dist H-S l Hb Sb L-O P T X Z B-R Q dist #sq totsq 1 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 0.5 1 1 0.5 1 1 8 8 2 0.25 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.5 0.5 1 1 0.25 0.5 2 16 24 3 0.17 0.17 0.5 0.17 0.33 0.5 0.17 1 0.17 0.33 3 24 48 4 0 0 0 0.13 0.25 0.25 0.13 0.5 0.13 0.25 4 32 80 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 0.2 5 40 120 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.09 0.17 6 48 168 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.07 0.14 7 56 264 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.07 0.13 8 64 328 FtPt 12 20 20 16 32 32 32 64 32 64 |
H-S l - linear Hero (D+W) and Shaman (A+F)
Hb - "bent" Hero (D+/-W)
Sb - "bent" Shaman (A+/-F)
L-O - Lightningwarmachine (DW + DW) and Oliphant (AF + AF)
P - Parallel general (L/O)
T - Twisted knight (AF+/-AF)
X - fleXible knight (DW+/-DW)
Z - Zigzag general (DWAF+/-DWAF)
One more chart:
tot sq att'kd piece&range 4 = 4x1 W and F - 1; A and D - 2 8 = 4x2 K or G - 1; [DW] and [AF] - 2 12 = 4x3 FAD - 2; linear Hero and Shaman - 3 16 = 4x4 HiP, Min, JG, Sliding general - 2; L, O - 4 20 = 4x5 bent Hero and Shaman - 3 24 = 4x6 M+/-M, NDWAF - 2 32 = 4x8 P, T, X - 4; B, R - 8 64 = 4x16 Z - 4; Q - 8 |
The orthogonal and diagonal pieces may be considered as pairs, with wazir and ferz being the 1st pair, then dabbabah, alfil, all the way up to rook and bishop. These pieces are all linear movers, and have exactly the same movement patterns, rotated 45 degrees. When you make a bent 2-step piece, this splits the pairs. The ortho partner becomes much stronger up close, and the diag partner becomes stronger at a distance - see the Hero-Shaman pairs, and the Lightningwarmachine-Oliphant vs fleXible-Twisted kNight pairs.
The "4xN" column just above these comments points up the difference between 2-stepped pieces with [the ability to choose] even steps compared to [forced] uneven steps. If N and range are odd, the steps are uneven. If N is odd and range is even (FAD), the piece is a single step piece with a choice of components. The king, N = 1, is a "collapsed" case, and drops out here.
If you stop the calcs for the bishop-rook pair and the queen at a distance of 4, which is the maximum I've used for "short" range pieces, their total squares attacked numbers become 16 and 32, and they don't leap. This implies that the "Mean Free Path" is the critical value factor for infinite sliders. For pieces, especially shortrange ones, that may leap at different points in their moves, the mean free path value has [greatly] reduced significance. Density approaching saturation and clustering of pieces would seem to be more determining factors here. In fact, the actual values of pieces changing as the game goes on, as the pieces in the game change, and as the board changes, are actually the only things I can be reasonably sure are true.
This is the 'cleaned up' version of what I did a decade ago. I found it interesting and potentially useful. Comments are welcome.