Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Jan 30, 2018 08:07 AM UTC:
I would have much preferred a preset for this variant that used just one board (there really is only one board for the game, officially), with a single pair of sleeves for captured units waiting to be dropped (else this preset might be technically better having two pairs of sleeves, one pair per board, if consistency were to be desired, and ideally a sleeve could hold the maximum possible number of captured enemy pawns plus pieces). That's even though the Alfairie: Many piece set would have had to have been scoured for the appropriate piece figurines to be isolated for the preset (it seems 6 figurines, aside from kings and pawns, of just two colours each, if just one board were used, would need to be found), as the author stated he wished to avoid. By the preset using two boards, players need to always remember to move each pawn/piece on each board, that is, identically, from and to the corresponding squares on each board (with no game rules or directions on how to legally make moves directly available on the preset, i.e. not counting the saving graces of a link given to the rules page near the bottom of the preset to the rules page, or the introductory page for the preset).
Not only that, whenever captures are made, they are made on each board, but then the correct pawn or piece figurines (i.e. hunter and carrier components, if a piece was captured) for each of the two boards has to be placed (entered manually) in the correct sleeve (if players gather that there is to be one), with the player remembering to change each correct pawn/piece put in a sleeve to the correct colouring of that pawn/ piece(component), too. All more tedious for a player than necessary, at every turn to some degree, than if just one board with its pair of sleeves had been used, plus there's even more room for error than is commonly the case when it's a preset with no rule enforcement.
I would have much preferred a preset for this variant that used just one board (there really is only one board for the game, officially), with a single pair of sleeves for captured units waiting to be dropped (else this preset might be technically better having two pairs of sleeves, one pair per board, if consistency were to be desired, and ideally a sleeve could hold the maximum possible number of captured enemy pawns plus pieces). That's even though the Alfairie: Many piece set would have had to have been scoured for the appropriate piece figurines to be isolated for the preset (it seems 6 figurines, aside from kings and pawns, of just two colours each, if just one board were used, would need to be found), as the author stated he wished to avoid. By the preset using two boards, players need to always remember to move each pawn/piece on each board, that is, identically, from and to the corresponding squares on each board (with no game rules or directions on how to legally make moves directly available on the preset, i.e. not counting the saving graces of a link given to the rules page near the bottom of the preset to the rules page, or the introductory page for the preset).
Not only that, whenever captures are made, they are made on each board, but then the correct pawn or piece figurines (i.e. hunter and carrier components, if a piece was captured) for each of the two boards has to be placed (entered manually) in the correct sleeve (if players gather that there is to be one), with the player remembering to change each correct pawn/piece put in a sleeve to the correct colouring of that pawn/ piece(component), too. All more tedious for a player than necessary, at every turn to some degree, than if just one board with its pair of sleeves had been used, plus there's even more room for error than is commonly the case when it's a preset with no rule enforcement.