Gods on Pluto
Gods on Pluto
You can download this game from zillions website via this link.
https://www.zillions-of-games.com/cgi-bin/zilligames/submissions.cgi?do=show;id=1291
'Gods on Pluto' plays with extremely weak pieces, no pawns, and drops (captured pieces are kept in-hand and may be placed back on the board). Just over half of the pieces have no backward movement. Though there are pieces that can move backwards, the strongest piece is 'Ramshead-Soldier' (Tai Shogi), which moves like a Bishop, but only in the forward directions. There are 3 'themes' played out on the 9x9 and 8x8 boards, described as follows. * 'Flying Snow' - plays with pieces that cannot move backwards. * 'War on Pluto' - plays with the 'strongest' pieces. * 'In the Nursery' - plays with the weakest pieces. 
Setup
Gods on Pluto has 2 zrf's, 1 each for the 9x9 and 8x8 games.
Mainline games are 'War on Pluto' and 'Flying Snow' on the 9x9 board.
That being said, it is unclear to me which is better, the 9x9 or 8x8.
Pieces
Piece Descriptions: In order of strength according to Zillions.
Ramshead-Soldier, Goose, IronGeneral, StoneGeneral and TileGeneral are from ancient Shogi variants.
Xiang and Mao are from Chinese Chess.
The others are pieces i have made up, or pieces that exist somewhere i have never seen :)
Ramshead-Soldier: slides diagonally forward any number of squares
IronGeneral: moves 1 square in the forward directions
TileGeneral: moves 1 square diagonally forward or directly backwards
SoldierHero: slides 1 or 2 squares diagonally forward
Goose: forward alfil, backward dabbaba
Mad-Dabbaba: forward dabbaba or slides 2 squares sideways
StoneGeneral : moves 1 square diagonally forward
Mad-Elephant: forward alfil
Mao: moves 1 square orthogonally + 1 square diagonally outward
DabbabaSlider: moves like a sliding dabbaba
Soldier: slides 2 diagonally forward or non-capture 1 diagonally back
Xiang: slides 2 squares diagonally
StoneDabbaba: slides like dabbaba but only forward or sideways
GooseSlider: forward alfil slide, backward dabbaba slide
StoneElephant: slides 2 squares diagonally forward
Rules
you know the rules :)Notes
games notes: love ramshead-soldier, is this piece cool or what :)
i had already finished the game, but i had not released, because of all the times i release, and then update etc etc .. when i was just about to release, news went around the world that Pluto was no longer a Planet :))
zillions would place a normal Dabbaba, if it were in this game, as the 3rd most powerful piece
9x9 board is a nice size, play is very good.
8x8 board is pretty good too lol :)
i think zillions under-estimates the mao. with the 8x8, white can maybe 'force' to win an irongeneral with nice mao play from the opening, but this isn't a big deal really, because black will not find it at all difficult to 'drop' the mao to get back this 'exchange'.
'war on pluto' variant does not really play with the strongest pieces .. it just kind of plays with that atmosphere.
'in the nursery' variant does not really have the weakest pieces either lol
'in the nursery' and with the 'gods on pluto' variant was the origin of all games
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By Christine Bagley-Jones.
Last revised by Christine Bagley-Jones.
Web page created: 2006-09-10. Web page last updated: 2006-09-10