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There are some theoratical symmetries missing, i'll list them and what could be added
- Hypercube / Square Cluster / SinS
- HD could be used for the new diagonal because of it's SOLL of 4
- 4D leapers will need to be added
- Hexagon Cluster / HinH
- A new Diagonal that's ND on the board and the grid of boards simultaneously, i like to call this the Double Diagonal, DD
- "Doubled" Hex leapers would also need to be added, one part on the board, the other on the grid of boards
- SinH and HinS
- A new Diagonal that's SD on the board and ND on the grid simultaneously or vice versa, i like to call this the Mixed Diagonal, MD
- "Mixed" Leapers would also need to be added, one part on the board, the other on the grid of boards
HD and MD can only appear together on a hex-grid of square and hex boards, which i like to call Hex-Mix
One way this can be added is with some kind of Expansion Articles, but if you don't want to add it that's fine, i'm just giving ideas
Thanks for the info, Bn Em.
I probably will go ahead and do the editing pass myself by year's end, if only for my own use.
Alas, Charles hasn't been seen here since 2016; I don't think anyone knows what's become of him
It's not the first time someone has suggested doing an editing pass on M&B; I've considered doing one myself and probably will in time
Charles, I really like this series of articles, at least in principle; the main problem is that I find many of the long, run-on paragraphs very hard to wade through.
Would you mind terribly if I were to take the text and play "Editor" on it, formatting it into an easier-to-read (and comprehend) document? I could just email the result to you, and let you take full credit if you like.
If you'd like I could even put it together into a PDF file (again, emailed directly to you), suitable for self-publishing somewhere like Lulu, Amazon, etc.
I am still considering names for new pieces, especially pieces restricted to directions marked on a Take-the-Brain-style board. I'm still trying to think of one for a Double Rhino so restricted. Here is the list that I am currently contemplating:
Alderney - Dabbarider-Elephrider alternator
Auk - Elephrider-Cobblrider alternator
Birdbrain - Falcon with first step restricted to marked directions
Goblin - Gorgon with first step restricted to marked directions
Loon - Lion (alone or as part of a longer name) with first step restricted to marked directions
Redner - Ferz-Zombie alternator
Render - Wazir-Commuter alternator
Sabretooth - Rankwitch+Colourtiger
Tigress - Colourwitch+Ranktiger
Traveller - Treburider+Tripper
Truck -Tripprider+Trebuchet
The last two are partial riders of the Trilby. Ideally I would like to use ten similarly-themed names starting with Tr- for partial riders of fellow MAB 06 pieces the Triffid, Trebizond, Tramp, Trapezium, and Trailer.
Ambrose and its offshoots have gone the way of Barnabas and Pinnock, and the next 'deconsecrations' afterwards came to me as a result of rationalisation. Boyprimate, Boywazir, Girlchatelaine, and Girlferz were dropped because of the implications that there should be the likes of Boycamelru, Boyknight, Girlcamel, and Girlnightru. As yet I cannot think of anything else to remove. I used my suspension of new index pages to add the concept of Averse pieces to cover triAngular geometries as a subset of hex ones - and emphasise that pieces with a Piececlopedia entry are the established ones. Now the incompleteness is nagging at me - for example, Abbey is defined as 'Bishop+Flexer', but with no F page from which to look up Flexer. So I am prepared to start continuing the index pages, but in the absence of further (and less anonymous) positive feedback they will not have the priority that the first few had.
orthogonal moves | diagonal moves | Crooked alternator | Curved alternator |
---|---|---|---|
Wazir | Ferz | Rhino | Ambfinch |
Dabbaba | Ferz | Alpaca | Ambapostle |
Wazir | Elephant | Quagga | Yaffle |
Trebuchet | Ferz | Okapi | - |
Dabbaba | Elephant | Cashcow | Ambbadbaba |
Wazir | Tripper | Springbok | - |
Cobbler | Ferz | Qualpaca | - |
Trebuchet | Elephant | Tragopan | - |
Dabbaba | Tripper | Okalpaca | - |
Cobbler | Elephant | Catbird | Ambflail |
Dabbaba | Commuter | Zeshcow | - |
This would not affect pieces alternating directions of the same simple piece. Firstly the Rose is well established and its name highly suits a Chess piece, and I have in turn embedded my Finch and Rabbi in Jewish-themed variants. Secondly they are genuinely more distinct from their nearest Crooked counterparts - at least in the case of the square-board Curved riders, which also alternate different angles.
I have decided to clear out MAB 06 and MAB 17 pieces combining three or more short-range components, except where they are two each on two kinds of radial. I have also decided to rename half the FO forms of the latter group to be more consistent in echoing the symmetric pieces' names, and hopefully be potentially less contentious. I will do it at the weekend, when I have a bit more time online. The next pieces that I am looking to remove as not extrapolating pre-existing pieces to new geometries are the -author and -dyer pieces of MAB 08, so if anyone has any reservations about their removal please voice them here.
