There seems to be a bug on the recent comments page: Mark Bates' comment, which is on another game, immediately folllows H.G. Muller's comment (below) with no intermediate heading row, as if they were on the same game, and yet the two comments after that, which are both on Buypoint Chess, each have their own separate heading. Not sure where to report that.
On the topic of Rook development, it seems possible to me that an R4 or R5 might have its development hindered less than an R7 would, since by advancing past the pawn wall the piece will also become somewhat more centralized, which seems of some benefit to a short rook but probably not to a full one. But I certainly could be wrong.
On the topic of software, For the Crown includes some sufficiently exotic pieces that it seems unlikely I will find any software that can represent all of them without modification (I'm a programmer and could potentially perform some modifications myself)--but testing only a subset of them would still have some value. You can download the rulebook from here (near the bottom of the page) if you're interested in the details, but some highlights include:
Asymmetrical pieces
Long-range leapers (bison)
Bent riders
Nightriders
Pieces that can promote as if they were pawns
A long-range rider with a minimum move distance
A piece that can exchange places with another friendly piece as a move
A piece that stays in its original square when making a capture
A piece that can capture mid-move and continue moving
A piece that, when captured, goes into it's owner's hand and can be dropped back into play
The ideal software would also handle multiple royal pieces on a side (win by capturing all of them, no restriction on moving into check; corollary: no stalemate) and the option to start with pieces in hand that can be dropped into an empty square on the first rank in place of a move (some pieces can be dropped on the first or second rank).
There's an expansion coming out in a month with yet more weird pieces (example: a piece that moves once "for free" each turn, before you move a different piece).
There seems to be a bug on the recent comments page: Mark Bates' comment, which is on another game, immediately folllows H.G. Muller's comment (below) with no intermediate heading row, as if they were on the same game, and yet the two comments after that, which are both on Buypoint Chess, each have their own separate heading. Not sure where to report that.
On the topic of Rook development, it seems possible to me that an R4 or R5 might have its development hindered less than an R7 would, since by advancing past the pawn wall the piece will also become somewhat more centralized, which seems of some benefit to a short rook but probably not to a full one. But I certainly could be wrong.
On the topic of software, For the Crown includes some sufficiently exotic pieces that it seems unlikely I will find any software that can represent all of them without modification (I'm a programmer and could potentially perform some modifications myself)--but testing only a subset of them would still have some value. You can download the rulebook from here (near the bottom of the page) if you're interested in the details, but some highlights include:
The ideal software would also handle multiple royal pieces on a side (win by capturing all of them, no restriction on moving into check; corollary: no stalemate) and the option to start with pieces in hand that can be dropped into an empty square on the first rank in place of a move (some pieces can be dropped on the first or second rank).
There's an expansion coming out in a month with yet more weird pieces (example: a piece that moves once "for free" each turn, before you move a different piece).