Aw, that sucks. I hate it when that happens... :(
At any rate, I'm looking forward to your ideas/criticisms. I may not be able to reply during the day, though, because I'm working tomorrow.
Gosh, that sounds stupid.
We haven't tried the game with a lion in it. I suggest that if we do that, it would go in the square directly in front of the ramshead soldier. The demoted side would be a Kirin, which would be able to jump two squares forward and two squares backward. The lion would be limited to the igui move, or two squares either forward or backwards, capturing twice. In other words, it would be able to move twice with one square per move. Jumping over a piece to the square just beyond it would count as two moves.
That's pretty much what I suggested earlier, except that I would allow the igui move and have a kirin as the demoted value of the lion, rather than a silver general.
I do think the lion should be as limited as I described, because I really don't think it should be far more powerful than other pieces since the game tends to revolve around it too much in that case. It would still be one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, piece on the board, but it wouldn't take over the game.
darklordoftech said:
The Force Unleashed. Palpatine and Vader shouldn't ever be defeated before ROTJ and the Empire shouldn't create the Rebellion.
How specifically does the Empire create the Rebellion in TFU? 'Cause that sounds really stupid.
I should have seen that coming, but I guess it was hard to avoid. I enjoyed the game, and I'm pleased that it lasted longer than our first game of regular Shogi. I did well early on, but you pulled ahead and ended up with about twice as many pieces as I had, which gave you a distinct advantage. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to make a comeback, but I think I managed to hold out fairly well.
darth_ender said:
So I am curious about your thoughts. What would you suggest changing for once this game is done? I had suggested a positional change, one I'm still interested in. But I am not certain how well I like the cannons. They seem a bit too powerful for a game like this. What's more, they are not truly native to Japanese Chess. They come from Chinese Chess (gold cannon) and Korean Chess (silver cannon), and were adopted by a Westerner and given their present names for Cannon Shogi. But there is no actual Japanese heritage for them, so I've always felt a bit like a cheater for including them. On the other hand, they make the game exciting and faster paced, in what otherwise might take ages to complete. The silver cannon in particular is especially effective on a one dimensional board, and when a game can get so easily cluttered, it's nice to have a mobile piece. So I'm not sure.
Perhaps, rather than having a silver/gold cannon, you could use a silver cannon as the promoted value of another piece; perhaps a rook, which you could add to the board. That way you're only half cheating. ;) Of course, a rook would have the same moves as a reverse chariot on this board. Hmmm.... I guess I can't think of a suitable demoted value that isn't already in use.
OK, I thought about it for a bit, and I think they're a central part of the game as it's set up now, so leave them in. I don't think there's a problem with adding pieces to Shogi, which already has so many. It still has the Shogi feel to it, so I wouldn't worry about cheating by using a couple pieces not native to Shogi and variants.
I also think the first four pieces could use some more rearrangement. When we started this game, I couldn't see a way to initiate a trade without coming out behind. You did a good job starting the trades and getting our armies to clash, but it took some doing. With enough study, it would probably be too easy to identify the best opening moves to make. I want this game to be more complex than that. Now that we're in the thick of it, I think the number of options has increased and thus made it more interesting and complex. But the opening is too narrow. I think it would be better to include more long-range pieces towards the front (especially the somewhat offensively useless lance/reverse chariot, which is always stuck behind its own pieces unless captured and dropped by the enemy), while tucking a couple of steppers or leapers (perhaps the silver, knight, or goose) closer to the back to act as defense.
I agree. Here is my proposal for the board layout (from front to back):
(centre square)
Pawn/Go-Between
(space)
(space)
Lance/Reverse Chariot
Knight/Heavenly Horse
Gold General/Silver General (note the G as the demoted value)
Goose/Phoenix
(space)
(space)
Silver Cannon/Gold Cannon
(space)
(space)
Ramshead Soldier/Bishop
King
This puts the board at 29 squares. Only the silver cannon and the gold general cannot move on the first turn. The pawns will get taken early in the game (assuming the pawn victim isn't moved, it can be captured with two pawn, knight, or goose moves). This will allow for it to be dropped in a more desirable location and also serves to protect pieces from each other's lances for a couple turns. The knights and geese won't get in each other's way and the gold general can move out as soon as either the lance or knight is moved, and backwards as soon as the goose is moved. The silver cannon can't move until a few turns into the game, but I don't think that is much of a problem.
