I also like the king restriction. One annoyance of the limited elephant move is that there is little diagonal movement as it is. Both the cannons and the chariots/rooks have powerful orthogonal movement, but there is no real bishop-like piece.
C-g5
C-i8
C-g7
Hxi4
R-g1
(That's the chariot, but I don't want it confused with the cannon.)
I could have sworn I moved but it must not have gone through. I will move when I get home.
C-g8
Cxg7
I'm a little curious how your cannon is capturing on the square it already occupies.
Ah, carp. I lost the last few moves when my computer crashed yesterday and I seem to have missed a move when I was fixing that (and forgot I had already made that move, apparently).
My move shall be H-g4.
No worries, I was just giving you a hard time ;)
Eg6-e8
R-a2
R-i7
C-g6
Exg6
I can't believe I forgot about that elephant.
R-i2
Would you like to take it back? You can't save your cannon, but you will save yourself a move, which can be quite valuable.
If you choose not to take back, my move will be H-g5
As another observation, those cannons really strengthen this game which I otherwise find full of weaknesses, as I pointed out before. There are some fascinating tactical combinations that they can perform, and they really can exert a powerful influence from a distance.
Another thought: in chess, some brilliant moves by one player (or idiotic moves by the other) can mate the king early in the game. But here, it seems the only solution is to wear down your opponent's army. Defenses are pretty strong, and without a diagonal attack, the only real option is to simply wear your enemy down till there are no longer enough defenders. Definitely gives the game a different flavor.
I'll stick with what I did. I don't think your moves would change much (aside from the order), so there isn't much point.
Cxa7
I'm finding it really annoying that knights can't jump in this game, especially since I keep forgetting about it.
Yeah, it's weird. The horse and elephant both descended from such a modification to Persian chess, where the horse and elephant there moved exactly as here in Chinese chess, except that they could jump (and there was no river restriction). Removing the jump seems like a strang move in the evolution of the game.
R-b10
H-c3
S-i5
H-e5
Cxc1 check
Exc1
H-f3 check
You have to respond K-e2
H-g1 check
Now this trap was surprisingly well set up, and though I wish I could take credit for it all along, I just happened to see its potential suddenly. You may have realized that capturing my cannon would lead to the deaths of both chariots, but if you didn't capture my cannon and kept defending the crucial spot where I have now placed my horse, instead moving your king to e2 to avoid the check from my cannon, I could have then placed my chariot on b2 and delivered mate. So really capturing my cannon and letting me have both rooks was your best move at this point.
This to me shows how handicapped the kings are with only orthogonal moves available, not to mention the fortress in which they must hide. Korean chess is probably a better game in this regard.