Yes, the game tends to blocked positions in some situations. All pieces
look weaker in dense positions, and pawns are the better example. Using
FIDE pawns may be an alternative, but I don't like it too much, because
this kind of pawns are not thematic and they may be very vulnerable once
the game has cleared a bit. Better is use MIX pawns, with Amphibian move
and (FIDE-Chess or SHOGI move), i.e., really amphibians in all
environments, with terrestrial and marine movements, other possibility is
more elaborated: a two-moves per band game, the first is a normal move of
one of the own pieces, the other is to move ANY enemy piece (except the
King) to ANY position on the board where the piece is not directly
attacked by an own piece. This induced 'separation' of the group is
usual in the sea world, the compact groups look strong, isolated specimens
are weak and the whole group is many times affected by the strategy of the
enemies...
