H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Nov 19, 2019 07:58 PM UTC:
Borrowing merely a single piece from a game IMO is not enough to qualify as a variant of that game. Note that the idea that capture of a single designated piece (rather than total extinction) is not exclusive to Chess; Hnefatafl and Stratego are also won in this way. The royal piece must not be too mobile, or the game could virtually never be won, and limiting the motion to just the adjacent squares is one of the most obvious things to do that.
There will of course always be boundary cases, but for my taste Ultima is not even that. It really doesn't have anything in common with Chess that it also doesn't have in common with several other games. Queen moves are also pretty elementary, and common in other games (e.g. Amazons). Replacement capture also occurs in Clobber and Stratego.
Borrowing merely a single piece from a game IMO is not enough to qualify as a variant of that game. Note that the idea that capture of a single designated piece (rather than total extinction) is not exclusive to Chess; Hnefatafl and Stratego are also won in this way. The royal piece must not be too mobile, or the game could virtually never be won, and limiting the motion to just the adjacent squares is one of the most obvious things to do that.
There will of course always be boundary cases, but for my taste Ultima is not even that. It really doesn't have anything in common with Chess that it also doesn't have in common with several other games. Queen moves are also pretty elementary, and common in other games (e.g. Amazons). Replacement capture also occurs in Clobber and Stratego.