Right now, this page is a hodge-podge of notes and ideas relating to the expansion and extension of TSRP. [By the way, the actual title of this page is "Short 2: the Longer ShortRange Project"; why it got truncated, I don't know, probably because I used the colon, but it will affect wiki file operations.]
Hobbling the Hero and shackling the Shaman
For being nothing but a combination of either a dabbabah and wazir, or alfil and ferz, the bent hero and bent shaman are quite powerful pieces. On a 10x10 board, David Paulowich estimates the value of the shaman as equal to the rook, and the hero as worth about 1.5 pawns more than a rook. [http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSopulentlemuria] - see Notes
To reduce their power without reducing their movement potential, we can specify [give precedence to] the leap move as always coming first. This should cut their power by roughly half, as it removes 5 of the pieces' 10 movement options, giving pieces intermediate in value to the linear and bent versions. This power reduction works the same if the step always comes first, with an optional leap, but produces somewhat different pieces. This gives the option for Lemurian Shatranj with similar, but different, armies.
The movement options are:
| move | linear | L then S | S then L | bent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S only | Y | N | Y | Y |
| L only | Y | Y | N | Y |
| S + Lo | Y | N | Y | Y |
| S + Ll | N | N | Y | Y |
| S + Lr | N | N | Y | Y |
| S + Lb | ? | N | Y | Y |
| L + So | Y | Y | N | Y |
| L + Sl | N | Y | N | Y |
| L + Sr | N | Y | N | Y |
| L + Sb | ? | Y | N | Y |
Legend
S = Step 1 square
L = Leap to 2nd square
o = piece continues straight Outward
r = piece turns Right
l = piece turns Left
b = piece reverses direction, moving directly Backwards
These two new pieces have been added to Lemurian Shatranj [with a back-story] in the Notes.
One of the things I'd like to investigate is an army where all the pieces [except, maybe, the king] must leap as the first [and maybe only] part of their individual moves.
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CwDA: the Shatranjian Shooters
After several games between Abdul-Rahman Sibahi and Joe Joyce playing CwDA with the "Shatranjian Shooters" vs. the Fabulous FIDES, we've generally come to the conclusion that the Shooters are too powerful for the FIDES, although there is some dissention; David Paulowich did say the FIDES can, with proper play, win, although this was some time ago. Joe thinks the Shooters should migrate to a larger board as a Grand CwDA army, with the high priestess and minister added to the shooters, and maybe the queen analog being reduced to the jumping general from the linear warelephant.
**
Ranges of Four and More
Once you get to pieces that may move 4 or more squares in a turn, you're getting out of the very short-range pieces and into intermediate-range pieces, on common board sizes.
The two easiest ways to make medium range pieces are to either cut infinite sliders down or build up short range pieces.
Some piece ideas:
Bishopy - B4D - slides up to 4 squares diagonally or leaps 2 squares orthogonally; colorbound
Rookish - AR4 - slides up to 4 squares orthogonally or leaps 2 squares diagonally
These pieces are cut-down FIDES which are augmented with a 2-square leap, making them more or less the same value as their FIDE "parents". They should work very nicely on an 8x8 board. They might transfer directly to a 10x10, or you could scale them, increasing their FIDE-type ranges from 4 to 5.
Extended warmachines [DW-based pieces] and elephants [AF-based]
D/W + D/W + D/W range = 6
D/W + D/W +/- D/W range = 6 this will be known as the Paulowich version of the long-range hero [because he said it first in print]
A/F + A/F + A/F range = 6
A/F + A/F +/- A/F range = 6
For range 5, I'm looking at 3/5 inclusive compound pieces with these components:
WDWDW AND FAFAF
*
Daisies: extending the hero and shaman
Working the DW and AF [and maybe the DF and AW] to death.
A daisy is a stalked plant. Maybe the stalk is short, and maybe the stalk is long, but the stalk always grows first, then the flower can bloom at the end of the stalk.
Stalks are Dabbabahs and Alfils; they can grow any length.
Flowers are Wazirs and Ferzes, they only happen at the end of the stalk.
You may have a stalk length of zero squares, giving the pieces just the wazir or ferz move.
A stalk length of two squares gives the hero and shaman.
This piece might be nice for breaking into defended areas as its range increases.
The movement track is a saw-toothed pattern.
