Game Reviews by MichaelNelson
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For:
1. The inventor's mistaken belief that this is the best chess variant ever invented.
2. Patenting a game whose distinguishing difference from Chess is a lame Bison with an improved movement--an innovation, to be sure, but a small one.
3. His desire to prevent anyone else from using the Falcon in any game (no matter how unlike Falcon Chess).
A most fascinating game concept. A world of interesting variants can be developed from this idea. A large board variant with powerful but short-range pieces comes to mind. Perhaps an 11x11 board with some empty ships in the center.
I like this game concept. I thinks that the two Kings will be playable and it isn't necesary to change the win conditon--a player threatend with the capture of one of his Kings has a move option not present in FIDE Chess--the counter-check. You check one of my Kings and I defend by checking back. You capture my King I capture yours. I would suggest a small rules change--whenever a player captures an enemy King, he must drop it on his next turn. This keeps all four kings in paly and allows the player with a single King some nice chances of equalizing--he has three royal targets vs. his opponents one.
Here is the 'Excellent' I thought I would be giving this fine game. Having seen it in action while coding the ZRF, I am quite convinced of the game's quality. The piece set is quite interesting and works well together. The Pawns are unusual but easy to learn to use. The Pawns are quite strong: I'd guess about halfway between a Ferz and a Knight (slightly closer to Ferz). The Forest Ox is the big gun of the board on both offense and defense. The Valkyrie is not quite as strong as the Forest Ox, but is much more powerful than a Queen: the swap move allows if easier developement (can swap with a Pawn in the opening setup) and more ways of escaping trouble, while still having all of a Queen's move and capture power. Rook and Bishop are minor pieces, with the Rook the stronger but with less gap between them than in FIDE Chess, since a Valkyrie swap can get the Bishop to the opposite color. The idea of the King's movement depending on the friendly pieces adjacent to it works quite well here and I'd love to see it used in other variants. Overall, a highly playable and enjoyable game.
I really like this game concept: randomness at a managable level. The Bermuda Triangle imagery is rather enjoyable as well. Some rules clarifications: 1. If a Knight leaps another piece on c3 and c3 is the BCAF, then both the Knight and the piece leaped over disappear? 2. If a piece captures another piece on d5 and d5 is the BCAF, the catured piece does not reappear? The rules as a whole seem to me to indicate that the answer is 'yes' to both questions--I'd like to hear the designer's intent.
The system works quite well. I was able to recreate a page for Decima with my revisions in about 45 minutes. When it is approved, would it be possible for an editor to append the original Decima comments to it and then remove the original Decima page?
A fine design. The strong Pawns and the random variablity of the Knights will produced a a slashing, highly tactical game. Piece values will be skewed--it will virtually always pay to trade Bishop for Knight, not infrequently Rook for Knight will work. A variant worth looking at would be to treat a 5 as 0--this eliminates some of the longest leapers and brings the Wazir and Dababbah-type leapers into the game. A note on dice probabilites: The chance of rolling exactly one 6 on a pair of dice is 10/36 or 5/18, not the 1/18 chance cited on the page.
Let me try restating the rule and Charles can either affirm I am correct, or he might think of yet another way to express the rule if I am wrong. 1. For the purpose of applying the recruitment rules, we pretend that a neutral piece can capture a non-neutral piece. 2. After moving a piece, the player who just moved may recruit any piece which is attacking a piece owned by either White or Black. 3. If rule two applies to multiple pieces, they can all be recruited. 4. Recruitment is applied recursively, so if a neutral piece which is not attacking a White or Black piece is doing so after a recruitment, that piece can be recruited also. Charles, is recruitment mandatory or is it legal for a player not to make a recruitment he is entitled to, either by intent or oversight? By the way, I think this is a fine game concept that deserves more exploration--I expect there are many ways to apply it in different game settings.
An excellent concept game and I think it will be quite playable. Joe's whole series of Shatranj variants are fascinating. The varying power levels of short and medium range pieces with few or no long range pieces make for something quite different. This particular variant with its direction changing moves reminds me of Jetan.
I really like this concept--it's not precisely like anything I've seen, fundamentally simple, yet makes for a very unorthodox game. So far as I know, Graeme isn't channeling me--perhaps I should channel him and get my creative juices flowing again.
Excellent thematic variant! I've not seen the idea of imposing colorboundness on all pieces but removing it by the odd number of files on a cylindrical board, thought I recognize component ideas. A small quibble about promotion: Promotion to a Knight is needed in FIDE Chess, as its moves are not a subset of the Queen's move. In some positions, the Knight can checkmate when the Queen can't even check. This factor does not apply to this game; but there is one case where underpromotion to Rook or Bishop in needed (rather than merely allowed) in FIDE--when promoting to Queen would result in immediate stalemate, but the lesser promotion could force checkmate on a subsequent move. With three combination pieces to choose from, it is much less likely in this variant, but analysis is needed to determine if it is possible: if so, underpromotion must be allowed (if and only if stalemate is a draw).
RPG themed chess has been around at least since Betza's Way of the Knight from 1995. (http://www.chessvariants.org/crossover.dir/wotn.html). Like your idea for earning upgrades, which need to be more liberal than those in Betza's game, since his upgrade ranks increase power more with each upgrade. I can't rate this game "excellent" without playtesting it, but a solid "good" for your idea.
A very well thought and pleasing out blend of a Capablanca's Chess and Shogi. I am curious about the rule against having identical promoted pieces other than promoted Pawns. I consider it a small wart on a otherwise perfect design.
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