I have been thinking more on the Lion and possible offshoots, this time considering ones that are not enhancements of my Lioncub. One question occurring to me was what intermediate pieces bewtween the Murray Lion and the full Chu Shogi Lion could exist. The leaping Pasha is of course sucn a piece, as the Murray Lion is a leaping Pasha barred from making a noncapturing one-step move. A further intermediate piece that occurred to me was one which like the Murray Lion cannot mix orthogonal and diagonal steps n one moves, but like the full Lion can turn 90° between two steps of the same kind. This I suggest terming the Midway Lion, as it is betwen the two extremes. Midway is also a village where relatives of mine lived many decades ago, near Swadlincote in the Suoth Derbyshire district. Only Ferz destinations can be reached by both one-step and two-step moves, as follows:
The Midway Lion can in turn be seen as a compound of an orthgonal and a diagonal component, each effectively a Lion confined to each kind of step. For some time I have been trying to devise names of such pieces. Simultaneously I wondered what kind of pieces might suit the names of the imaginary creatures in the first verse of Jabberwocky - Borogove for an orthogonal piece, Rath for a root-2 diagonal one, and Tove for a root-3 diagonal one - and what to call their compounds. Remarkably, only this week did I connect the two trains of thought, naming the Midway Lion's orthogopnal-step(s) component (the Lion's Wellisch and AltOrth hex analogue) the Borogove, its diagonal-step(s) one Rath, and the correspondng piece using steps along root-3 diagonals Tove.
This raised in turn the question of what Lionlike pieces using other mixtures of radial steps might be termed - if the Lion uses King steps, what pieces use Duke and Baron steps? My first thought was to see the Lion as complementary to the Unicorn. No individual step of a Lion move can be in the Unicorn's directions, although a 3d Lion can reach the Unicorn's first-perimeter destinations with a step of each kind at 90° (cubic/hex-prism) or two orthogonal steps at 60° (Tetraheadral/hex-prism). So then I thought about namse to complement the Bishop and Rook respectively. Given that no game designer has managed to use the Rabbit as defined here the name Rabbit might be better deployed as the counterpart to the Lion using Baron steps, in reference to rabbit and rook pie. Thinking of the one using Duke steps was harder - but I persevered as this is the Lion's Glinsky and McCooey hex analogue. It seemed logical to make it a third beast and wondered about Bull, which as well as a beast means a Papal decree, and "bull and bishop" sounded suitably alliterative. Indeed the alliteration would go further with (assuming that Murray and Midway versions apply to all Lionlike pieces) Borogove+Tove=Midway Bull and Rath+Tove=Midway Rabbit. The corresponding pieces for Count, Brassgeneral, and Azuregeneral steps cuold be Bullock, Brassbullock, and Azurebullock, but I am stuck for a diminutive of Rabbit for Heir, Steelgeneral, and Azuregeneral steps. I am also still open to alternative ideas.
Finally the Midway version of a piece could itself be seen as a component of the full piece along with an Alternating version, which would disallow two steps of the same kind within one move. The Alternating Lion is similar to the short-range form of the Double Rhino, but can turn 135° as well as 45°, as follows:
This raised in turn the question of what Lionlike pieces using other mixtures of radial steps might be termed - if the Lion uses King steps, what pieces use Duke and Baron steps? My first thought was to see the Lion as complementary to the Unicorn. No individual step of a Lion move can be in the Unicorn's directions, although a 3d Lion can reach the Unicorn's first-perimeter destinations with a step of each kind at 90° (cubic/hex-prism) or two orthogonal steps at 60° (Tetraheadral/hex-prism). So then I thought about namse to complement the Bishop and Rook respectively. Given that no game designer has managed to use the Rabbit as defined here the name Rabbit might be better deployed as the counterpart to the Lion using Baron steps, in reference to rabbit and rook pie. Thinking of the one using Duke steps was harder - but I persevered as this is the Lion's Glinsky and McCooey hex analogue. It seemed logical to make it a third beast and wondered about Bull, which as well as a beast means a Papal decree, and "bull and bishop" sounded suitably alliterative. Indeed the alliteration would go further with (assuming that Murray and Midway versions apply to all Lionlike pieces) Borogove+Tove=Midway Bull and Rath+Tove=Midway Rabbit. The corresponding pieces for Count, Brassgeneral, and Azuregeneral steps cuold be Bullock, Brassbullock, and Azurebullock, but I am stuck for a diminutive of Rabbit for Heir, Steelgeneral, and Azuregeneral steps. I am also still open to alternative ideas.
Finally the Midway version of a piece could itself be seen as a component of the full piece along with an Alternating version, which would disallow two steps of the same kind within one move. The Alternating Lion is similar to the short-range form of the Double Rhino, but can turn 135° as well as 45°, as follows: