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A Very Large “Formation Movement” Chess Variant

As much as I say and/or think I'm done with chess variants, every once in a while another one forces its way into my brain. This current iteration is Magic Carpet Chess, another entry in my 100 x 100 squares playable chess variants category. It would feature 100 pieces and 100 'pawns' per side.

This is probably a bad idea, a dual purpose game design. It is an attempt to design a playable - in a reasonable time - chess variant on a 100 by 100 square board. It is also an investigation into very large, sometimes massively-multi-move, chess variants that use formation movement, which allows a large number of pieces in a restricted area to move together at the same time while maintaining the same relative positions the pieces had at the start of the move, even if none or only some of those pieces had the specific move made as part of their movement footprint.

To these ends, the board is 10,000 squares, and a player army has 200 pieces, just 2% of board size. FIDE chess starts with each side occupying 25% of the board. To come in contact with opponent forces in this proposed game, in which there are short-range and medium-range pieces on both sides, but no long-range (ie: infinite sliders that can cross the board in 1 turn with a clear path) requires something along the lines of formation movement, or some other method of greatly speeding up piece movements.

Working Name: Magic Carpet chess

Board: 100 x 100 squares

Set-Up: Hidden, players’ choice

Pieces: K Q A C R B N

Pawns: Q3 H(hero: W+/-D) S(shaman: F+/-A)

Piece Definitions:

King: K+/-3; makes up to 3 one-square king moves in a turn, changing directions if desired, with power to manifest a 10x10 Magic Carpet

Queen: standard Queen with a maximum movement range of 10, manifests 6x6 Magic Carpet

Archbishop: mostly standard BN with a maximum movement range of 10 as B,  as N, has shield power

Chancellor:  mostly standard RN with a maximum movement range of 10, with N component giving the piece shield power

Rook:  standard R with a maximum movement range of 10

Bishop:  standard B with a maximum movement range of 10

kNight:  N with its normal 2+1 move and also possesses a shield ability.

 

Knight Shield.

 

Any piece that has the knight move also has a shield ability.

During the opponent’s half of each turn, every empty square a friendly knight attacks becomes an impenetrable barrier to all the opponent’s sliding pieces.

Knights may be captured by any enemy piece including sliders, if the slider can avoid the knight’s shield squares when making the capture move.

All pieces with the knight’s move have this shield effect.

Pawn Definitions:

Queen3(Q that may only move 1, 2, or 3 squares/movement-turn)

Hero: a compound of Wazir, stepping 1 square orthogonally, and Dabbabah leaping 2 squares orthogonally. The hero moves as either or both pieces, in either order, and may change directions between the 2 parts of a move.

Shaman: the diagonal counterpart of the hero, a compound of Ferz, stepping 1 square diagonally, and alfil, leaping 2 squares diagonally. The shaman moves as either or both pieces, in either order, and may change directions between the 2 parts of a move.

Magic Carpets: Magic carpets are always square areas on the board, determined and designated by the players when they are going to use them, that may carry a group of friendly pieces “en masse” from 1 location to another, depositing the “formation” in their starting relative locations some distance and/or direction that maybe some or all the pieces “on the magic carpet” could not otherwise legally get to in a move.

Every magic carpet must contain at least 1 K, Q, or Q3, or it cannot exist. The manifesting piece may be anywhere within the boundary of the carpet, but must be inside it, and travel with it. The different manifesting pieces may have different limitations on distances traveled and number of pieces carried.

The pawns number 40 heroes, 40 shamans, and 20 Q3 pieces.

There is 1 king, 19 queens, 10 chancellors, 10 archbishops, and 20 each rooks, bishops, and knights.

Game is won by capturing the opponent's king.

The game starts with players secretly placing their armies on 10 10x10 square "magic carpets".

I'm thinking there must be a maximum and possibly a minimum number of game pieces/pawns per magic carpet.

The minimum number of pieces on a 10x10 magic carpet at start is 5, or one standard formation consisting of 1 royal pawn, 2 heroes, and 2 shamans.

 The 10 magic carpets are placed secretly, completely within 40 squares of that player's starting side.

 The 10 magic carpets, provided at the start of the game, may move 10 squares in any direction, possibly with 1 or more changes of direction. 

A magic carpet that moves adjacent to an enemy carpet or unit causes both un its to immediately soft-land and disappear.

 I also think all magic carpets will move up to 10 squares/turn, whatever size they are.

 Royal pawns generate a 3x3 square which they must be inside.

 Their carpets travel in a straight line only.

 Their carpets can carry 7 friendly units including themselves.

 Queens generate a 6x6 square which they must be inside.

 Their carpets can carry 20 friendlies, incl. themselves.

 Their carpets may change directions once each turn they move.

 This change of direction reduces the total number of squares moved that game turn by 1, from 10 to 9.

 The king generates a 10x10 carpet which he must be inside.

 The king's carpet may carry 41 pieces and turn once or twice in that move, reducing squares moved to 9 or 8* in that turn.

 *Option: king's carpet may move 10/9+turn or may move 18 with 2 changes of direction, 19 with 1 change of direction, and 20 with no changes of direction.

Activation:

Royal pieces are leaders.

All non-royal pieces must be activated by a leader.

Kings may activate all friendly pieces within 10 squares at any point of the king's move that turn.

Queens may activate friendlies up to 6 squares away.

Royal pawns may activate friendlies within 3 squares.

 [Note: Activation range of any royal is the same as the magic carpet size the royal generates.]

Formations:

All activated pieces may move each turn.

A formation is a group of pieces containing a royal piece and 1 or more other friendly pieces within activation range of the royal piece.

The game starts with “standard formations”, small groups of specific royals and non-royal pieces, at least 1 of which must be placed in each of the 10 10x10 magic carpets available at the beginning of the game.

Standard (Minimal) Formations:

K or Q: 1R, 1B, 1A or 1C, 1N

Pawn (Royal): 2H, 2S

So at start, each player has 20 minimal pawn formations and 20 minimal piece formations which must be spread out over the 10 initial magic carpets.

These formations are only required to exist during the setup and 1st turn, and thereafter do not need to be maintained.

Once each of the starting 10 magic carpets has 1 minimal formation deployed on it, remaining units may be placed anywhere, with the restrictions that no friendly unit is placed outside the command range of all friendly royalty.

Discussion and questions:

The issues come with the combination of magic carpet movement and normal square to square individual piece movement. Without computer tracking of every square each piece moves, there are only 2 ways to use carpets and normal, individual chess piece moves. Either:

1] Chess pieces may move from the board onto the carpet, be transported by that carpet, and move off the carpet in the same turn, blowing up the movement limitations on the pieces;

Or:

2] It takes 3 turns to perform the actions:
turn 1 - all transporting pieces move on to carpet
turn 2 - carpet alone moves
turn 3 - all transported pieces move off of carpet.

I lean strongly toward Option 1] for this question, but think both ways should be playtested.

Can pieces on a magic carpet move around on the carpet while the carpet is transporting them? This question is also up for discussion/debate, but I lean strongly toward "No" because using the magic carpets the way I've suggested has already allowed absurd movement distances for 1 turn.

I'm somewhat dubious about "pawn" promotions. Given the basic concept of this game, I think any promotions for the royal pawn, the hero, and the shaman would have to be to queen, chancellor, and archbishop, respectively. But are the Royal Pawn, a Q3, the hero, and the shaman all that weak? Should there be promotions?