FAVORS SPARTANS
I am glad that we are playing so many games of Spartan Chess via computer. Just as you said, there is a learning curve to playing this game and it’s hard for a few human play testers here to play enough games to determine if this variant is balanced. It looks, in fact, like some of our recent changes might have made if unbalanced in favor of the Spartans.
Yes, in computer play it does certainly seem that Black, the Spartans, have the edge.
ADDRESSING PLAY BALANCE
There is one thing I can do to try to address this imbalance without changing the pieces and that’s to alter the Spartan setup. The current set up is among the most powerful possible with the Colonels in the center and Lieutenants on the far flank.
I am currently trying this setup for the Spartans which is, I believe, is not as strong:
c l k g w k l c
If this does not balance the game there are a few other candidate set ups and a few small changes I can make to the Spartan pieces which have all been tried before in play test:
a) Remove the horizontal move from the Lieutenant
b) Remove hoplite first move jump making them just like berolina pawns in all respects.
c) Reintroduce concept of pinning hoplites, that is where an enemy pawn or pieces in directly in front of a hoplite the hoplite my still capture but my not move (deals with hoplite zigzagging through Persian pawn formations. Hoplites can still dash for the side of the board away from a Persian King.
QUESTION
When I run match play for 20 games for example, I cannot quite determine the number of wins for Black. I am using the record in the Winboard Application title bar which might be 7-4-2 after 13 games and 4-7-3 after 14 games with the 14th game being a draw. What is in the title bar of the Winboard Application is the player record, not the black/white record. So it flip-flops after each game. How do I determine the record for Black? I am not so familiar with this application yet.
Note: I am been just recording the games one at a time while doing other things and writing down the result.
FAVORS SPARTANS
I am glad that we are playing so many games of Spartan Chess via computer. Just as you said, there is a learning curve to playing this game and it’s hard for a few human play testers here to play enough games to determine if this variant is balanced. It looks, in fact, like some of our recent changes might have made if unbalanced in favor of the Spartans.
Yes, in computer play it does certainly seem that Black, the Spartans, have the edge.
ADDRESSING PLAY BALANCE
There is one thing I can do to try to address this imbalance without changing the pieces and that’s to alter the Spartan setup. The current set up is among the most powerful possible with the Colonels in the center and Lieutenants on the far flank.
I am currently trying this setup for the Spartans which is, I believe, is not as strong:
c l k g w k l c
If this does not balance the game there are a few other candidate set ups and a few small changes I can make to the Spartan pieces which have all been tried before in play test:
a) Remove the horizontal move from the Lieutenant
b) Remove hoplite first move jump making them just like berolina pawns in all respects.
c) Reintroduce concept of pinning hoplites, that is where an enemy pawn or pieces in directly in front of a hoplite the hoplite my still capture but my not move (deals with hoplite zigzagging through Persian pawn formations. Hoplites can still dash for the side of the board away from a Persian King.
QUESTION When I run match play for 20 games for example, I cannot quite determine the number of wins for Black. I am using the record in the Winboard Application title bar which might be 7-4-2 after 13 games and 4-7-3 after 14 games with the 14th game being a draw. What is in the title bar of the Winboard Application is the player record, not the black/white record. So it flip-flops after each game. How do I determine the record for Black? I am not so familiar with this application yet.
Note: I am been just recording the games one at a time while doing other things and writing down the result.