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Flight and Ferry. The gold dragon of Wessex fights the red one of Wales across the Bristol Channel. (8x10, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jörg Knappen wrote on Sat, Jul 30, 2011 03:28 PM UTC:BelowAverage ★★
Analysing the game deeper, it appears to me that it is too drawish to be worth playing.

The issues are mating material and crossing the channel.

Because the King is confined to his own half of the board, he cannot assist his pieces in giving checkmate. Therefore, at least two pieces (one major and one minor one) are needed for checkmate.

There are at least three rule changes lifting this severe condition: a) [most elegant] import the rule from chinese chess, that the Kings may not face each other. With this rule, King+Rook win against a lone King b) Declare bare King a win as in Shatranj c) Declare Stalemate a win (and not a draw).

The rules with the ferries are incomplete; I interpolate the following additional rules:

* Pieces on the ferry are vulnerable to capture

* The ferry loaded with a piece can capture another piece

* An empty ferry sent to an occupied square does not capture, instead it is mounted by the piece there

* An empty ferry cannot be sent to a square occupied by a dragon

I cannot interpolate whether a rook or dragon may 'fly' over an empty ferry or not.

The major issue is, that after crossing the channel, the piece on the ferry is essentially unprotected. It can be protected only by a rook or queen - it does not help against double attack. Therefore crossing the channel is hard. Wessex has a severe handicap here, because it lacks  rooks and owns only one queen.

Wales can try to monopolise the control of the ferries by bringing them both to its side: Only the Wessex' queen can than occupy the ferry and send it back. But, I'm afraid, this is also only a drawing strategy.