Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Jun 21, 2005 06:27 AM UTC:
Thanks for the comments. I have added some clarifications as regards the
probabilities, and also as to when the choice of leaper is made - it is
before the opponent moves, in case anyone thought that rolling at least
one 6 resulted in a compound piece, which it doesn't. 1 in 18 is correct
for EACH combination of 6 and another number, and as there are 5 other
numbers the total is indeed 5 in 18. Here is a table of the relative
probabillities of a fixed oblique leaper (O), a fixed diagonal one (D), a
choice between four oblique and one diagonal (C), and a choice of any
(A):
DOOOOC
ODOOOC
OODOOC
OOODOC
OOOODC
CCCCCA
I considered treating 6 as 0 to bring in the Wazir, Dabbaba &c, but
thought that giving the players an element of choice would be more fun.
Having devised names for the 5:x leapers I thought it a waste not to have
a variant making use of such pieces.