H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Nov 8, 2020 08:16 PM UTC:
I would not say it is better to have WmD in a variant instead of WD. But it has some special charm not often found elsewhere. A WD is another light piece, close in value to Knight. Its peculiarity is that it is a light piece with mating potential (on 8x8), which has some unusual consequences in the end-game. But the trading options in the middle-game are the same as for the FIDE minors.
The Alpaca, OTOH, is worth about 2 Pawns rather than 3. This opens the possibility for entirely new tactics, like a 2-Pawns-for-Alpaca trade. That means Pawns protected by Pawns are no longer automatically safe, which I expect to have a large impact on strategy. The Alpaca also has the property that it can block and attack a Pawn at the same time. FIDE minors cannot do that, you would need at least a Rook there to do it. (Which is one of the reasons a Rook is worth so much more than a minor.) This means it cannot only stop a passer, but actually annihilate it.
I would not say it is better to have WmD in a variant instead of WD. But it has some special charm not often found elsewhere. A WD is another light piece, close in value to Knight. Its peculiarity is that it is a light piece with mating potential (on 8x8), which has some unusual consequences in the end-game. But the trading options in the middle-game are the same as for the FIDE minors.
The Alpaca, OTOH, is worth about 2 Pawns rather than 3. This opens the possibility for entirely new tactics, like a 2-Pawns-for-Alpaca trade. That means Pawns protected by Pawns are no longer automatically safe, which I expect to have a large impact on strategy. The Alpaca also has the property that it can block and attack a Pawn at the same time. FIDE minors cannot do that, you would need at least a Rook there to do it. (Which is one of the reasons a Rook is worth so much more than a minor.) This means it cannot only stop a passer, but actually annihilate it.