It takes many tempi to attempt to promote a Lance. Edge attacks have never been my favorite, so I haven't had much experience in playing for such promotions, until very late in games. However, based off opponents who have tried to move along the edge files, and my defense against such attacks, I have concluded that early edge pushes require at least 20 tempi of preparation to be mildly successsful, against someone who is not exactly interested in the same. A player can comfortably defend, at least for a while, but the edge file attacker can get through at least one promotion exchange if they put enough in it, this usually being some exchange like Dragon-promoting for Rook. A player must be particularly careless to allow a Lance to promote safely and flee.
Overall, I don't rate Lances that highly, perhaps around the same as a Kirin.
It takes many tempi to attempt to promote a Lance. Edge attacks have never been my favorite, so I haven't had much experience in playing for such promotions, until very late in games. However, based off opponents who have tried to move along the edge files, and my defense against such attacks, I have concluded that early edge pushes require at least 20 tempi of preparation to be mildly successsful, against someone who is not exactly interested in the same. A player can comfortably defend, at least for a while, but the edge file attacker can get through at least one promotion exchange if they put enough in it, this usually being some exchange like Dragon-promoting for Rook. A player must be particularly careless to allow a Lance to promote safely and flee.
Overall, I don't rate Lances that highly, perhaps around the same as a Kirin.