Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

@Bob: my turn to wonder if "And if you're really concerned" goes to me or someone else. I haven't commented your Kimono Dragon. Printing is a long and expensive process. I don't intend to 3D-print pieces that I don't have the use. Also, I borrow the 3D-printer of a fablab and I'm now in summer break for 4 weeks, so I don't have the possibility right now.

I was just offering to make the stl file of the inverted thunderbolt because you were saying that it was too complex. I understand now that it is not necessary.

Oh, I misunderstood what you meant by "make." As far as that, yeah, I'll have that covered, depending on what Lev says about it.

@Bob: sorry for the misunderstanding. The language barrier again. I should have said "do". "Do" and "make" are the same verb in French, hence the confusion.

"Do" would have created the same confusion in me (and me being on the autism spectrum is just as much a contributor as language). "Build" or "draw" would've been clearer, or at least less likely to bring confusion.

13. Bodyguard. Rather than an original or recently-invented piece, this time I'm presenting a particularly little-seen -- and, in my opinion, underused and underrated -- historical piece. The Bodyguard (which I've also seen spelled Bodygard) comes from the Mongolian game of Hiashatar, where it's known as the Hia (pronounced HEE-ah).

The Bodyguard can move one or two spaces in any direction, orthogonal or diagonal. It also has a "Hia power": Any slider that enters any adjacent space, or is in an adjacent space when the Bodyguard moves, is immediately stopped, and can only move one space while in that zone. Leaping moves are not affected by this.

The Betza for the basic move is, of course, Q2; encoding an Interactive Diagram with the Hia power would probably require a variation on spell=brake.

My physical design is intended to be reminiscient of traditional Mongolian soldiers' hats, recognizing the piece's origin (though admittedly the resemblance is a stretch).

If I were going to add (yet) another piece to Vanguard Chess, this would probably be the one. Also, it'd be a rather interesting piece to bring to Pick-the-team Chess (variant two), or to include in any game with move-borrowing that includes borrowing special properties.

14. Thoroughbred. This is a simple combination (2,5)(3,5) leaper (AXCY), so named because it passes the Knight on either side while going nearly twice as fast. (In some games, it could also be called a Racehorse.)

I haven't bothered making a move diagram for this one, mostly because it's so simple.

This is the first in a group of three. The third one (Wednesday) is the piece I actually want to share (and, hopefully, use); today's and tomorrow's, though not exactly useless, are mostly just building the context.

(The 2.5mm rule discussed with the Hangman applies here; the joint between the lightning bolt and the base is 3mm wide. Still, the size of the bolt may make it a bit more subject to breakage, so I may rework it to make that joint stronger.)

You can make the joint 2 times stronger. Maybe I'm wrong with asking for inverting it; that would be challenging for the skies; so lightning normally goes not into, but from it.

15. Thoroughbred Knight. As the name suggests, this piece simply combines the (2,5)(3,5) move of the Thoroughbred (yesterday's piece) with the (1,2) move of the Knight (NAXCY).

This does make the piece more useful in a game than a plain old Thoroughbred. The Thoroughbred moves can get the piece to the action, and then the Knight's moves can be the main form of battle.

Admittedly, in terms of physical design, I may need to tweak this one a little to make the barding (at least, the eyeholes) a bit clearer, and possibly to give it some sort of distinction that's easily visible from behind.

You can make the joint 2 times stronger.

Here that is.

Maybe I'm wrong with asking for inverting it; that would be challenging for the skies; so lightning normally goes not into, but from it.

That was my point of hesitation on that part. But I think what I have here should serve your purposes.

That is not really stronger. You just moved up the narrowest point a bit. But you did not make it significandly thicker.

You should considder to make the connection to the base T-shaped, with a larger support triangle hidden behind the thunderbolt.

Well, then, there's this:

The connection is now 5.5mm wide, and that by 10mm long should hold through any but the worst handling.

A T-shaped interface would be stronger, without degrading the looks of the bolt.

This kinda was my first thought for "beefing up," but I wasn't sure it'd be effective.

I am sure this would be much more effective than making a rectangular connection that is a bit wider. You could make the support even less obvious by letting the backside slope up towards the central axis; the upper part of itwon't contribute much to the strength.

Now that I look at it, I think this'll be OK, depending on what Lev thinks.

