✗ NCV ︱ Delicate Hopper

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Timecontrol

3 | 5D

Gamerules

Teams, Self Partner, Game of Points, 5-check, Fatal Capture, King of the Hill, Stalemate Wins

Promotion

Grasshopper, Archbishop, General on the 10th rank

“Delicate” means “light and fragile.” The royal grasshopper on each team is easy to carry to safety before dying on its starting square, but becomes very fragile to bring to the hill, which cannot be reached with the other royals. Unlike other positions with two different armies, this game uses just the standard team sets (RY vs BG). An important thing to note, though, is that non-royal grasshoppers can checkmate a royal grasshopper at his starting square if he doesn’t move. This means you should leave some holes between your soldiers and the royal grasshopper can jump over to them before jumping over to the hill. Jumping over the hill will require breaking past the defenses around the board (especially captured pieces, which become dead) while giving mount for the grasshopper. The sergeants of each side should first be kept at home to prevent Red’s b10=G-e7-i3 (j2=G-g5-c9 for Blue) before promoting when it’s safer. Instead of always accepting trades, you can bring your archbishops closer to the vulnerable h14-n8 diagonal, where they can play dangerous checks if the camel leaves the guard of them, or block off diagonals for enemy grasshoppers.