Answers.Body: <p>I believe the optimum opening would be what Cleveland is suggesting.  A combination of rook &amp; knight with king &amp; queen pawn @ d4 &amp; e4, controlling the center.  In the opening suggested in the example above, although it controls the center of the board, it restricts any immediate pathway for the king.  In a game where one of the win conditions is crossing the middle of the board with your king, this may not be the best opening.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-07-20T23:00:19.530Z
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Answers.UserDisplayName: ap49
Answers.Body: <p>Against Reaper in particular you might have problems with something like 1. ...Rhc3, blocking the knight from moving to c3 and making it arbitrarily hard to link up the Rook and Bishop.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2016-02-11T13:56:09.813Z
Answers.Text: I believe other answerers should learn from this answer to not disregard the enemy army
Answers.UserDisplayName: hkBst
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Chris Lakatos
Answers.Body: <p>My intuition might be totally off because this is very different from real chess, but I don't see why you wouldn't still want to try to control the center with pawns as white. You can develop all your pieces quickly this way but black can make a couple pawn moves (say, e5 and d5 while you are bringing your rooks out) then develop his own minor pieces to defend them. I wouldn't go with this opening strategy.</p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Cleveland
Body: <p><strong>How powerful is it for the Empowered Army to open by using knight-moves for their Empowered Rooks and/or Bishops?</strong></p>
  
  <p>In <strong><em>Chess 2: The Sequel</em></strong>, the knights, bishops, and rooks of the Empowered Army are considered <em>empowered</em> and can move as any adjacent empowered piece in addition to their own movement.  To a beginner such as myself, it seems particularly strong to open by taking advantage of this by developing the empowered pieces immediately.  All of the pieces can be developed through knight-moves in this way after a total of 6 moves.</p>
  
  <pre><code>1. Ra1 b3
  2. Rh1 g3
  3. Bc1 d3
  4. Bf1 e3
  5. Nb1 c3
  6. Ng1 f3
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/7kWJr.png" alt="Example"></p>
  
  <p>How strong is the use of empowered movement as opening moves?  Should one focus on performing all 6 of these moves, or is it more sensible to do a subset of them?  Is their an ideal order to these moves?  Does the asymmetry of the King and Elegant Queen affect these things?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2014-07-16T16:50:51.010Z
Comments.Text: I agree with Cleveland that I think pawns controlling the board and delimiting space would still be important. It looks like developing the Queen to the 2nd/3rd rank in a safe place behind the other pieces to empower them to move as a queen would also be of importance. The Knights would be appear to add great value to nearby pieces.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Alan
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Comments.CreationDate: 2014-07-16T16:58:12.510Z
Comments.Text: @Alan I do not doubt the validity this recommendation, or the inferior quality of my baseline suggestion.  However, I am hoping for even further detail.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Southpaw Hare
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2014-07-16T19:00:39.180Z
Comments.Text: I don't think anyone is even qualified to give further detail without playing some games in this variant. Your best bet to get a reasonable answer would be to pay a few strong chess players to play it a bunch against each other then give you their observations.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Cleveland
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Comments.CreationDate: 2014-07-16T19:08:50.277Z
Comments.Text: @Cleveland I can wait. I'm sure there are people that already play it, and I'm sure more people will in the future. The video game version did just come out recently, after all.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Southpaw Hare
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Comments.CreationDate: 2016-02-11T13:57:18.763Z
Comments.Text: @Alan, I believe the Queen moves as a King in this variant.
Comments.UserDisplayName: hkBst
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Comments.CreationDate: 2016-02-11T13:58:42.307Z
Comments.Text: @SouthpawHare, do you have any sample games to back up your hunch?
Comments.UserDisplayName: hkBst
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-02-13T07:03:52.647Z
Comments.Text: @hkBst Indeed.  Since the posting of this question, I've since made great use of this opening.  I've also developed a potential 3-move fool's mate using a variant, which I've detailed here: http://www.fantasystrike.com/forums/index.php?threads/catapult-turtle-gambit-of-chess-2.9686/
Comments.UserDisplayName: Southpaw Hare
Tags: <opening><chess-variants>
Title: Empowered Army Knight-move Opening
ThreadText: # Empowered Army Knight-move Opening
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2014-07-16)
  
  How powerful is it for the Empowered Army to open by using knight-moves for their Empowered Rooks and/or Bishops?
  In Chess 2: The Sequel, the knights, bishops, and rooks of the Empowered Army are considered empowered and can move as any adjacent empowered piece in addition to their own movement.  To a beginner such as myself, it seems particularly strong to open by taking advantage of this by developing the empowered pieces immediately.  All of the pieces can be developed through knight-moves in this way after a total of 6 moves.
  1. Ra1 b3
  2. Rh1 g3
  3. Bc1 d3
  4. Bf1 e3
  5. Nb1 c3
  6. Ng1 f3
  
  
  How strong is the use of empowered movement as opening moves?  Should one focus on performing all 6 of these moves, or is it more sensible to do a subset of them?  Is their an ideal order to these moves?  Does the asymmetry of the King and Elegant Queen affect these things?
  
  **Tags:** opening, chess-variants
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I agree with username_2 that I think pawns controlling the board and delimiting space would still be important. It looks like developing the Queen to the 2nd/3rd rank in a safe place behind the other pieces to empower them to move as a queen would also be of importance. The Knights would be appear to add great value to nearby pieces.  
  > **username_0**: @username_1 I do not doubt the validity this recommendation, or the inferior quality of my baseline suggestion.  However, I am hoping for even further detail.  
  > **username_2**: I don't think anyone is even qualified to give further detail without playing some games in this variant. Your best bet to get a reasonable answer would be to pay a few strong chess players to play it a bunch against each other then give you their observations.  
  > **username_0**: @username_2 I can wait. I'm sure there are people that already play it, and I'm sure more people will in the future. The video game version did just come out recently, after all.  
  > **username_3**: @username_1, I believe the Queen moves as a King in this variant.  
  > **username_3**: @SouthpawHare, do you have any sample games to back up your hunch?  
  > **username_0**: @username_3 Indeed.  Since the posting of this question, I've since made great use of this opening.  I've also developed a potential 3-move fool's mate using a variant, which I've detailed here: http://www.fantasystrike.com/forums/index.php?threads/catapult-turtle-gambit-of-chess-2.9686/  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2014-07-20. Score: 1 | Accepted answer
  
  I believe the optimum opening would be what username_2 is suggesting. A combination of rook & knight with king & queen pawn @ d4 & e4, controlling the center. In the opening suggested in the example above, although it controls the center of the board, it restricts any immediate pathway for the king. In a game where one of the win conditions is crossing the middle of the board with your king, this may not be the best opening.
  
  
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  ### Answer by username_5 on 2014-07-16. Score: 2
  
  Against Reaper in particular you might have problems with something like 1. ...Rhc3, blocking the knight from moving to c3 and making it arbitrarily hard to link up the Rook and Bishop.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_3**: I believe other answerers should learn from this answer to not disregard the enemy army  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2014-07-16. Score: 2
  
  My intuition might be totally off because this is very different from real chess, but I don't see why you wouldn't still want to try to control the center with pawns as white. You can develop all your pieces quickly this way but black can make a couple pawn moves (say, e5 and d5 while you are bringing your rooks out) then develop his own minor pieces to defend them. I wouldn't go with this opening strategy.
  
  
  ---
  
  