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   Bruce Sterling @bruces (bruces@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 03-Aug-2025 14:24:40 JST Bruce Sterling @bruces

   *Has anyone ever actually played this, and is it a fun game

   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     coinxweb777 (coinxweb777@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 03-Aug-2025 15:09:32 JST coinxweb777

     in reply to

     @bruces

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     Drey (atlovato@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 03-Aug-2025 21:36:42 JST Drey

     in reply to

     @bruces - Beware of pawns in great multitude to out rank the minority rulers. I see a protest

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     Russell (zimzat@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 03-Aug-2025 21:38:30 JST Russell

     in reply to

     @bruces I ran a prototype game on a custom engine and ... well, once a Queen or Rook piece gets to the back row of the pawns it's game-over because the pawns can't move or capture toward the side or behind. As soon as a pawn captures a State piece diagonally it opens a hole in that column for any State piece to sail through unopposed and wipe the board of them all. I don't think even a stale mate is plausible because if the State sacrifices even one piece the rest make it through totally fine.

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     eduqate (eduqate@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 01:28:33 JST eduqate

     in reply to

     @bruces So long as the pawns protect each other they can close up the board and force hand to hand combat where they have numerical superiority.

     So pawns advance in rows, the leftmost front pawn moves, then the one behind it moves, repeat for another column, perhaps of the same colour. Then repeat until both rows have advanced. In that way the pawns advance with the front rank protected.

     Elite strategy is pick off stragglers or make sacrifices to break up the pawn's ranks and get behind them.

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     enoch_exe_inc (enoch_exe_inc@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 04:13:56 JST enoch_exe_inc

     in reply to

     @bruces No, but I did, coincidentally, invent a socialist variant of chess recently after getting sucked back into the game (for some reason). It’s basically just like regular chess, except all the minor pieces are gone and it’s just a king with a row of pawns. Instead of Black and White, it’s Red and White; a revolutionary army versus a reactionary one.