Perhaps black doesn't need anything to be stronger?
I've played three games against the Horde Champion, Le_Truand, and the black pieces have won every game!
http://en.lichess.org/Srf36708I'm glad that a few players like the current configuration. I did attempt to balance it before bringing it to lichess. :-)
I would support swapping the white and black colors, so that the pawns have the first move. From there, we can collect more data to see if the pieces are still strongly favored, from a statistical perspective. (I expect they will still be significantly favored, though.)
#64 That makes sense to me.
And/or maybe give the pawns a piece or two... or nerf the queen to move like a king? Though I have an engine, every GUI I've found doesn't handle this variant properly.
Only suggestion I have liked so far is back rank pawns move 2 squares. A nerfed queen would be a loss for white every time :D
@Toadofsky Does your engine play sacrifices with white? Or they play conservatively?
As far as I see, this variant is fair for black, and for white. No need of changing it much.
One small adjacement probably can made - allow black pawns move 2 squares from 1st rank, as well as from 2nd.
