RicOlie_2

g5

So there is a bishop-like piece! I didn't notice it until now. I have to hover over all the pieces to find the one you want to move every time, but hopefully I'll get the pieces and their moves figured out soon. A lot of them are the same as regular pieces (like gold and silver generals), so it's a bit of a bother to remember new names for old pieces, and with an asymmetrical board, there are almost twice as many pieces to learn as there would be otherwise.

SP-8g

CK-7j

C-f7

I'm RicOlie_2.

That is correct. B-c6

VW-6j

Sorry that I didn't catch it earlier, but you neglected to specify which pawn, and I moved the other one. I would have moved my bede to a6 if I had moved the right pawn....

SW-8i

Setting up a defense like you're doing is smart. I didn't have a good defense when we played Tori Shogi, and you were able to checkmate me with a single drop. Once we have promoted pieces and pieces in hand, there will be a greater risk for your "king".

darth_ender said:

The following is a true story:

Once upon a time, there was a husband/wife duo who managed apartments in Tucson, AZ just off campus from the University of Arizona.  The apartments were almost exclusively rented by students or adjunct faculty.  Some students were mature graduates pursuing degrees in hard sciences.  Others were frat/sorority wannabes.  Two such students lived together in an upstairs apartment, where they kept two massive fish tanks.  Though technically against the rules, the managers did not require that the tenants remove their tanks, since they had owned and used them for some time before the managers had taken over the position.  And besides, the tanks and exotic fish were pretty cool.

One evening, the managers are wakened by a bizarre phone call at around 1:30 am.  The tenants who lived in the apartment just below the fish enthusiasts were complaining of large amounts of water leaking into their apartment.  The brave (not to mention handsome) husband manager raced up to the upstairs apartment and pounded on the door to be let in, but with little success.  He then produced the master key and unlocked the apartment, finding it empty of any human life, but still filled with panicking fish life as the fish in the larger tank realized their water supply was quickly diminishing.  The manager quickly tried to figure out what the problem was, but suddenly the water bagan to empty even faster.  The manager then saw that there was a small, overflowing aquarium with two hoses connected to the large tank, but partially submerged in the small one.  Apparently water had been pumped into the small tank, but was not successfully being pumped out.  The manager quickly pulled the plug on the pump, but far too late for the poor large fish, who could not even swim upright anymore.  He then called and left a message for his idiotic tenants letting them know that their jury-rigged filtration system had failed and that they were in big trouble.  He apologized to the downstairs tenants, who in a cruel bit of irony or Murphy's Law, had aquarium water drip on their laptop and school textbooks.  When the upstairs tenants returned, they received a bit of a tongue lashing.  A short time later, they were asked not to renew their lease by the managers.

A couple of weeks later, the managers wondered if the car difficulties that were so troublesome for the mechanics to figure out, but were finally identified as attributable to water in the gas tank and lines, were caused by the former proud owners of thousands of dollars of exotics marine life.

 Ouch...

We're moving our tanks downstairs due to possible weight problems. The floor is bowing ever so slightly, and the floorboards are separating around the tanks, which isn't good. So, as nice as the tanks look upstairs, only one is staying. The floor also doesn't like water being poured on it...it just goes right through and makes puddles in the basement, staining walls and stuff as it goes. We have had a small filter pump water out of a tank, but thankfully not for long, as it was dripping on a laptop downstairs (and going through a light fixture). Nothing as bad as what happened in that apartment building has, or ever will happen, if we can help it.

SW-8j

Pxb4

Not that obviously. It might have been better to move a different pawn, or move your fibnif first though.

F-g5

RR-5h

Am I just missing it, or are there no bishop-like pieces? A flying swallow would be nice, but I guess I'll just have to be patient. :)

Ah, yes, I hadn't looked at those very closely, being busy when I did so. Hopefully I have better luck with those. SP-6h

Fxe5

I need to keep a better eye on those pawns.

TF-6g

I've tried all the Zillions files you sent to me in the first PM (that's Dai-dai, Dai, and the two versions of Heian Shogi), but I've not yet downloaded the ones you sent afterwards, which I assume probably have the same problem if you uploaded them the same way. I get the same error message for all of them. It could be something wrong with the program I'm using to unzip the files. I'll try a different program later and tell you if that solves the problem.

F-f6

April 24:

1479 B.C.: Thutmose III ascends the Egyptian throne, but the pharaohic power shifts to Hatsheptsut.

1184 B.C.: The traditional date for the Greeks' entry into Troy using the Trojan Horse.

A.D. 1066: After seeing Halley's Comet, an English monk takes it as an omen that England will be destroyed (it was conquered that same year).

A.D. 1915: The German army begins using chloroform gas in the Battle of Ypres.

I noticed none yesterday and I was online just about all day. I didn't notice any for several days before that, but that's because I wasn't online, so I can't say for certain whether or not the problem has been solved.

It rained all day, provoking the grass to sprout up, finally. It's very wet out now, but it sure beats snow.

We moved the small (5 foot long) tank downstairs this evening, in preparation for the new tanks, which need to be carried through the spot that the small tank previously occupied. Of course, it wasn't so easy as just carrying it downstairs--we had to empty it of it's water, fish, and decorations, and detach the filter and airstone hoses. Then we had to carry it downstairs and reverse the process.

Once the two 10 foot, 430 gallon tanks are in place downstairs, we'll have to empty everything out of the current ten foot tank (a mere 300 gallons) and put it all in one of those. Then the ten foot tank will have to be brought downstairs and placed perpendicular to the other two. After all this is done, the other 430 gallon tank will be filled with water, the filters will be hooked up, decorations set up, and fish from the small and medium-sized (6 foot long) tank will be put in it. Then the big fish, which are in the small tank, will be moved over to the 300 gallon tank and the small tank will be sold.

That will leave us with 30 feet and 1260 gallons of fish tank occupying two walls downstairs and another 180 gallon tank upstairs. I'll post pictures when this is all done.

I have all the Zillions files separated in different folders already. There's some other problem. Maybe something was missing when you sent it to me, or it didn't zip/unzip properly?

Wa Shogi sounds fine. If you're fine with drops, that is indeed what I'd prefer. I don't think drops will lengthen the game necessarily. Just look at our last game. It would have lasted longer if there hadn't been drops. I'll move first so we can start right away.

SP-4g

C-c4 if you moved the one on e3. If you moved the one on c1, then C-g6.

I wasn't expecting that...

I'd rather continue on to a large variant (you can pick the one since there are some you'd rather not play). Unfortunately, however, I'm unable to open the .zrf files you sent me. I get an error message saying that the bitmap for the file failed to load. I checked the folders, and nothing seems to be missing. Google yields no relevant results, though I guess I might be using the wrong keywords.

We could try another game of Chu Shogi if you want.