Comments by CBagleyJones

oops sorry, i meant shatranj, i think u knew :)

Oh if u mean no original alfaerie for 'sky' then yes there isn't but i am very used to the ones i used, u don't really see them too much in games either. On the download zrf page for 'sky' is info on game and at the bottom of the page there are graphics of pieces and the name and movement given.

Charles, naming pieces, i know u have a 'big production' going on there and changing one name means changing a lot of others, so, yeah, it's a problem, and i think u should name them what u want. But if u could not name an 8-1 leaper 'ibis' it would probably be good seeing that name is connected with a 5-1 leaper from at least 1999 it seems. It would be confusing. If u havn't already named it that, u could consider, or at least on your page mention that some people call 5-1 leaper 'ibis'.

But then again, as we see, people name pieces what they want disregarding names that they were called earlier. Who invented the compound pieces 'knight/bishop' and 'knight/rook'? What were original names?

Tai Shogi has an 'alfil/wazir' called 'Phoenix' (Hoo) and another piece called 'Kirin' that moves 'dabbaba/fers' Surely these pieces were the first ones invented?

Great game Mats, congrats. 
The pyrrhus, what a piece, i found it really painful at first, lol, i thought it's power of paralyzing pieces was too much, the knight being the only piece that could attack the pyrrhus! I wondered if the pyrrhus's range should be 'cut down', like say paralyzing 4 or 5 squares range on the queen lines. However, once i got used to the piece, it seems to me the game is very smooth and heaps of fun and very nice. I think the way the pyrrhus is is the best.

The knight in this game is actually a pretty powerful piece, much more powerful than the bishops and probably more powerful than the rooks too, because it can attack the pyrrhus. If both pyrrhus's are paralyzed, you wouldn't want to have two bishops against two knights, lol, that's for sure.
I'm rating excellent.

Oh i notice you have a 10x10 game with two pyrrhus's a side, how does that play compared to the 8x8 do you think, i'll have to check it out.

Heya
Under the heading 'pieces' u describe the moves of the 'dragon', but u dont describe fully, the rest of the description u have in 'notes'. And it is an important part of the movement of the dragon. I really think u should put the full description of the 'dragon' where u describe it's movement.

Also, u say 'The Dragon on its own cannot kill another Dragon'

If the rule is simply 'a dragon cannot take another dragon', i think u should say like that, saying 'on it's own' seems to imply it might be able to take another dragon 'with help'.

Also i wonder why u say 'Hence the Dragon is more of a Defensive unit but can be used offensively but in a limited capacity.'
The dragon can take other pieces, right, except another dragon, and can't give check, but it does have range, it can back up pieces and can take other pieces, from range, yes? 

I havn't played much chinese chess really so i don't fully know much about defending in this game, i just wonder how a 4 step mover can be a defender, seems if it moves it does move a fair distance away from defence, maybe? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts, game looks nice, would be interesting to see how it plays, would be nice to see a small diagram of the whole board with pieces on it too.
Thanks :)

edit - oh i'm guessing it plays defence by blocking?

Leaping Bat seems to play with a fairly standard set of fairy pieces. Is there anything in particular about this game that makes you estimate the amount of moves it could take to play as you have?

Or are you saying, that any game played on a 16x12 board, with a similar set-up to Leaping Bat, (full row of pawns and two full rows of pieces playing at either ends of the board with at least the same amount of one square movers and similar piece strength/variety) would take this long?

Hey, H.G., i came across this webpage the other day, i'd like to know if you have ever seen this and what you think.

http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/5/4/7/15475/15475.htm

The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 Books 4, 5, 6 and 7 / Optic, Oliver, 1822-1897

the intersting part is where Yudhishthira says ...

Yudhishthira replied, 'Ye sons of the Kuru race, ye bulls among men, hear
what I shall do on appearing before king Virata. Presenting myself as a
Brahmana, Kanka by name, skilled in dice and fond of play, I shall become
a courtier of that high-souled king. And moving upon chess-boards
beautiful pawns made of ivory, of blue and yellow and red and white hue,
by throws of black and red dice.

Mats, i do not think this game should suffer from any type of exhaustion.
If two people sit down to play the game over the board, they do not have to play the game to the finish, it can played over a few sittings. I do think playing by email though would be best.

As far as mental exhaustion goes, due to the large amounts of different moves available that will arise during the game, this is not fide chess, it is a game on a very large board. One would have to use their intuition and feel for the game, you would have to disregard many moves that on appearance there would seem nothing wrong the move. There would be too many moves to analize, so you would have to do your best.
Would this add a greater element of luck in the game, i would say definitely yes, would this make the game unplayable, i would say definitely not.
I'm not sure what game people play on game courier that would be the closest to Leaping Bat, would it be Cataclysm?

Cataclysm plays on a 16x12 board with 16 pawns like Leaping Bat, but Cata has 24 pieces to LB's 32, so that is a fair difference, and the piece strength also in Cata is greater than LB, so this is probably not a great example, but still it must give us some indication i think.
Amazingly i have noticed that a couple of Cata games have been completed in under 80 moves, another seems to have gone to around 350, if memory serves me correct. Obviously, it appears that Cata is indeed playable.
In the interest of the study of big board games, if anyone knows another large board variant, at least 16x12 board, played on game courier, could you please post to say.

i want to sometime this year showcase over 180 fairy pieces on a few large
boards (not really a game) and i would like to add a piece that slides 1 to
3 squares diagonally (like a limited bishop).
Does anyone know a game where a piece like this is used. Thanks.

hi, i just need all the experts to help me with some piece info :)
can anyone tell me if they know a game where these types of pieces are
used.
1. Camel/wazir (3-1 leaper and moves one square orthogonally).
2. moves 1 to 3 squares orthogonally, cannot leap (like limited rook).
i guess i'm trying to find the earliest possible game these pieces have
appeared, but any game where they play is ok.
thanks

Yeah i like the pieces too. I'll be releasing something to showcase over 200 fairy pieces (not a game), i'll add these 2 pieces.
I don't mind the 10x10 board, and as far as it making most pieces too slow, i think that really is a matter for personal taste. I do think though the piece density might be a bit heavy.