Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I did suggest the board could be improved in the notes section. I am embarassed to ask this after my perhaps ill-taken comments on your similar game, but would you like to make the new board?

The idea behind the game is an interesting one, and I would like to see how it plays out. Like my own game Smegi, this is a cross between Smess and Shogi, but it takes a different approach. Smegi introduces drops to Smess, whereas this game introduces elements of Smess to Shogi. The difference between them is similar to the difference between Chessgi and Kamikaze Mortal Shogi. Both games combine elements of Chess and Shogi. The former introduces drops to Chess, whereas the latter introduces the element of mortality (a usually taken-for-granted element of Chess and most Chess variants) into Shogi. Since you asked, I'll see what I can do about making the board.

Here, John, check this for accuracy:

When a piece moves as the arrows rotated 45 or 90 degrees, is that clockwise or counterclockwise? It will make a difference on spaces whose arrangement of arrows is not perfectly symmetrical. Also, since the Silver General in Shogi is the general that can move in all four diagonal directions, did you intend this to be the general that moves as the arrows rotated 45 degrees but get the descriptions of Gold and Silver mixed up?

The board is perfect except the space in front of the King is forward instead of backward. Also, I said these pieces corresponded in no way to their Shogi counterparts. It was necessary to reverse the Silver and Gold to make an aesthetically pleasing arrow setup (1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1) , and because if I implemented it the normal way, the Silver would always be able to move sideways in the opening position, which it normally cannot do. I'll see if I can reverse it, if possible. Then again, you can always just put the Gold in the Silver's spot and vice versa. When I say rotated, it can be either way.

I just noticed: there is a blue and white line on the right side of the right Gold spaces.

I have corrected the board image. Since the new image is in the same location, just look at my previous message to see the changes. The blue lines were from the river in Storm the Ivory Tower, since I made this board by cutting brushes from a board for that game. If rotating can go either way, then a piece that moves as rotated 45 or 90 degrees is more powerful than one that cannot, because some spaces will give it two options where other pieces will have only one option.

Thanks for the board, Fergus. In regards to rotated pieces being more powerful: Isn't that the point? Golds are more powerful than Silvers in Shogi. The only problem is the Bishop being stronger than the Rook. Any suggestions?

I like the board, the only thing I would change is to make the arrows a different color than the gridlines. I also think the Bishop being more powerful than Rook isn't really important to fix (but maybe I'm wrong?)

I can also suggest new names for the pieces, as follows: (old name=new name)

• Pawn=Pawn
• Bishop=Longstar
• Rook=Numskull
• Lance=Skullnum
• Knight=Leaper
• Silver=Ninny
• Gold/Tokin=Star
• Horse=Superstar
• Dragon=Numface
• King=King

Here's one thing that concerns me about this game. There are spaces on which pieces can get stuck without promoting to something that could move off the space. If the King moves to a space with 8 arrows, it can no longer move. Likewise, if any other piece lands on one of the King's origin spaces, it becomes immobile.

New diagram.

I have now realized that Fergus' comments were actually completely moot, as in Shogi variants, you can capture pieces and reuse them. If you are to criticize my game, you must criticize Microshogi as well.

I'm not sure which comments you mean, but in reviewing the comments I wrote, I found none that were moot. As for your claim that to criticize this game one must criticize Microshogi as well, that claim is completely spurious. I don't play Microshogi, I don't know it's rules, and I am completely free to ignore it. Any claim that I must criticize one thing if I criticize another is nonsense, because I am free to ignore or be ignorant of whatever I please. If my criticisms happen to apply to Microshogi, then you can figure out the application for yourself.

Microshogi has pieces that can become immobilized. They, however, can become mobilized by captures and subsequent drops. You spoke of immobilization in my game. The only pieces that can be subjected to this are the Kings, and that makes the game less rather than more drawish. I, by the way, do not like the concept of Castling in FIDE Chess.

As I mentioned when I brought up the subject of immobilization, any non-King piece will get immobilized on the King's origin square. So Kings are not the only pieces that can be immobilized, and it does not favor offense as much as it would if only Kings were affected. However, pieces on the offense do have more choices of movement than pieces moved to defend the King. So it will be easier to force defending pieces to one of the arrowless squares than to force attacking pieces there. It may work out, but it is something that should be kept in mind while playtesting.

Does anyone care to make a preset for this game?