Thermopylae - My favorite variant

After my streak of losses in 4 player chess game variant, I tried to find other variants in the variant tab which were suitable for me. At my first glance at Thermopylae, I wondered how could green survive from a storm army of red.

Thermopylae was inspired from a real battle in the ancient history between Sparta state's soldiers and the Persian invaders. Spartans used the strategic terrain and long spears to stop Persians to make a forward step. However, they had a very small army and got betrayed, so the spear men was defeated, but thanks to their sacrifices, the state was able to save their troops and made a revenge, which push the Persians out their territory.

Source: Thermopylae

And the film: 300

Nevertheless, I clicked "Play" button. I remember my first game was in 2022.

This asymmetrical type of chess showed me very different spirits of a battle. One side had a big army and the mission to destroy the enemy ASAP. One side had a well-placed army and the mission to save the king by stopping the invasion, or the cunning tactic: retreating the king (the green king got captured by the blue).

I played it very skillful. As the role attacker, I maneuvered the red army so fast. No matter how hard did my opponent defend, he was easily slain by my fast runners.

As the role defender, I mobilized the green army to grab the key places. The opponent dealt heavy casualty to destroy my blocking, as well as waste lots of time. Finally, I could stand 72 moves. Sometimes, the blocking was so intense.To save the blocking, retreating was my main strategy. By that my king would be always save.

But one day, when I destroyed all of my opponent army, except king, the king ran away from the battle field and went to the blue's area. I chase but it was so late, the blue rook took the king, meant that I lost. I just read the rules again. From then, I used the trick to take fast wins. I prefer being green because it related to my ancestors' guerilla tactic to defeat the invaders.

And from then, I met some top players. I have won lots of them.

BTW, I am now in the top 10 live ranking of Thermopylae.
(Maybe so proud of myself lol)