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M Winther wrote on Mon, Feb 21, 2011 06:35 AM UTC:
Travis, I am trying to give you some input so you can create something that will survive in the future. If the Javelins/Bishops can not cross the river, then you should state this in the rules. If the Javelins cannot attack on the other side of the board, then they are very powerful defensive pieces, only. Yet another pair of pieces to defend the king means that it's much more difficult to achieve mate. The dragons will also serve as defensive pieces, making matters worse. But the dragons are practically useless. Xiangqi pieces can be blocked, so I assume that this is true also for the dragons. This means that they will be blocked most of the time, as orthogonal pieces that move to the fourth square are likely to be blocked most of the time.

When the board size is increased, sliding pieces increase their value, while the horse's value decreases. This is a well-known problem in many big-board variants, where the bishop cannot be exchanged for a knight anymore. The relative values of the pieces are changed. It's hardly possible anymore to exchange a rook for a cannon plus horse. If the palace is not increased then the rook can easily invade on the last rank, and move about inside the enemy position, between the flanks. The rook is already very active in Xiangqi, but here it can easily attack the enemy pieces from behind, moving behind the palace, and check the king from behind at the same time. This cannot possibly work.

You ought to create a Zillions program and test the variant. You could probably create a good game with an elongated Xiangqi board, but it takes a great deal of testing to make a variant of this type work. I also tried to create a new Xiangqi variant on a bigger board, but I failed, after having tested it in Zillions.
/Mats

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