Who'd like to try a chess variant? Now playing Xiang Qi, a.k.a. Chinese chess — Page 12

I'll stick with it. It's my fault for not paying close attention to the moves.

Pxg3

Hey, we make mistakes.  You've let me take back moves before.  I mean, if we continue, your army will be devastated.  My next move would be HDxc8#, and from there I could continue to cause a great deal of damage.  I'm pretty sure I could guarantee the loss of your knight and your rook next, in exchange for my half-duck.  You should either take back the move or be very prepared to lose.  Not trying to be rude.  Just extending a hand.

How would you exchange my knight and rook for the half-duck? After you take the bishight, I take the half-duck and none of my pieces aside from that one pawn are in immediate danger. You'd probably then move your chancellor to d5, and I'd be in big trouble then.

I think you're right though, and since I don't stand a chance without taking back my Pxf4 move, so I'm replacing it with B-e6

Well, I typed that this morning before work, had connection troubles, and now looking back, I realize I'd made an error in judgment.  Nevertheless, I have you pretty much at my mercy, so I'm glad you're going back.  But I'm curious, that still means I'm going to get your queen, and it may even be better than the last sequence of moves.  Did you mean B-d6?

No, I meant what I wrote, but I had forgotten the HD's diagonal move. :P

I don't think there's anything I can do that gets me out of this. There's nothing I can do to save my forequeen, and once I lose that, things will start going downhill quickly no matter what I do. As I'm pretty sure this is a lost cause, I resign and suggest we start over again, using the same armies/colours.

Okay.  That's fine.  It seems that the RRs are pretty powerful with that jumping ability, much more than I expected.  But they are supposed to be pretty even.  Why don't you be white.  I'll still be the RRs, but I'll give you the first move.

Sounds good.

b4

Hey, I've hardly been online and could only read your moves without even pondering on what I would do in response.  But here I am.  I think I will probably be playing much less in the future, as much as I love it, just because I need to give my family more attention.  But I'm still around.  Just prepare for things to be slower.

WR-b6

No worries. I don't want to steal you from your family. :)

a3

HD-5f

I think having so many leaping pieces is actually a very potent combination.  The Nutty Knights had many leapers, but they were weak at retreating.  The Remarkable Rookies seem pretty powerful, especially in the early and middle game.  But the short rooks are admittedly pretty weak, presumably to provide balance.  The problem is, if a player can use the superior opening pieces of the Half Duck and Woody Rook (superior to the knight and bishop, I think), then he might get enough of an advantage to negate the superiority of the regular rooks by the time they can come into play, usually in the later game.

f3

Yes, I've noticed that too. It's a lot more difficult than normal to get my pieces out safely, since you can get yours out so much sooner, and they're almost immediately threatening my pieces.

WR-g6

Letting Zillions play itself, the game turned into a draw.  So it does appear pretty even.  I have a feeling the strategies must be altered somewhat on your part from regular chess strategies to meet the different army.  I'm confident you can find a way to counter me, though I'm not sure how just yet.

B-b2

Well, I'm not trying to use my regular chess strategy, but I have to move my pawns to get most of my pieces out. That's what I'm trying to do, without exposing my forequeen or my king like I did last time. Since you don't have the disadvantage of having to move your pawns first, it's especially difficult to get my stronger pieces out without losing them.

HD-c6

B-e5

d5

B-d3

Presumably you meant B-d4.

O-O

No, I didn't. The bishight moves backwards as a knight. It was on e5 previous to my last move.

If you're sticking the castle move, Bxf5

So I guess I thought I was playing against the Fabulous FIDEs, the traditional chess set, not the Forward FIDEs, who apparently move as you describe.  Is that right?

Oops! Yes, I'm playing the Forward FIDEs, not the Fabulous FIDEs. How did you end up switching armies when we restarted the game? :P

We were always playing the fabulous FIDEs I thought.  I played against the Fabs last game too.  That was my intended plan.  Now I'll have to look at the old posts and see if I mistyped or read something.

Well, here's your post suggesting Forward FIDEs.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Who-d-like-to-try-a-chess-variant-Now-playing-Chess-with-Different-Armies-where-carefully-balanced-but-drastically-different-armies-face-each-other/post/702555/#TopicPost702555

It's not a team I even have as an option on the zrf file I am currently using.  It's not one of the traditional, balanced teams, and since I'd mentioned Fabulous FIDEs a couple of posts before, I guess I didn't notice.  Oh well.  I know I'm awfully slow to move these days, but I will have to find the time to set up the board with the correct armies in place.  I don't mind playing where we are and switching, but it will take a bit to make the switch, so you will have to be patient.  It likely won't be today.

OK, no worries. I thought you sent me a link to the same zillions file you had downloaded. Am I mistaken, or had it been updated since you downloaded it?

I do have the correct file, I was just using a different one.  It's no big deal.  I've got the right one now, and I'm ready to make a move :)

HD-e6