A treatise on RJTC.

Well, what to do when goaded by such a post? Your friendly chelonian RM-Sanctus here to expound on this variant of Chinese Chess.

So, allow me to demarcate the borders of this discussion. Firstly, the variant is the no-capture, bing-swap as in the previous post. In the second, invulnerability traps will apply at any instant (in the astronomically unlikely event a ma jumps into a wall of friendly pieces blocking the last check your opponent has and removing your last checking piece, it is a draw.)

Well. The value of pieces, I gather, is a subjective notion that cruxes on one's playstyle. For the most part, I agree with ph42's assessment of the values. However, let's dive a level deeper into this weighing.

When captures are out of the question, the concept of piece valuation takes on a different meaning. No longer is it a judgement of material on the board, or the likelihood of an endgame. Instead, it is a dynamic evaluation of the relative strengths of available pieces. Some pieces are inherently better at defending (xiang, shi, to some extent pao) while others are good at attacking (ju, very very much ma). Considering in light of this the units available:

Side bing: generally slows down your own attack, and does little for defence. Tempi can be traded by pushing one and forcing your opponent to mirror that to blockade. In stuck positions, can be the source of a slow flank attack. Not a great piece.

3rd/7th file bing: Closer to the king, the sides of the central river stalemates, and very dangerous if allowed to cross the river. Typically both sides push theirs in a race to the kings, or blockades with xiangs for a slower game.

Gokigen central bing: A default. Surprisingly fast if pushed crazily forward, yet easily stonewalled by standard defences (usually castles around the palace.)

GHB (Across river bing): Very scary. Harder to stop than before, and once it gets near a king, blood will follow soon. They can kick the general around with impunity, and are very likely to squash the king against his own pieces. Great Holy Bing.

Shi: The backbone of defence. Occasionally the appendices, performing little function but to throttle the general as he is contact checked to death. Still, these are essential in guarding 2 of 3 directions the king can be attacked from.

Xiang: Best used to stop 3rd/7th file bings, or to block irritating bottom-line attacks. They may only have 7 possible locations, but 5 are pretty important locations.

Ma: Main source of headaches. These things are horrible to move, making enforcement of the invulnerability rule brain-sapping to test for. The main bane of "invulnerable" fortresses, and a brilliant piece to probe for weaknesses with. If trapped on the wrong side of a barricade, though, they're quite useless (in defence particularly.)

Pao: A bing would sometimes be better. They move like jus, start in aggressive locations, and don't actually get to do much of the killing. Generally, they should stick to what they're good at: Posturing, locking up the opponent's flanks, the river, the palace, [everywhere], abusing their fast movement. Some pins, too.

Ju: The slow-to-develop, main killing piece. They speed through open lanes past blockades, but zigzag highways are their bane. Good for threateningly holding up river positions and half-open lanes.

Jiang/Shuai: ...
Do you seriously expect fei jiang (flying general) to be of ANY use here?



So those are the pieces. A typical game would flow something like this.

Opening phase: Key strategies are decided. Block the 3rd/7th bings? Try to stuff a pao into your opponent's palace fast? Swap pieces across the river or set up a nigh-impermeable roadblock? Important to consider are speed of bings, the open lanes that should be controlled by paos and jus a.s.a.p., and the opportunity to lock up pieces before they move, trapping them in a corner and thus creating a "material imbalance" of numbers.

Middlegame: If it's still pretty even after the opening, there are 2 possibilities. Firstly, both sides have pieces across the river, or perhaps 1 or 2 bing pairs have been swapped. A blitzing game ensues, where both sides race to deliver fatal charges and counterattacks faster than the other. Or, it's a delicate situation with the river choked with not a delta but a mess, in which case a slower game of attrition, temporary "shifting" blockades and side bing attacks follows.

Endgame: If one side has distinct material advantage near the opponent's palace, capitulation soon follows.

Positional evaluation is easy, but can be more subtle. The main rule of thumb is: the closer the centre of gravity of the board is to your king, the worse off you are.

I wonder who wants a game of this, on playOK or something?