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Horseman's Chess - Revised PnP

Some great feedback from spaff got me thinking about the game's "hook." At first the idea was a game that had the flexibility to equip your army differently each game to try new strategies. There are plenty of games on chessvariants.com that give the player a new army to try, but this game lent itself to easy mixing and matching.

The problem was that there was little incentive for the mechanic of mixing the capabilities of a piece and a mount to extend beyond the initial setup. A "jumping Rook" and a "charging Rook" might as well be two different pieces, whereas I wanted them to feel similar enough that a player would want to switch between them during a game.

Then came spaff's idea of starting off with eight mounts as before, but putting them under the Pawns. This immediately gives the player an incentive to start dismounting and getting different pieces on the mounts, and it furthers the Pawn's traditional role of being in the way. It also focuses a spotlight on the piece-and-mount mechanic as the game's hook.

Now I think that Rook has a personality independent of the mount he's using. He's some burly guy hefting an oversized battle-hammer, and if he happens to be on a horse then the hairs on the back of your neck stand up even when he's some distance away.

The revised version of the rules reflect starting the game with mounted Pawns instead of mounted back-row pieces. I also clarified the algebraic notation and added a rough attempt at point values for the pieces.

Let me know what you think!

Edit: Modified the PnP images to make them easier to cut out.

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gamejournal | by Dr. Radut