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Three Elephant Chess. War Towers destroy 3 spaces at a time - protect your elephants while capturing your opponent's. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Fri, Jun 2, 2006 09:52 PM UTC:

Peter: Thanks for taking time to comment.  You wrote, 'although I have some
minor doubts about the Stones -- in my experiance, these sorts of pieces
can make endgames less fun by making them slower.'

My response: I dislike endgames period, so a slower endgame would cetainly
be a drag.  However, since all pieces (including Spearmen' can move around
Stones, I can't imagine them hindering the more powerful player by much. 
The Stone move slow, like a King... they can hardly ward off 4 War Towers,
2 Dragon Horses, a Queen, 2 Horses and 9 Spearmen.  What they can do is
provide temporary protection and make someone work a little harder at
getting his (or her) attack to work.

You also wrote: But actual play should show if this is the case or not.
My response: I agree.  And with much appreciation to Jeremy Good (pre-set
builder)and Antoine Fourrière (who solved a Spearman directional problem)
the pre-set for Three Elephant Chess is just about ready to go.  I hope
there will be a few games to watch and participate in.

You also wrote: The War Tower has a slight resemblence to the Mad Elephent
in Mad Elephant Chess.
My response: I was not familiar with your Mad Elephant... but you are
correct.... there is some similarity between it, my Catapults of Troy Ram,
and the War Tower.  Perhaps the most important differences are that the War
Towers and Rams fall apart when used (1-time use). And War Towers only
impact 3 spaces... but Rams take out everything, so they are perhaps more
closely related to your wonderful Mad Elephant piece.

You now have me interested in Mad Elephant Chess, so I will be looking it
over later this evening.

Thanks again for your comments.  And also to Jeremy and Antoine for the
pre-set work.