Joe Joyce wrote on Mon, Sep 10, 2007 05:18 AM UTC:
Hey, George, thanks for the history lessons, I do appreciate them. I
wouldn't know where to begin to find that info myself; just diving into
old comments and articles gives neither context nor any idea of what you
will find before you actually see each piece.
I do have a question regarding your comment about my historical
understanding of the knights - where am I misunderstanding them, it's not
obvious to me?
Finally, Jeremy had asked me which of my shatranj pieces the falcon would
work well with, and I do think it would do well with all but the most
powerful of the pieces. So I'll be looking at games with falcons, heroes,
and shamans, for example; think they'd be a nice match. If you replace the
Q with the F and the Ns with Hs, and you've got a game with more overall
power than FIDE, but shorter ranged. Make the rooks AR4s and the bishops
DB4s, and that becomes even more true. And to wrap up, what would you
think of a Falcon-Guard power piece? Or a pair of royal Falcons, both
needing to be captured to win, replacing the K & Q, along with the
alternate rooks, bishops and heroes?