I played the new version a bit and youre right its way harder, dont think I have the patience to beat my score for now... spawning queens early is pretty hard but I guess they give more points so its kinda fair? it does feel a bit punishing when often times you have barely any possible moves, but I think its a good direction to have less pieces but more threatening ones
I also noticed that the black pieces are kind of hard to see on the black tiles when you peek, maybe they can have a white outline?
another thing I notices is that you sometimes get some extra moves and I wasnt sure why and how many, for example after using a potion?
also I think there is a bug where pawns can capture backwards?
highscore on improved version: 177