Comments by BobGreenwade

There -- I got the setup boards changed (and even recolored them, though I may do so again with something snazzier).

This game is forgotten. Too bad, it was very pleasant to play with Zillions. Maybe a ID is possible to code? I'm afraid I'm not skilled enough.

I came across the game the other day, and was thinking of adding a few of the pieces to my collection. An ID should be doable, though; I'l make one and post it in a comment there, but I wouldn't be sure how to code the Tank or Bomb.

A few specific items for feedback at this point:

• Is the Power Queen too powerful? Should I tone it down to a regular Queen?
• Similar question on the Flash Bishop and Shoving Rook.
• Speaking of the Shoving Rook, can anyone think of a better adjective than "shoving"?
• For an Interactive Diagram, what would be the Betza for the Lariat and Shoving Rook?
• Should the Kirin and Phoenix be replaced with a slightly more powerful pair, like the Dolphin and Walrus?
• Are there any "forced movement" tricks that I missed?

Other notes are always welcome, of course, but those are the questions on my mind. The last two in particular will be important, before I upload the setup diagram.

I congratulate you on your patience. I'm not sure I couldn've done something like that so quickly.

I've taken said look, and at least the Sentry and the Ghast look like they'd have potential for this game.

I'd like to see what H.G.'s take on them would be for the Interactive Diagrams, though, as well as on the Lariat and Shoving Rook.

(I rather suspect that the Ghast would need a new Compel spell to do its thing.)

There are a lot of pieces here that I want to steal... :)

With the Shoving Rook, the player can choose how far to push, so it's cafibuR -- if that move leaves the SR in the space adjacent to the shoved piece.

Thanks for that, and the Lariat's move. I'll be able to make use of those!

It does look as if the Ghast is impractical for an ID, and I suspect the Sentry (from Eight-Piece Chess) is about the same. (Not that it makes that much difference; we've already established that the Bodyguard is an issue!)

The reason there's a choice to swap instead of capture is for those rare circumstances, such as when the swapping piece is blocking a check or other potential capture of a valuable piece. The same with the choice of shove or capture: the Shoving Rook can move a piece to a spot that blocks a capture, but otherwise wouldn't be accessible to it, and may be guarded so moving another piece there would just sacrifice that piece.

And as pointed out in the notes, it's not the player being coerced; it's the pieces.

52. Zombie Pawn. After Bn Em made a positive comment about this piece in its debut in Dealer's Chess, I thought I'd put this one up here for general consumption.

The Zombie Pawn moves and captures one space directly or diagonally forward, or may move without capture one space backward. It doesn't get any extra spaces for an opening move, though it's still capable of en passant, and it does promote. (efFefWmbW)

It's also contagious: any piece that captures it is turned into a Zombie Pawn (though it doesn't change color). Where possible, rifle captures and withdrawing captures should be exempt from this, as should "captures" that are actually swaps, pushes, pulls, or other types of forced move.

I do appreciate how, at this time, putting bracket notation in the forms translates to the current notation. The latter is much longer and harder for a human to interpret, but it's a handy tool.

And thanks again for your input on this!

Tank is easy: (mcdaf)4mcdW.

I got to thinking about this, and the Helepolis, which I've settled on being able to move sideways and mow down any enemy pieces in its path (it has a normal Rook move forward and backward). So if I'm figuring this right, that part of its Betza would be s(mcdaf)#mcdW, where # is the number of the columns on the board, minus two.

I now have Expansion Set #1 in place, with various edits to reflect the fact (though I probably missed a spot or two).

Spoilsport. ;)

Hover over the pic, and you can see that they were drawn by the new Leonardo AI art generator.

I've experimented a little bit with Img2go, and I get similarly impressive results.

54. Exorcist. and 55. Tax Collector. This weekend's pair represent my experiment with doubly-bent sliders. I'm not sure about the Betza here, as I'm still very much in the learning phase for the more complex moves; hopefully H.G. will correct my mistakes (or tell me I somehow got it right!).

The Exorcist moves one space diagonally, then may continue one space away orthogonally, and may proceed from there sliding diagonally in the original direction. (FafsFafsyafF) [F?fsW?fzB]

The Tax Collector (as you've probably guessed) starts by moving one space orthogonally, then may continue one space diagonally away, and may proceed from there sliding orthogonally in the original direction. (WafsWafsyafW) [W?fsF?fzR]

Of course there's not much difference between these and the Gryffon/Rhinoceros pair; this pair merely rotates the first squares of the moves. Even so, I can imagine someone coming up with a way to make "super" versions of these that can turn either way for the long slide, giving possible four lanes of diagonal or orthogonal movement in each direction instead of just two. And either could be combined with a Bishop, Rook, Camel, Alibaba, etc. And what would one call a Gryffon/Exorcist or a Rhinoceros/Tax Collector? Or even a merging of these two pieces?

I'm also thinking about pieces that move two or three spaces before a single or double bend.

The piece designs here are, I admit, quite cheesy, and I'm not sure the box on the Tax Collector properly "reads" as a briefcase. Still, they're pretty easy to recognize at a glance for what they are.

I agree with Fergus. This piece looks nice as an Advancer (though I'd name it Ram), and I'd use it on a board if it existed. I had an even more impressive result when I experimented to see what a Malkia (West African queen; QZ) would look like. (I wish I'd saved the pic!)

If only there was some way to get a whole set that way.

Thanks for the assist! I edited both for the bracket notation, according to your info. (But shouldn't it be [W?fsF?fzR]? Like I said, still learning....)

Apparently, nobody else knows how to make a decent piece that looks like a Centaur either. (I sure don't, but I also can't find anything that really says "centaur" anywhere else either.)

It doesn't bode well for my wish to examine further Mann/leaper compounds, such as with Camel, Zebra, Okapi, Bison, etc.

I feel certain that I've seen a Mann/Camel (KC) compound recently, but I can't recall where.

I'm thinking to see what I can do in collecting QBRM groups (Queens, Bishops, Rooks, and Manns) as they're compounded with various leapers. (I'm pretty sure there aren't any beyond the Camel, Aurelian's Sangoma and materials in Charles Gilman's articles notwithstanding.)

@Jean-Louis: I did not mean any disparagement toward your Centaur piece; as for the looks of my own pieces, I plead guilty as charged.

The horse's head thing is what holds me back from designing a Centaur; I get a man's head and upper body for sure, but I'm at a loss as to how to represent the horse on the lower part.

I actually rather like both of these. I've seen real chess sets with similar aesthetics, particularly the Amazon, and I could see these as welcome additions to either one. (The Terror is certainly superior to my own effort.)