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This setup presents players with the interesting choice of sacrificing tempo in order to acquire dropping material. In actual gameplay there are limited positional gains to be had and players will inevitably prioritize collecting the material. As a result, this mechanic feels unnecessary. So from that point forward in our testing, we removed the bots and placed the material immediately in the player’s piece banks.

Initially, gameplay of this version turns out to be quite sharp, but we have found there to be ample defensive resources:

- If players drop their extra material defensively, they can create a solid position with no significant weaknesses.

- Players have to always be mindful of N-check and limit available squares for drops near their kings. An aggressive stance would likely lead to an overextension, with the incoming counterattack being decisive.

However:

- Players can then opt to wait and shuffle, which we see as a significant downside to game design.

- The piece combination is interesting with very limited orthogonal checks available, as well as the use of sliding pieces. However, it is an excessive concentration of power for a board of this size.

Thus, we concluded that the gameplay unfortunately doesn’t quite have the variety and unique qualities that we are looking for in an NCV when compared to other crazyhouse variants.

Breakthrough

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