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Michael Nelson wrote on Wed, Mar 3, 2004 01:54 AM UTC:
I will send the current ZRF to Roberto and anyone else interested tonight.

Some rules clarifications:

1. A Pushme-Pullyu which withdraws from a piece must capture that piece;
it may not capture another piece by advance, it may not move to a square
where it would effect a capture by advance.

2. The Shield does not protect pieces from immobilization. 

3. A shield does not protect adjacent friendly pieces from swapping, but
it does protect against the Swapper's mutual annihilation capture.

4. An immobilzed Shield still protects adjacent friendly pieces form
capture.

5. An immobilized Archer may not shoot, though an immobilized piece may
spot for the archer.

The spotting rule makes a strong Archer but not as strong as an unlimited
range archer. Z vs. Z and Z vs. me testing indicate that it is playable.
Notice that it gets weaker in the endgame with fewer pieces available to
spot for it. This type of archer creates some interesting defensive
situations. The attcker's Archer moves in close to pick off some
pawns/pieces and the defender's Archer gets in position three squares or
so away where it can fire at the attacker (because it has a spot) and the
attacker can't fire back.

The Long Leaper is weaker than in Ultima with only a single leap and no
ring squares to prevent pieces from hiding on the edge. But it has a good
abitlity to push pieces to the edge where their mobility is reduced.

Playtesting of the Immobilizers don't immobilize each other rule seems to
indicate that the immobilizers don't become excessively stronger than in
Rococo. What does happen is that Immobilizer play become more fluid and
tactical.


The stonger Archers make a good counterweight to the stronger Immobilizers--the pieces it is freezing can act as spots for the Archer ot kill it from accross the board! 

I really love the Shield: while it obviously adds a strong defense, it is quite useful for attack as well by preventing counterattacks. This technique can be particualrly fruitful to support an attack on the Immobilizer.

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