Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Jun 21, 2003 06:50 AM UTC:
What is great about Shogi Generals is that they are straightforward(!)
enhancements of the Wazir and Ferz, and the anomaly of these in 3d is a
direct result of the Ferz gaining many more moves than the Wazir in 3d. I
never suggested adding all triagonal directions to the Silver General and
only forward ones to the Gold one, although doing it the OTHER way round
would cancel out the anomaly. The orthogonal-triagonal and
diagonal-triagonal combinations yield two similar pieces each while
combining all three yields six - three with one forward-only move and
three with two. Are there really no two (or more - why stop at two in
three dimensions?) of these twelve that would be better than your
apparently arbitrary pieces?
Regarding promotion note that promotion in standard Shogi is optional and
sometimes undesirable, and that as Rook and Bishop are promoted to
non-array pieces it would not be unreasonable to extend this. How about
both Generals starting with no triagonal move and gaining each other's
moves plus the forward triagonals? You could even have a promotable King
that starts with no triagonal move but gains eight on promotion!