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I had thought that I had previously rated this game. But after reviewing all the comments here, I discovered otherwise. I remember when a friend of mine dragged out a Smess game and tortured me with it. I was a fan from that day. So when this XiangQi extrapolation of Smess appeared I was definitely intrigued. I suspected that the dynamics of each of these games would not mesh well. And the early version did have a few minor problems. This could be the reason that I did not post an evaluation. Now that the game has gotten a facelift, I took another look. What can I say but 'Wow!' Very nicely done. The overall play of the game appears to be quite nice. The various pieces interact very well with the pattern of directions. Now East Asians can enjoy the Smess aggravation. Here's a question: Is the name 'Smess' derived from 'It's a mess'?
I have a black and white version of the board here: http://www.samiam.org/new-ivorytower9x10-bw.bmp - Sam
One question: is a Yahoo allowed to move back to its starting square when the arrows allow for it, making a null move?
A comment about the 'Korean' Clodhopper -- following the analogy with the Korean Cannon, they should not be allowed to capture other Clodhoppers.
About the exit moves. I can see very easily how you ended up with them, and I for one like the forced exit rule, since it should make the game more decisive. An alternate approach if you did want to forbid them the tower in the first place would be to shade the arrows pointing into the tower, and add a rule that Ninnys and Yahoos may not follow a shaded arrow on their side of the board.
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This is a great extension of the Smess idea!