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Asymmetric Chess. Chess with alternative units but classical types and mechanics. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Dmitry Eskin wrote at 06:23 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Fri Dec 13 05:13 AM:

There are several interesting things I have noticed while playing with different armies.

There are starting values ​​of pieces that were previously selected by replacing them with other pieces and comparing the chances of winning in a series of Fairy Max games. The standard values ​​for comparison were 3.25 / 3.25 / 5 / 9.75 evaluations (knight / bishop / rook / queen). In fact, these are exchange values ​​that are far from the starting values, and the standards themselves should be revised (calibration procedure).

And there are exchange values ​​of pieces during the game (in the opening, middlegame, endgame). And all these values ​​can differ.

I found that the archbishop is much more active and dangerous in the opening than the chancellor or the queen. Obviously, it becomes much weaker towards the endgame. But its starting value is quite high.

What's even more interesting is that the Unicorn or Werewolf is weaker than the Knight in many ways, especially in the opening. Despite having more attack squares (12 vs. 8), they don't jump, and can very often be blocked and trapped. Regular Knights can easily jump ahead of the infantry, and retreat if necessary. But the Unicorn and Werewolf have a lot of trouble both getting into the game and retreating through the pawn fence. And it's especially cool that each piece has its own strengths and weaknesses, and not that they are "extended" knights with only advantages.

I also noticed that the line rook "in ideal conditions" is indeed much superior to both the jumping rooks of the Orcs and Elves. But these "ideal conditions" do not appear for the line rook soon, and the jumping rooks pose a significant threat already in the opening. All this means that the exchange value of a line rook can be much higher than its starting value, which is approximately equal to both jumping rooks of the orcs and elves.

What is also interesting is that the elven bishops can make the strongest diagonal attacks, since any exchange for a piece is advantageous to them, and it is not always possible to close with a pawn due to a jump. Orc bishops are interesting for their unusual forks, which are impossible to close (as well as from knights). The value of both of these bishops is high in the opening, but drops sharply closer to the endgame.

I would like to not only get the exact starting values ​​of all these pieces, but also use these values ​​to calculate their exchange value in the opening, middlegame and endgame.

Any help in this direction is welcome. :)