Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

The inequality here doesn't seem to be worse than that between Betza's classical CwDA armies, which can run up to 1.5 Pawn. An Archbishop is only about 0.75 Pawn weaker than a Queen. The KNAD is worth about 1.5 Pawn more than a Queen, but the distant moves here are all lame, which might weaken it more than that. The Griffon is the weakest of the bunch. A possible enhancement of it could be a W-then-R that turns a 90-degree corner, which has a similar move pattern, but also attacks the W squares.

Even if the strengths vary a lot, there is of course no need to play the strongest against the weakest. Or only reserve that for games between players of unequal strength, as a sort of handicap.

Note that the Betza notation used in the article (e.g. FtR) is non-standard, neither original Betza (t[F,R]) nor XBetza (FyafsF). As a consequence it is not entirely clear to me how the Lion moves. I suspect it is the compount of a King, a Xiangqi Elephant, a Xiangqi Horse and a two-path lame Dabbabah (XBetza KaFafsW).

Thanks for the comments. I updated the notation and will add movement diagrams in the future.

My design goal is to have a form of Chess with Different Armies that I can play with people who are not chess variants enthusiasts. In my experience, people are a lot more willing to play with one or two new (to them) pieces than entirely new armies.

I want to have a list of piece that are roughly "Queenish," but I am not trying to maintain strict balance. As H. G. Muller mentioned, there is no need to play the strongest pieces against the weakest pieces. I will add some discussion of balance to the rules section once I write it.

I had originally used a KAND Lion but it felt too powerful on an 8x8 board during playtesting. I like the suggestion of the Wazir then Rook move for the Griffon. Another enhancement I had considered was to just add the Wazir move to the existing Griffon pattern.

a King, a Xiangqi Elephant, a Xiangqi Horse and a two-path lame Dabbabah (XBetza KaFafsW).

From the description (both here and of the Sliding General), shouldn't it be a three‐path lame dabbabah? Including the possibility of two consecutive same‐direction Wazir steps. That'd give KaFafsfW or KaFafsWnD

From the description (both here and of the Sliding General), shouldn't it be a three‐path lame dabbabah?

Well, the description was KtfsF, so I assumed a W as second step was out.

Another enhancement I had considered was to just add the Wazir move to the existing Griffon pattern.

That was the first thing that came to my mind as well, but I was afraid this would make it too strong. IIRC the value for the Griffon I measured was 8.2, and 4 extra moves easily up the value by 2 Pawns, even for a Rook. Just bending a trajectory in another shape is more like adding extra squares at the end of the trajectory: all the normal Griffon move now become more easily blocked. This should partly compensate the effect.

I see that the Lion now has become a regular 2-step area mover. I tested a Lion that was blocked more easily (KaFafsW), because it was missing the Moa path and lame Dabbabah (nD), so that only the D move was multi-path (reachable in 2 ways), by pitting it against a Queen in Fairy-Max. To my surprise the lameness did not weaken it that much compared to a KNAD: it beat the Queen by 63% in 200 games, which is only slightly smaller than the Pawn-odds score.

The balance could still be improved a little by making every square on the 'second ring' reachable through a single path only. E.g. the A squares through the F squares, (as they already are), and all others through the W squares. So that it becomes a compound of a range-two Queen and a Xiangqi Horse (Q2afsW). That would most likely still leave it stronger than a Queen, while all other replacements are weaker than Queen.

I also tried the WyasW against a normal Griffon. It was only marginally stronger. I guess it suffers a lot from the fact that the paths cross on the F squares, which means that there now are 8 squares where two of its arms can be blocked. This makes the detour over the W squares nearly as much as a liability as an asset. Furthermore, it made the piece very difficult to develop; the initial F step is really useful for sneaking between Pawns. This was quite annoying, so I would not recommend use of this piece. and stick to the regular Griffon.

H.G. Muller, thanks for the comments. I've also been doing some testing in ChessV.

White: Queen, Black: Queen

White wins: 94

Black wins: 93

Draws: 113

White: Griffon, Black:

White wins: 177

Black wins: 48

Draws: 75

I'm currently running test on the Archbishop and Chancellor.

The Queen-Griffon was matchup is fairly lopsided in the simulations, but its close enough that that I still found it fun to play myself. I haven't tested the Griffon-Lion matchup yet either in the computer or over the board, but your results for the KaFafsW Lion make me think that it could be unplayable. I will run some tests with the Q2afsW after my current games finish running and see if this tones down the Lion sufficiently.