Hopefully there aren't any major flaws that I didn't spot, but please tweak it a bit if you don't think it quite works.
I'm not entirely sure I want to shrink the board anymore. Though it's rough for some of my pieces stuck way at my end, it's also good that the pieces in play have plenty of room to maneuver.
I like having the board long too. I did take one square away, but that isn't much. If we want a similar set-up and more squares, we can add two squares, which would put us at 31. Either way, it's just a one square difference. The disadvantage of adding two squares is that both the knight and the goose end up on the centre square. With 29 squares they don't meet until they get to the square the lance is on. The advantages of having 31 squares with my proposed set-up might outweigh the disadvantages though.
Anyway, these are my thoughts.
And those were mine. ;)
Kx28
Not much else I can do, really.
G*25
So I did, thank you.
I'm getting worried. It's only a matter of time before you take my few remaining pieces, and then it's an easy checkmate for you.
I can't think of any good offenses with what I have, so I'll play the waiting game for a bit.
Gs-23
Glad to hear it. Phx21
RicOlie_2 said:
Thanks, I think that makes it impossible for you to checkmate me now (until you get kill off all my pieces and leave me with just my king, that is).
I didn't mean to sound rude there, but I think I did. Sorry, I only intended to make an observation and I was relieved that I didn't have to worry about those knights any more.
EDIT: I just about forgot to move.
Ph-20
My move stunk. Oh, well.
P-17
February 14:
A.D. 1014: Henry II is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII.
A.D. 1556: Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic by the Church.
A.D. 1689: English Parliament places Mary Stuart and Prince William III on the throne.
A.D. 1855: Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the U.S.
And it is of course, the Feast of St. Valentine/Valentine's Day.
Thanks, I think that makes it impossible for you to checkmate me now (until you get kill off all my pieces and leave me with just my king, that is).
Unfortunately for me, though, you have 9 pieces besides your trapped pieces and I only have 4.
Ph*16
GC-22
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to share any profound thoughts with you because I lost my internet connection last night. I'll probably type something up this evening. As for the diagram, here you go (your pieces in bold, mine in italics):
K
-
-
RS
Ph
-
-
-
-
-
-
RC
S
P
-
-
-
P
-
-
-
GC
HH
-
-
GC
-
L
N
K
In hand:
G/S
RS/B
Gs/Ph
My move is SCx26+GC and I'll give my thoughts on the game shortly (or longly, as I tend to be long-winded).
RicOlie_2 said:
A whole week...as far as I am aware, that never happens where I live. We're too used to snow. Last year it snowed a meter (a bit over a yard for you old-fashioned Americans ;)) in about a day and school wasn't cancelled (the buses might have been, but I can't remember).
I just realized that was incorrect. It did snow almost a metre once, but that was over a period of a few days. As for the snowfall I was talking about, we only got about a foot and a half (I know, I'm not consistent with my use of the metric system, but we kind of have to know both since we interact with you old-fashioned Americans so much) in one day.
darth_ender said:
Where I live, we measure snow by 1/16ths of an inch.
Well, we do use millimeters to measure precipitation, but when there's a lot of it, we use centimetres.
A whole week...as far as I am aware, that never happens where I live. We're too used to snow. Last year it snowed a meter (a bit over a yard for you old-fashioned Americans ;)) in about a day and school wasn't cancelled (the buses might have been, but I can't remember).
Just how much snow does it take for school to be cancelled for a week? What, did you get six feet of snow?
It's an available move.
SC*19
See my edit (trust me, I made it before I saw your post). ;)
Carp, I forgot ramshead soldiers couldn't go backwards! *mutters*
SC*21
EDIT: Hold that, I removed my heavenly horse but didn't move your phoenix.
OK, GC-20 is my move.
Exactly. If you were forced to keep your little feud contained in PMs, it would die off.
*groan*
Get a room you too. Take this to PM-land. We don't need your petty arguments cluttering up everyone's threads.
RicOlie_2 said:
SCx22+GC
You have everything right, except you didn't note this promotion.
You can take it back if you want. I think you have a better chance than you realize if you do take it back and I think I can still do well if you do something different.
If not, HH-23