Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

~~Earlier~~ ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Fantasy Grand Chess: Dwarven Army. Dwarven Army. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Sun, May 6, 2007 11:00 PM UTC:

A while ago I dreamed up the War Horse, moving
[1] like a Wazir
[2] like a Ferz
[3] like a Wazir to an empty square, followed by an outward Ferz move
[4] like a Ferz to an empty square, followed by an outward Wazir move.

NOTE: Horse (Mao) in Chinese Chess = [3] and Moa in Fairy Chess = [4]. 
More powerful than my piece is Peter Hatch's General [W2F2nN], 
moving to 8 more squares.  Going to the same squares is Adrian King's 
Hawklet, which moves like a 2-step Commoner [WF].  This piece has 
the advantage of taking 3 different paths: e2-d3-e4, e2-e3-e4, e2-f3-e4. 
The first and third paths are 2-step Ferz moves, which can also be used 
by the Priest [F2zF2].  Recently I have designed games using the 
Priest, under the name War Elephant.  Note that Peter Hatch does not 
imply that his General includes all the features of his Priest.  Most 
powerful of all is the Lion from CHU SHOGI.

David Paulowich wrote on Mon, May 7, 2007 01:21 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Those 10 soldiers may be worth 15 or 16 pawns. This is not a big problem. Dwarves are slow, so slow that I am assigning a '2 pawn penalty' for the extra moves they take to develop in the opening. The 10 other pieces in the Dwarven Army have a total value about 2 pawns less their Grand Chess counterparts. One small adjustment can bring the two armies into line: substitute my War Horse for Peter Hatch's General, dropping the value another 2 pawns. Or you could leave the General unchanged and drop the 'forward ferz move' from the two War Machines. These are the best estimates that I can arrive at without playtesting.

Here is the big problem. Cannons get weaker as the other pieces are traded off. By the time 80 percent of the squares are empty, the Cannon is only half the value of a Rook. On the 10x10 board, this means a Cannon is worth a full Pawn less than a Bishop (which I assign 5/8 of a Rook's value). Even the slow moving Priest is worth about 3/5 of a Rook. Cannons need to face an opposing army with a variety of low-value pieces, that can be used to block the Cannon attacks. See Jean-Louis Cazaux's SHAKO for a successful chess variant design. NOTE: Berolina Pawns would do the job nicely, but they are not under consideration.

George Duke wrote on Fri, Dec 19, 2008 08:51 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

The Dwarven Army has the same value as the Human 
Army, because Peter Hatch put a lot of time into it and said so determined by design.

Triceratapps Astaire wrote on Fri, Jan 31, 2014 01:06 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Well, pretty cool to see Dwarven Chess envisioned in 2000.  14 years later, it's available on the Google play store and Apple store, Mac and iOS.  You can see some screen shots here:

http://www.appszoom.com/android_games/brain_puzzle/dwarven-chess_iwyid.html

It's probably the most involved Chess variant ever made, or that will ever be made.  15 background, 30 unique pieces, 2 campaigns- Goblin and Dwarven.  I'm actually surprised it isn't featured on this site, since it is representing every person who ever posted a chess variant here over the years in many ways!

I like how you have some different rules to your Dwarven Army though.

4 comments displayed

~~Earlier~~ ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.