The Nightrider is the jackal of the chessboard: very efficient at gobbling up Pawns, but unable to mate a lone King. Note that you need King and Nightrider and Knight to force mate in the endgame. If you simply replace the Knights with Nightriders in standard chess, you will spend most of the game worrying about loose Pawns. And also the threat of a Nightrider capturing a Rook on its home square, getting trapped, and then trading itself for a Pawn. Rook plus Pawn is a very favorable trade, as I value the Nightrider at 90% of a Rook. Lions and Unicorn Chess gives each side a single Unicorn - my name for the [Bishop + Nightrider] piece, which I estimate to be equal in value to the Queen. Most of the Pawns have multiple defenders at the start - in this game the undefended Rooks on the i-files are more obvious targets for the Unicorns. But the high value of the Unicorn limits its choice of targets - it is worth more than a Rook plus a Knight, for example. Incidentally, the Lion in this game is also strong enough to mate a lone King.
If I had been smart enough to invent Duniho's Eurasian Chess, I would probably have followed my 'no jackals' policy and not used the Arrow (Vao) piece at all. I also consider Queens to be over-powered in a variant containing Chinese Cannons. One solution is to replace each Queen with a Leo [Pao + Vao]. The Leo, which I value at 90% of a pair of Cannons, starts the game as the most powerful piece on the board. As with the Unicorn, you need to think twice before grabbing an undefended piece with your Leo. Especially when you consider that the Leo captures one way and makes noncapturing moves in a different way. Well, that was my two cents worth. I am more comfortable discussing concrete examples than general theory.
If I had been smart enough to invent Duniho's Eurasian Chess, I would probably have followed my 'no jackals' policy and not used the Arrow (Vao) piece at all. I also consider Queens to be over-powered in a variant containing Chinese Cannons. One solution is to replace each Queen with a Leo [Pao + Vao]. The Leo, which I value at 90% of a pair of Cannons, starts the game as the most powerful piece on the board. As with the Unicorn, you need to think twice before grabbing an undefended piece with your Leo. Especially when you consider that the Leo captures one way and makes noncapturing moves in a different way. Well, that was my two cents worth. I am more comfortable discussing concrete examples than general theory.