Eg10-e8
So I have so little experience with this game and even a good opening strategy that we are on pretty equal footing. Sorry I didn't move sooner, but I wanted to take a few minutes that I didn't have to just look at the board and get an idea of what to do. I wouldn't be surprised if you beat me on this one.
Well, I sort of cheated...I let the computer play against itself for a game, then went through the moves to see what it did. I don't remember a lot of the specifics of its moves, but I got a bit of a sense of the game and just might have stolen its first two moves....
C-i5
I see. I actually wondered about that because that first move was the same the computer made for me when I forgot to set both players to human. I'll move when I get home.
Well, if both the computers did it, it must be the best one. It feels a little cheap to have stolen it, but I couldn't deliberately make a worse first move just to avoid it.... ;)
Dirty little cheater!
;)
H-i8
E-a3
Md10-e9
E-i3
P-i6
C-a5
H-a8
E-g5
C-g8
E-e3
Cxg4
H-f2
Cxc4
E-c1
C-c6
C-a3
I think I moved the wrong elephant earlier to C1. You must have meant the elephant formerly on a3 to make that move. I'm tied up at present, but I'll work backward a few steps and figure it out in a little while.
Sorry, I did. At least you've only made one move since then, which I assume would be unaffected.
Sorry, just didn't have time to figure it out. I know we're still early in the game, but I'm interested in your thoughts.
H-h6
It has a different feel from chess and shogi. The cannons add another dimension to the game, and you always have to worry about defending the pieces behind the ones in front. I'm also finding it difficult to find weak spots in your defenses that I can exploit. There are a couple pieces I could take, but I would have to trade in my cannons, which isn't worth it. I overlooked that until the last turn, which kind of threw my strategy off.
C-e5
The cannons are indeed a fun addition. However, I'm not a fan of certain things. For instance, the river, while nice in that pawns gain additional powers, but keeping the already extremely limited elephants to one side of the board is an annoyance. Consider that the elephant would be restricted to 14 cells on a 90 cell board, but with that restriction it now has access to a mere 7! Also, the elephant and horse cannot jump, though the game from which xiang qi descended did allow it for both. Also, the limited number of pawns annoys me. Korean chess is similar and yet different, and I think I will like it better. I like certain advantages, most especially the elephant move, the lack of a river, and more versatility in king and guard moves. However, the cannon is weaker, so I'm not sure how much that affects the whole thing.
I have to be honest, I like the king and guard restriction to the palace, however. It makes for more of a challenge to defend, and the restriction on kings facing each other is an interesting addition as well. In any case, I'm pretty sure this is still my least favorite of the Big 3, but I am enjoying the game nevertheless.
E-g6