It seems the Meticulous Mashers are indeed way too strong. An obvious way to weaken them without changing the character much would be to decrease the range of the slides, but even this doesn't appear to help much. Even a B3nD appears to be some 0,66 Pawn stronger than a Bishop, and a center-seeking FR3 even tops a Rook by more than a Pawn.
A B2nD might be as strong as a Bishop (I did not really test that), but it is a short-range piece (a lame FAD, in fact), and that spoils much of the character (and originality) of this army. The 'standard' armies were all based on a theme (orthogonal or hippogonal move domination, color binding), and if anything the theme of the Mashers would be limited-range sliding. The same objection applies to an FR2.
So I can understand why Betza retired this army. The question is whether this means we should 'expunge' it as well, or how the status of this army should be communicated better to the readers. Betza's writings are extremely interesting, but unfortunaty not very well organized. He tends to brush many subjects on the same page, making his remarks on each subject diffusely spread out over many pages, and thus hard to find. If the Mashers were retired it would be good if this was already mentioned on the page where they are presented, perhaps even before actually presenting them. And then not link to them from the main CwDA article, or make a special section for links to retired armies to satisfy historical interests.
It seems the Meticulous Mashers are indeed way too strong. An obvious way to weaken them without changing the character much would be to decrease the range of the slides, but even this doesn't appear to help much. Even a B3nD appears to be some 0,66 Pawn stronger than a Bishop, and a center-seeking FR3 even tops a Rook by more than a Pawn.
A B2nD might be as strong as a Bishop (I did not really test that), but it is a short-range piece (a lame FAD, in fact), and that spoils much of the character (and originality) of this army. The 'standard' armies were all based on a theme (orthogonal or hippogonal move domination, color binding), and if anything the theme of the Mashers would be limited-range sliding. The same objection applies to an FR2.
So I can understand why Betza retired this army. The question is whether this means we should 'expunge' it as well, or how the status of this army should be communicated better to the readers. Betza's writings are extremely interesting, but unfortunaty not very well organized. He tends to brush many subjects on the same page, making his remarks on each subject diffusely spread out over many pages, and thus hard to find. If the Mashers were retired it would be good if this was already mentioned on the page where they are presented, perhaps even before actually presenting them. And then not link to them from the main CwDA article, or make a special section for links to retired armies to satisfy historical interests.