Comments/Ratings for a Single Item
I have missed a colourswitching Nightrider, true, but not from this particular page. The description on the index specifies radial pieces. Perhaps the introduction should reflect that description better. Its place would be on the next page in the series. It needs naming with other odd-only oblique pieces in mind. Would Nightswitcher, Camelswitcher, Zebraswitcher et cetera do? In the meantime I have slimmed down the next page ready to add whatever names consensus falls on. Panda+Dabbabante is a less-blockable version of the Rook - and its analogues in other directions a less-blockable Bishop, Queen, Nightrider et cetera. I will give them some more thought - and of course welcome ideas from others.
Two things: 1) You often say 'pentagonal' or 'pentagonal prism' as a board shape. These should probably be 'hexagonal' and 'hexagonal prism'. Regular pentagons don't tile the plane. 2) 'Al fil' is Arabic for 'the elephant'. I should know --- I speak Hebrew, where 'pil' (somewhere between 'peel' and 'pill' in pronunciation) means elephant, and Hebrew is very closely related to Arabic.
No, but irregiular ones do - see here. Hexagonal geometries - abbreviated to hex over much of the Chess Variant Pages including Man and Beast, are relatively orthodox and do have long straight lines of radial steps. It is the pentagonal geometries that lack them and therefore have so few straight pieces.
''Al fil' is Arabic for 'the elephant'. I should know --- I speak Hebrew, where 'pil' (somewhere between 'peel' and 'pill' in pronunciation) means elephant, and Hebrew is very closely related to Arabic.'
I considered this fact well enough known among Chess variant enthusiasts not to repeat, but perhaps I should add it to the notes.
The shortest-range (in terms of perimeters) amphibian radial pieces on each geometry are as follows: Square-cell Ferz+Trebuchet (Frog) Dabbaba+Trebuchet (Toad) Elephant+Trebuchet (Newt) Trebuchet+Cobbler (is this by any chance called Salamander?) Trebuchet+Commuter Then come Ferz/Dabbaba/Elephant/Trebuchet/Tripper/Cobbler/Commuter plus Quibbler Cubic Ferz+Trebuchet (Frog) Viceroy+Trebuchet (currently Trevi, could be renamed) Dabbaba+Trebuchet (Toad) Elephant+Trebuchet (Newt) Eunuch+Trebuchet (currently unnamed, could be renamed) Viceroy+Tripper (currently Trivium, could be renamed) Then come Ferz/Dabbaba/Elephant plus Zombie, followed by Trebuchet/Zombie plus Cobbler Hex Viceroy+Dabbaba (currently Vicbaba) Dabbaba+Trebuchet (Toad) Viceroy+Cobbler (currently unnamed) Trebuchet+Cobbler (is this by any chance called Salamander?) Then come Viceroy/Dabbaba/Eunuch/Trebuchet/Zombie/Cobbler/Corpse plus Quibbler. As you can see, cubic ones mount up far quicker than hex ones, so I am inclining to favour cubic over hex for amphibian naming. I also note that pieces like the square-cell Pterodactyl (Tripper+Quitter+Triquibbler), in that being unbound requires all three components, are much shorter-range on cubic boards. The shortest-range hex one is, I think, Eunuch+Skeleton+Biquibbler but the shortest-range cubic one is Dabbaba+Tripper+Zombie.
Currently I am considering a mixture of archaic synonyms for, and more specific kinds of, each already-used amphibian. Names that spring to mind are Bullfrog (specific kind of frog), Eft (old word for newt), Natterjack (specific kind of toad), and Paddick (old word for toad). Any other such names are welcome. Bullfrog would suit Viceroy+Trebuchet, for its similarity to the Frog (on a cubic board), with Unicorn+Trebuchet becoming Minotaur (a name that I am amazed not to have yet used in Man and Beast). Eunuch+Trebuchet has similar parallels to the Newt and so could be Eft. Salire+Trechick and Key+Trechick could follow the Frock/Toke/Nuke pattern with Bulk and Effect. I am not sure what to do with Viceroy+Tripper and Ferz+Zombie yet. I am thinking of limiting -bante to twice-coprime components to differentiate extending different components of mixed-non-coprime pieces. For thrice-coprime I would substitute -trante and for still longer leaps -quadrante, -quintante, et cetera, on the basis that riders of such leaps will be rare enough to suit such obscure terms. For example the Toadrider would still be Dabbarider+Treburider, with some destinations covered twice over, but Toadbante would be Dabbarider+Trebuchet and Toadtrante Treburider+Dabbaba. Likewise Newtrider woud be Elephrider+Treburider but Newtbante Elephrider+Trebuchet and Newttrante Treburider+Elephant. One name whose meaning would change would be page 19's Fourbante, which would become Drummrider+Cubbaba+Cobbler rather than Drummrider+Cobblrider+Cubbaba. There would also be a new Fourquadrante, Cobblrider+Cubbaba++Drummer.
Recently I have been considering names for mixed-range part-Hopping radial pieces. So far I have settled on Rook+Spear=Distaff (female-rôle counterpart to a spear in theatrical conventions), Bishop+Musket=Vigilante (modern person taking community action too far), and Arrow+Dabbaba=Dartgun (gun firing arrowhead-like projectiles). FO names are easy to derive from all three - Staff, Vigil, and Dart - none of which I have previously used. However, I am having real trouble naming Cannon+Elephant. One name that I considered was Flamethrower, with Flame for the FO version, but the link to its components was tenuous. In any case there are already several names starting with Fla- of which Flail is connected (curved Elephrider) but the rest - Flambeau, Flamen, Flamingo, Flattener - are not. Other names that I considered as fitting the piece better were Howitzer, Launcher, Mangonel, and Mortar, but I could not see a way of naming the FO piece in the same way. Any better ideas would be really welcome, with an explanation if not obvious - but please use the indexes to check that they are not already in Man and Beast. Ideas for deriving a name for the FO piece from any of my last four suggestions are also welcome.
This has been harder than I thought, and a particular irony that the piece which I have had difficulty naming is the one that is a compound of pieces from standard games. At one stage I looked to see if the Fil of Alfil was the start of anything. I nearly thought that I had it with Filibuster, whose original meaning is a military or nautical adventurer, with Buster for the FO piece. Unforunately I felt that with Bustler and Butler already in use, Buster would be too confusing. Then I turned to Roget's Thesaurus and looked under weapons, and was amazed to find something called a Minethrower listed. That would work, I think, with Mine for the FO piece. There is, it is true, a Miner, but that refers to mine in another sense of the word, and I do not foresee much confusion. Before I go ahead with it, however, I would welcome any thoughts on whether it is the best that I am likely to manage.
I appear to have the movement diagrams here (and earlier M&B entries) fixed now. There was a further complication to my process on this one: some of the piece names had periods not at the beginning.
The diagram for the Fearless looks out of place, but in a way that I can't imagine was my mistake. Anybody with more patience than I: care to explain why it has the retreating two orthogonal squares?
Per the description as an FO Fearful, the Fearless should have no retreating moves at all. I'd imagine it's a copy‐paste oversight or the like
would the plural of Dabbaba be Dabbabae? kind of like nebulae and spatulae
No, Dabbaba is from Arabic, not Latin.
The authentic arabic plural of dabbāba is apparently dabbābāt. But English doesn't usually bother preserving Arabic plurals so Dabbabas is perfectly fine and will be more widely understood
15 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.