its own, and sometimes it's a hot mess (this is simplicity itself compared to the Thunder from a couple of weeks back -- and that one isn't even the worst!).

The use of the plain dots for subsequent stops on a rider move is based on H.G.'s advice, by the way.

I like the Horse well enough to add it to my collection of Pawns:

The Index and Ox are an interesting pair. The word "index" actually comes from the Latin for the forefinger, as it's used to point and indicate something. An Index in a stone garden (or similar setting) would be a sign with arrows pointing various directions to show where other destinations can be found. So, the Index and Ox don't quite go together in their names the way they do in their moves.

I think you can relieve this my confusion (without changing the icons) by changing the Index's name to a bird, such as Kestrel or (my preference) Harrier. Such birds are not uncommon in statuary.

(Hint: I want to put those two in my collection as well! They have very interesting moves.)