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I'm relatively new to the Hippo, but the fact that it involves about 10 moves of preliminary setup without any sort of attack in general, makes it feel passive to me.  I'm still getting used to obviously, but it's certainly a different "animal" (pun intended) than most other standard, more aggressive/active openings.  It seems like part of the strategy is really to invite the opponent to wast tempi and overextend themselves, while not knowing how to attack your solid structure.

This question is for all members. What makes it a Hippo as opposed to the Modern, the Owen, or something else? I define the Hippo as this formation:  

This question is for all members. How do you know when it's a semi-Hippo? Are there any specific strategies associated with the simi-Hippo? How many variations of the semi-Hippo are there?

Canalejas Long Checker Chess Additional context: Juan García Canalejas was a Spanish mathematician who published the first attested description of the “coup du fondeur des cloches”. The board is 10x8 because the new pieces are the common long checker kings crowned with the chess King moves: the Senator being the orthogonal piece and the Judge being the diagonal piece. However, they may only capture once per turn. Alternatively, they may use approach capture as in Fanorona, or even both modalities. In this case, they may only capture two pieces in a turn when they do not land multiple squares beyond the first piece they take. The Pawn can simply move forward, but still only captures diagonally. The Pawns start on the third rank and do not have a double step, the orthodox pieces start 8 in a row behind the central pawns and the Senators and the Judges start on four of the remaining squares, one of each on each side. However, there is a square variant where the Pawn does get a double step and has to move orthogonally to lose this right. Promotion is still earned at the 8th rank and can be delayed until the 10th on the square board, but it does not cancel the Pawn’s right to reset the 50/75 move count by simply moving. For Canalejas Random Long Checker Chess, I recommend excluding the new pieces from the shuffle primarily because it obfuscates their Asian allusions. A game is won by physically taking the King, but a quarter point may be claimed for first baring the orthodox pieces and is given by force for perpetual check or being the player making a two-move loop.