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Well, if we are down to nitpicking: it never 'must' capture, even if it had no non-capture moves at all, because it might stay where it is, and you might move another piece. Only in checkers capture is a must (and even then you might have a choice).

So I still think the description is a little ambiguous, although it was very logical that this is what you meant: without non-capture moves the Highborn would not be able to save itself after a capture, so that most captures would be rather suicidal, and the whole game would become rather static.

I asked because I was considering how difficult it would be to adapt micro-Max to play this game, n order to prove you wrong. That the board is 9x9 when mapped on square topology is a bit of a show-stopper, though, as expanding the board beyond 8 ranks is still on the to-do list.