Comment by dsjoerg
6 days ago
Has anyone worked out good strategy for this variant? At first think, I'd think Player 2 has an advantage because they are the first player who is able to make a move for their opponent and then _immediately_ play a move for themselves that exploits it.
And, I suppose there might be some strategy where it's important not to expose yourself to potential shenanigans of this kind.
So I'm wondering how this game looks for skilled players of both sides -- is it balanced, are the strategies interesting, etc. Or are we trying to work that out right now?
Were these rulesets chosen carefully among many options because they result in the most interesting games? Or is this just a YOLO?
My observations so far is that this game mode causes a lot of draws- because when a player gets a "power play" (moving opponent's piece, then immediately own piece) they can nullify pretty much any attack. It does seem like restricting mobility to your important pieces like the queen and rooks can be advantageous- to prevent your opponent from taking them on a "power play"
As for the turn order- it generally needs to be "odd number of consecutive normal moves" followed by two "blunder for opponent moves". I have it set at five consecutive normal moves right now. Initially, I tried three, but that was too frustrating. Your opponent had too much control over your board. I could be convinced that seven normal consecutive moves is better than five though. Beyond that, I would think that the gimmick (playing for opponent) would occur too rarely. I'm not sure though! I'm curious what others think
The cow is probably meta opening NGL it's all about hiding your power behind pawns
I've had a lot of success bringing a knight out first and playing a generally defensive game.