Alright, take 2. And don't worry about not being able tio reply till evening because I will likely be the same way. I tend to be longwinded, but I can probably retype my last post in a shortened version.

First, we should change the gold general to a copper general. Since there is no analogue to horizontal movement, and since the copper general is supposed to be inferior to the silver general anyway, if we simply change the name to copper general, it will retain the same move, yet be the obvious lower ranking version.

Second, the silver cannon is clearly more powerful than the gold cannon. The gold cannon comes from Chinese chess, the silver from Korean chess. On a 2D board, the gold cannon is clearly superior. But on a 1D board with so many pieces, the silver cannon is obviously the better of the two. In fact, it was so powerful that I almost would prefer to use the gold cannon instead, just to keep it closer in value to the other pieces. But as you pointed out, if we only keep one cannon, what should we put on the other side?

Third, I am not sure a full-power lion would be as overwhelmingly powerful on a 1D as on a 2D. But I do have my concerns, and I actually do lean more towards the weaker lion. I'd like to perhaps try both the weaker and stronger version and see which is better. In any case, I think the idea of using the kirin as the weaker value is a terrific idea.

I still need to take a better look at the setup, but I think you've got some good ideas. Give me a bit. I'm pretty busy today as well, so I'll get to it when I can.