16. Midnighter. Essentially, this is a Thoroughbred Nightrider; it's a Rider version of yesterday's Thoroughbred Knight.

On boards up to 10x10, the Betza for this is NNAXCY; there's no point in trying to "ride" a move that already covers more than half the board. On larger boards (like the 12x12 used for the diagram), I believe the code would be NNAXAXCYCY.

(Yes, I know that the diagram needs to be fixed.)

I initially came up with this piece (along with several other fifth-perimeter pieces, including the previous two) purely as a mental exercise, but then the name "Midnighter" popped into my head for it, and it just seemed perfect. (I mean, seriously, it really is a cool-sounding name, isn't it? It kind of has a superheroic feel to it.)

On the piece's design, in addition to yesterday's concern about the barding eye-holes and a distinctive mark that's visible from behind, I'm wondering if there are any better "universal indicators" for Rider pieces (on the physical pieces) besides wings.

The NNZYZYNXNX would be along the same lines. A wide midnighter. Maybe you can name these two pieces the winter midnighter (for the piece I mentioned above) because the night is long in winter and summer midnighter for the piece you have created.

But it is hard for me to see how these two pieces would be put to practical use. Say on a very large board, which I'd recommend at least 20x20 for all the moves to make a difference, this piece is hard to defend against as it hits from heavens know where. Making it lame (a maorider compound) would hinder this piece too much. The 5 leaps would practically be useless. So you need some clever way to include them. I'm thinking that minor pieces would be able to block them on some intermediary steps, but not all pieces.

Actually, I do run along a similar path toward NNZYZYNXNX. The ZYNX is the Courier, because it's fast but stays just off the main roads (as defined by the Bishop and Rook moves). Add a Knight, and you get a Messenger at NZYNX, the rider of which is of course a Messagerider (alternately called Pony Express), as either NNZYNX (on smaller boards) or NNZYZYNXNX (on larger boards).

I still need to update those pieces' bases, but once I've done that I may share them as well.

As far as usefulness, I'd call 16x16 the minimum for any real use, and at that the Nightrider moves are still more important. The X5 moves aren't just hard to defend against, but they're also hard to set up to aim; they're generally more useful for getting to the scene of action than for the action itself. So, both the Midnighter and the Messagerider are really just Nightriders with a little extra -- for crossing the board, the X5 moves are harder to block than the Nightrider moves, since X5 can cross in two steps what the Nightrider crosses in 5.

Ok, you have put a lot of though into this I see! Good luck then!

17. Abbot. This is another piece not of my own invention, but that (in my opinion) gets too little attention. It's a simple mid-range piece that combines the Knight with a Short Bishop: B4N.

The piece was invented by Adrian King, and appears in his variants Scirocco and Typhoon. In those games, it's a promotion piece, but I don't see any reason that it couldn't start the game on the board.

18. Castellan. When I first found the Abbot, I didn't see an orthogonal counterpart, so I created it as the Castellan. After all, the Abbot is in charge of an abbey, so what would be the secular equivalent? Only as I was posting the Abbot yesterday did I find that Adrian King had indeed created the counterpart, and called it the Duke. Personally, I prefer that the pair of them be Abbot and Castellan.

The Castellan moves like a Short Rook or a Knight: R4N.

When I originally designed the piece, it was going to be called the Page, with representations of the hat and tunic of a medieval page. I think the design works just as well for Castellan or Duke.

I think it would in general be beter to use the conventional figures and symbols of the unlimited-range version for pieces that have a limited, but not very small range. These are not likely to appear in the same variant. (I would consider that an extremely poor design.)

I think it would in general be beter to use the conventional figures and symbols of the unlimited-range version for pieces that have a limited, but not very small range. These are not likely to appear in the same variant. (I would consider that an extremely poor design.)

That may be good advice. I did something a little different for tomorrow's piece, but I'll consider what you say for future additions. (This would give the Archbishop for the Abbot, and the Chancellor for the Castellan -- not horrible choices overall.)

I could see where Archbishop and Abbot, or Chancellor and Castellan, might show up in the same game -- not on an 8x8 or 10x10 board (unless it's CWDA or Pick-a-Team), but possibly for something on 12x12 to 16x16. Or, someone could let the Abbot promote to Archbishop and/or the Castellan promote to Chancellor. (I do wish the Board Painter had ways of modifying symbols besides rotation and Rider marks -- they're good, but not always adequate.) To that end, perhaps using the same symbol but rotating 45 degrees counterclockwise?