The City of Gods
Welcome, my friends, to the City of Dogs. Can you survive this divine battle and claim the citadel as your own?
(Warning: a lot of yap ahead)
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So yeah this is my first FFA variant since Diminishing Returns (#832), and one of the first non-giveaway FFAs since idk how long it's been (People really need to start submitting more 4ps...). Let's get right into the design process as well as piece choice, MTPDS classification, gameplay and more!
Time since last submission: 5 months
Time since last SOLO submission: 11 months!?
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I was bored on a random afternoon, trying to think of variant concepts. Unfortunately for myself, I am not a particularly creative guy, so I was immediately drawn to revising a a variant of mine. I was thinking of Obsidian Pinnacle (#1519), and I was tempted to try and remake it in FFA. As you can probably tell, the final result is very different. However, it still encompasses a ghost of the original idea, that being a royal surrounded by enemy pieces unable to mate it.
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Big thanks to BN1208, StatsDucky, TimeVeteran, ChocoCaramelPawn, yu-x897 and Dan-Kyu_System for giving their feedback and suggestions for this variant, in particular StatsDucky who suggested the current positioning of pieces, and BN1208 for helping me classify this variant.
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Win Conditions:
In this variant, your 5-check soldier royal is surrounded on all sides by a 'cage' of ferzes (whenever the word 'cage' is used here, it refers to this.). Your pieces are located in the gaps between the cages. Possible win conditions include:
-You must promote your sergeants and bring pieces back to try and free your royal to go for KoTH (99% of KoTh squares are useless and decoration, only 4 are actually used in game.)
Pros: If you can pull this off, you straight-up win without any loopholes.
Cons: The royal is quite weak what with N-check and its movement, the ferz cage actually defends the royal somewhat, and bringing the royal to the KoTH may cause you to get teamed upon in a bid to stop it.
-Mate players to kill the cage surrounding you to also go for KoTH.
Pros: Gives 20 points while mating which is always cool
Cons: Removal of the cage comes at the cost of a weaker royal.
-Claiming win is another possible win mechanic, especially in the 2p stages, when the points are unequal.
Pros & Cons: N/A
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Game classification: Dynamic, due to presence of potential prophylaxis ideas as well as the lack of permanent advantages (bsrti's words, not mine lol)
Gameplay classification: First negative i.e. "attacking the other player directly by aggressively developing one’s own ideas is viable"
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Piece Choice:
Rook- Allows for silent sieges on the royal from a distance as well as the controls of orthangals, which are numerous and long. Therefore, serves as a sort of "Outpost piece" which controls squares from afar. Also assists in promotion. The only roadblock is that it has no diagonal movement, which most pieces have, so it is weaker in that retrospect.
Grasshopper- Has the power to establish pins and checks on a royal without much investment from a player, allowing for cheap tactics and quick advantage gains. Often, scoring an actual mate with the grasshopper is unlikely, but it certainly can help in setting up the scenario for one. Can be used for harvesting a few checks off of a player. The grasshopper that's cornered defends a few vital squares to prevent mate.
Dragon Bishop: Merely an inferior archbishop in the promotion options: Due to board shape, functions mainly as a bishop. Not much else to be said.
Gnik: The king is probably the most valuable defensive piece. It prevents quick grasshopper mates and also escorts pawns to promotion. Can also be used to protect the royal while it strolls down to KoTH.
Ferz: Acts as the royal cage. If you attack the player on your left, it can also be used to defend pieces while going in for a mate. However, it seems to hinder you and assist you in equal measures...
General: Interestingly, rather than being a primarily defensive piece as it usually is, the general can serve as a powerful attack when used correctly due to its king movement not being colorblind. It also defends pieces, giving it great versatility as a piece. One of the most easily developable pieces as well.
Sergeant: Promotes. That's literally it. It also defends, but there's an inequity between how much it does of each.
Bishop: Serves as the support piece for the arch. Both combined can control quite a few squares. A bishop defended by an archbishop is also quite powerful and can grab some material off the opposite color, which is very good because of Ox2. Full control over the diagonals can also be established using these 2 pieces.
Archbishop: Probably the most vital attacking piece. Can blitz in and wreck havoc on an opponent's defenses. Parallels can be drawn between this piece and the queen in standard chess.
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k that's pretty much it for the desc. If this does get accepted, it'll be the first accepted non-giveaway FFA since Sparks of Hope (!), and I don't even know how long it's been since a creator other than 2bHNST has gotten an accepted FFA variant. Also, my first NCV acception... hopefully.
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Other stats:
This is my:
-9th submission excluding troll posts and revisions
-11th submission including revisions and excluding troll posts
-First submission since becoming a Custom Games Admin
-4th NCV submission
-and 2nd FFA submission
-Time elapsed since a FFA NCV was submitted: 5 months (#2049)
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Other testing games for this variant can be found in my archive.
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Thanks for reading all the way until the end, and all I have to say is:
Beyond64.
(Edit #1: VW update is amazing)
(Edit #2: Formatting)
(Edit #3: ok this is a troll but I'll change it back later)
(Edit #4: changed it back)