I recently devised a chain of renamings for simple oblique leapers in MAB 03, MAB 05, and MZB 14 that appear never to have been used. The idea seemed so satisfactory that I implemented it without first highlighting that I was planning to, and close on the heels of a series of renamings for compound oblique leapers. Having done it I realise that I have blurred the two changes, so here is a clarification for those who did not notice the second one: It started when I thought of the MUSKRAT and judged this a better name than Myomorph, which in biology includes most of the rodents after which I had named other pieces. However, replacing Myomorph with Muskrat would also require a replacement for Mystic and renaming the Mustang and Muddler. This was not so great a problem, as I was never entirely happy with Mustang anyway. A marsupial name would be much better, to go with the Numbat and Wombat sharing its SOLL of 57. I looked through an online list of marsupials again and spotted the Ringaui. Previously I'd always overlooked Ringaui as it in turn clashed with Irregular. However, once I took a look at a full list of rectlinear oblique leapers I judged it odd that I had given the names of real (if part-time) warriors like the Auxiliary and Irregular to longer-SOLL pieces than those that I had named Bystander and Onlooker. So it occurred to me that a replacement for Irregular could lead to a more extensive chain of renamings addressing these difficulties. First for the 11:6 leaper I decided to use the previously unused S and Y and replace Irregular with SCRYER, someone whose efforts are thought fruitless in modern society. I have never had a name for the FO piece. That freed R and I up, so for the pure-hex piece with SOLL 53 I went ahead with replacing Mustang with RINGAUI. For the FO piece I replaced Escape with GNAWER, following the practice for FO versions of other small-animal pieces. Also freed up was IRREGULAR itself, with which I then replaced Muddler for the 8:7:1 leaper. Note that this switched Irregular to the name of an even- instead of odd-SOLL piece, so that its compounds with radial pieces have different names from those of the old Irregular. The SOLL of 114 is less than the Bystander's 117 and Onlooker's 122. As Mess did not fit this especially well I made the FO Irregular the INSURGENT. That freed M and U up, so for the 8:2:1 leaper from I went ahead with replacing Myomorph with MUSKRAT. For the FO piece I replaced Mourner with SUMMONER. Also freed up were MUDDLER and MESS, with which I then replaced Mystic and Initiate for the 8:7:5 leaper and its FO version. That freed up MYSTIC, someone else whose efforts are thought fruitless in modern society, with which I then replaced Auxiliary for the 11:4 leaper. Note that this switched Mystic to the name of an odd- instead of even-SOLL piece, so that its compounds with radial pieces have different names from those of the old Mystic. I have never had a name for the FO piece. That freed up AUXILIARY, with which I then replaced the unsatisfactory Stretcher for the 7:6:4 leaper. Its SOLL, 101, is less than the new Irregular's 114. As Splint no longer suited the FO piece I made the FO Auxiliary the ANCILLARY.
Ome-step divergent pieces are in MAB 02. Fusilier is, I believe, an alternative name for the Steward, the piece that moves without capturing as a Wazir and captures as a Ferz. The piece that moves with or without capturing as a Wazir and captures as a Ferz is the Xaja Wazir. The Ajax Ferz moves without capturing as a Wazir and with or without capturing as a Ferz. The piece that moves without capturing as a Ferz and captures as a Wazir I term the Contrasteward, but I once saw it termed the Guardian somewhere since, probably only a problematist usage so far. It would be interesting to know if anyone thinks it worth substituting Guardian for Contrasteward and devising similar replacements for Contrawaiter and Contrabutler.
Out of curiosity, does anyone think that I'm flogging a dead horse by terming the MAB 12 Sextoranker+Ninjafiler compound Mule? This is something of a dead-end name for a Stockable piece (i.e. one like the Brook, Fwezir, et cetera), as I am noticing as I introduce ever more such pieces. Were it called the Nsexton as copying the logic for radial pieces would dictate I could then extrapolate to Elfranker+Underfiler=Uelf, Fenceranker+Lectufiler=Lfencer, Brook+Nsexton=Nsenvasser, Unicorn+Nsexton=Nsefila, Brook+Uelf=Nleaseholder, Unicorn+Uelf=Nleprechaun, et cetera. The Stock forms of these, which MAB 15 would cover, are Stock analogues to the Camel, Zebra, Marshal, Cardinal, Canvasser, and Caliph. I could also name analogues for the Gnu/Gazelle/Bison if to Sexton+Elf=Morgai and Ninja+Lecturer=Coallure I added names for Ninja+Underscore, Sexton+Fencer, Elf+Fencer, and Underscore+Lecturer.
>> the sniper named fusilier (moves Wazir, captures Ferz) Cool! Moves like an Ajax Ferz... Fusilier! Like the sound of that.
Dear Mr. Gilman: I've been looking in your articles for alternative names for the commuter, the fourleaper, and their compound, as for the tripper, the threeleaper and their compound. Where can I find? Besides that I don't know if you are familiar with the sniper named fusilier (moves Wazir, captures Ferz), do you have an article on snipers? Do you have a name for the 'anti-fusilier' and others? I would like to talk to you about the concept of base movers and templates (I use the term base mover to avoid confusion with the atoms). If you think it is ok, tell me or send me a mail. Thanks.
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4D has at least two more symmetrical tilings: Xyrixa‐prism (a line of boards each of which has the same topology as Tetrahedral Chess or OctHex), as well as one that continues the Hex–Xyrixa–??? line which I've wondered about for a while but have never looked into in enough detail. There might also be one or two more in the class of the following.
There is also one more 3D one that Charles never explored (and noöne else seems to have used either), the bitruncated cubic honeycomb. Which corresponds to the other close‐packing of spheres that the Xyrixa geometry doesn't cover.
Unfortunately Charles hasn't been seen here since 2016, so even if he were interested in 4D (which he stated several times that he wasn't) it's unlikely that he'll do much on that front. And even there, the Hybrid Diagonal stuff is already kind of pushed into more‐or‐less expansion article territory.
If you're really interested, of course, you can devise some names yourself :)