My first Chess Variant: "Choose Your Party." Feedback appreciated!

I wanted to make a chess variant where you could choose the minor and major pieces in your army, to allow for many different army possibilities. I tried to keep the values of the minor pieces at about 3-ish pawns like the Bishop and Knight, then major pieces at 5-6, like the Rook, and then a Queen type piece at 9-ish pawns. Let me know how I can better balance these pieces, or other piece ideas!

Rules:

• Normal pawn rules

• No Castling, unless there are rooks starting on the a/h files (like orthodox chess)

• Pawns can promote to any piece that is or was on the board during the current game

Before the game starts, the players choose their teams. Black chooses one queen, then white, then black chooses one pair of major pieces, then white, then black chooses one pair of minor pieces, then white, then black chooses the second pair of minor pieces, then white (the second choice of minor piece cannot be the same as the first). Players can choose the same pieces.

Players then choose the arrangement of their pieces. The King is always on E-File and the Queen is always on D-File, like orthodox chess. Also, the orientation must be symmetrical (A1/A8 and H1/H8 files must have the same pieces, same with B1/B8 and G1/G8, C1/C8 and F1/F8). White puts down their first pair of pieces (major or minor) first, then black does the same, and then white, black, white, black. Then the King, Queen, and pawns are put in place, and the game is ready to start with white's first move.

The Pieces:

Basic pieces to compound from:

• Ferz (one space diagonal)

• Wazir (one space orthogonal)

• Alfil (Leap two space diagonal)

• Dabbaba (Leap two space orthogonal)

• Alibaba = Alfil + Dabbaba

• Knights, Bishops, and Rooks

Minor Piece (Choose 2):

• Knight

• Bishop

• Guard (Wazir + Ferz, moves like a king)

• Hunter (Wazir + Alfil)

• Warrior (Wazir + Dabbaba)

• Scholar (Ferz + Alibaba, but no leaping: basically can move diagonally in any direction by two spaces)

Major Piece (Choose 1):

• Rook

• Paladin (Knight + Guard)

• Sage (Bishop + Dabbaba)

• Nightrider (Knight that can keep leaping in the same direction)

Queens (Choose 1):

• Queen

• Princess (Nightrider + Bishop)

• Empress (Knight + Rook)

• Duchess (Knight + Alibaba + Guard)

There are 240 different armies possible and 1440 different starting positions, not to mention all the different matchups. Also, I tried to find commonly-used names for the more common fairy pieces, but I ended up making up names that I thought worked thematically/sounded cool for a lot of them.

My suggestion is, without making it more complicated, make sure that each game has at least one or two non-standard pieces. The reason is that if players have all standard pieces, it would still be too similar to chess (or one of the combinations of chess960).

If the game is played slow and parties are remote, games might still be analyzed by an engine. But requiring a few variant chess pieces will make the game so it is unaffected by computers - "untouched by artificial intelligence". That category of games are my favorite ones to play.

Also (for later, if you feel ambitious) try to make a theme (like a game based on some period in history or a fantasy book), and maybe even make a custom-shaped board.

Btw, I've noticed the idea of Pokeman-chess has become really popular. A lot of people are talking about the pieces, but no game has come from it yet.

Thanks for the feedback, vickalan!  So far I haven't really played it with any remote parties, but if I do then I will take your advice on making sure some of the nonstandard pieces are used.  But among friends, it may be fun challenge for one player to have the orthodox set they're used to and the other to have a completely different set, for instance.

As far as a theme, I guess I was loosely thinking of a general RPG theme, since there's sort of an idea of different classes and choosing your party. I guess I could tailor it some more to fit that video gamey theme.  I have been considering an 10x8 or 10x10 variant, but I figured I should try to make it work on 8x8 before I try anything too wild.

For what it's worth, here is what I'm considering for a 10x8 variant:

You get a pair of Queens and one Super Queen.  Pawns cannot promote to Super Queen.  The super queen is on the E File and the King is on the F File, and the Queens are dispersed with the other pieces as the player chooses, following the current rules.

Super Queen:

• Amazon (Knight + Queen)
• Witch/Banshee (Rook + Nightrider + Ferz)
• Joker (An extra king that can be in check or mate, BUT you can summon opponent’s pieces that have been captured, as per shogi rules.  Summoning a piece takes a turn, and the summoning of a piece cannot put the opponent in check or checkmate.  The piece can be summoned on any free square on the board, otherwise.  Can’t summon Pawns or Superqueen.  You lose Promotion powers.)

The Joker may be completely over or under powered or not work at all, but I thought it may be a neat concept.  Maybe the joker should even be immobile, to provide a critical weakness to counteract the strength of summoning pieces?

For a 10x10, perhaps the players can choose 3 minor pieces, 2 major pieces, 1 Queen (a pair), and 1 Super Queen (a single one).  Pawns on the third rank, two pairs of pieces on the second rank, then the rest on the first rank, as per usual.

Just shooting out ideas.