Greg, the Lancer must move before rotating; it cannot rotate as a move by itself. The reason is to prevent the lancer from being too powerful, so choosing the direction after a move is obviously very important (one must be sure there are safe squares it could move to if attacked - or if it needs to turn around). I also wanted to prevent someone from turning the lancer as a way out of zugzwang positions (or to avoid stalemate in a lame way).
Aurelian, I hadn't heard of Rotary before but that looks interesting too. That one appears to have mostly sliding pieces. For this variant, I mostly wanted to create an alternate "jumping" piece other than the knights we're used to. It would create some different approaches to all phases of the game. The lancers probably lose a little value in open positions just like the knight, but I'm sure they can be used for some great tactics even late in the game (such as putting a lancer behind passed pawns- maybe even more useful than a rook in that regard)
I believe a single lancer and king cannot force checkmate, but two lancers could.
Greg, the Lancer must move before rotating; it cannot rotate as a move by itself. The reason is to prevent the lancer from being too powerful, so choosing the direction after a move is obviously very important (one must be sure there are safe squares it could move to if attacked - or if it needs to turn around). I also wanted to prevent someone from turning the lancer as a way out of zugzwang positions (or to avoid stalemate in a lame way).
Aurelian, I hadn't heard of Rotary before but that looks interesting too. That one appears to have mostly sliding pieces. For this variant, I mostly wanted to create an alternate "jumping" piece other than the knights we're used to. It would create some different approaches to all phases of the game. The lancers probably lose a little value in open positions just like the knight, but I'm sure they can be used for some great tactics even late in the game (such as putting a lancer behind passed pawns- maybe even more useful than a rook in that regard)
I believe a single lancer and king cannot force checkmate, but two lancers could.