Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Hi Greg

I'm not sure of the details, but I seem to remember long ago Fergus instructed me to the effect of trying to keep an index page for a preset fairly clean, such as free of rules descriptions, as he felt such a page was meant to be simply a gateway to the actual preset itself.  Thus, that's why I've tried to do it that way since then.

[edit: P.S.: Fergus wrote on 2016-12-07 EST: "You don't need to explain all the rules on this {index} page {for my old Carrousel Chess preset}. This is just a jumping off page for a Game Courier preset. The appropriate place for the rules is the rules page, which you can link to from here, and the preset itself."]

Before I've almost always first made a rules page for a given game I've invented, with Introduction, Setup, Pieces, Rules, Notes sections given, as is customary for such pages, and people could read these (besides looking at the actual preset). This time I meant to get a whole bunch of games out there without taking much longer than I already had, as a lot of the games were revived ideas of long ago. It also can pay to use a name for a game before someone else might take it, as I discovered recently. I may get around to doing rules pages for some or all of my 9 recently released presets, but it could take a while.

For these games, there is a description of the piece movements if you click on the link to open the actual preset.  It would be better, though, if the relevant rules were also posted on the index page.

How are the dragons moving?

I'd tentatively estimate the piece values (on the game's 12x8 board) as follows: P=1; EF=2.34(or 2.25 approx.); N=3.06(or 3 approx.); B=3.75; D=4.58(or 4.5 approx.); R=5.5; Q=R+B+P=10.25; Ks fighting value=2.67. I wanted a name for this variant that suggested it was played on a wide board, but the word champaign was already taken elsewhere on the web as part of a chess tournament name, so I altered the spelling of it to be as in Old French, so that the game is to be called Champagne Chess, which seemed cool to me somehow. Fast castling rules are used in this variant to try to facilitate king safety and development. Note that all the pawns are protected in the setup.

[edit: Note that a mutator variant idea of mine some may wish to try (Wide Hannibal Chess) would be Champagne Chess played with Frogs instead of dragons used in the setup. Frogs move like threeleapers (leap 3 cells by rank or by file) or move like ferz' (step 1 cell diagonally). On 12x8 I'd put a frog worth 3.33(or 3.25 approx.).]

[edit2: An idea of mine for another mutator variant of Champagne Chess some may wish to try (which would be called Champagne Chess Plus) would be to just replace all the ferfil (elephant) pieces in the setup of Champagne Chess with Lieutenants (known piece type from Spartan Chess). Lieutenants leap 1 or 2 cells diagonally, or they can (but without making a capturing move) step 1 cell in either direction on their rank. On 12x8 I'd tentatively estimate a lieutenant's value to be 2.56(or 2.5 approx.).]

[edit3: An idea of mine for another mutator variant of Champagne Chess some may wish to try (which would be called Wide Waffle Chess) would be to just replace all the ferfil (elephant) pieces in the setup of Champagne Chess with Waffles. Waffles can leap 2 cells diagonally, or they can step 1 cell by rank or by file. On 12x8 I'd tentatively estimate a waffle's value to be 2.34(or 2.25 approx.).]

[edit4: An idea of mine for another mutator variant of Champagne Chess some may wish to try (which would be called Wide Dragon Chess) would be to just replace all the ferfil (elephant) pieces in the setup of Champagne Chess with Champions (also known as WADs). Champions can leap 2 cells diagonally or by rank or by file, or they can step 1 cell by rank or by file. On 12x8 I'd tentatively estimate a champion's value to be 3.86(or 3.75 approx.).]