New piece rules and combos, your advice is needed

As far as birds of prey go, an Owl could make a clearly distinguishable image.

There is also no reason to restrict yourself to animals. There are many human figures that could be distinguished from their head gear. Such as a Viking helmet with horns.

Are you looking for names, moves, or graphics?

How about a Guard, an Elite-Guard, and a Joker?

These pieces have good cross-over into other games like Waterloo (by Ivan Kosintsev), and are based on simple expansions of the primes moves in chess. The elite-guard just expands the guard by allowing a jump of one extra space in every direction. It's also similar to the Hawk, but the jumps are "pulled in". It jumps (1 and 2) instead of (2 and 3).

The joker is a very powerful piece, and it represents "elite-guard" + "knight". But I don't know about the best graphics for these pieces. The guard is common on this forum, but the others need some standardized graphics.

Sorry for posting 3 times in a row, but I just remembered the Cat in "Chess and a Half" (by Nicolino Will) has a piece that moves the same as the Elite-Guard:

(Link to this graphic: http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/chess-and-a-half )

musketeerchess: can you showcase how this particular piece moves

 Piece in picture: 

And vickalan; is it possible to invent some standard appearance for guard piece in 3D otb size?

The logical way to represent it would be like a Staunton King, but without the cross. To prevent it has too much emphasis, it would probably be better to make the body a bit shorter. (E.g. Bishop size.)

What was referred to as Joker two postings ago is usually called a Lion (in analogy with the Chu-Shogi Lion, which has the same 'footprint', but is capable of double capture. The name 'Joker' is usually reserved for pieces with a variable move, e.g. like the piece last moved by the opponent.

Note that the Cat in Chess and a Half also is capable of double capture.

HGMuller: my initial thought was also to use the King without the cross and readjust the length of the piece to about bishop size since they're close in value circa. 

Alternatively musketeerchess can create a more stylish NON-royal king. 

I think making pieces that move the same look different is just confusing.

Pieces that move like Kings but are not royal deserve unique characteristics. Crownless-King is ok but i don't mind cosmethic change that fits the piece. 

The issue about crownless-kings is the height of the piece. Even if you remove the "finial" (top of the king) the piece is excessive tall for it's value right?

So i I agree with the idea of changing the length of the piece between knight & bishop. 

The Warrior is unfortunately too dissimilar to the King. Is it possible you can design a more king-like piece just that it's not royal. 

Ideas: 

Adjust height to about bishop length.

Crown need to be modified if not removed.  One idea is to replace crown with half sphere dot. 

I'm not too good with 3d graphics but I can try. Do you just need an illustration, or would it help if I can get an actual 3d model (like something for printing with a 3d printer)? Not sure if I can do the 2nd option, but I can ask. I might have a contact who can help.

I hope something that fits/suits the guard piece. Like i already mentioned, crownless-king is excessively tall for it's value. 

One idea for the crownless king or guard in 3D is to make it look like the sage, which was used a few centuries ago. I believe the sage had the same move as the king. The pieces below are a reproduction of an early chess set. This is one idea for a 3D shape for the guard (or called sage or crownless king) and it would be a great new piece for the Musketeer collection!

vickalan: in my opinion the sage is quite outdated and need to undergo some adjustment into present time era. 

I agree the sage is outdated - I only posted the image so maybe someone can use it for ideas. There's also modern versions. This one is by Battlechess (actually the Elite-guard):

Pictures is fine for inspiration. I think it's appearance should fit it's limited movement. 

 Here is the guard from on of the avaialble variant sites on the internet

Prince: a non-royal King who moves and captures one square in any direction, but without being hindered by check.

I found this piece on jockly wiki: http://wiki.jocly.com/index.php/Fairy_chess_set

If I'm going to be completely honest, don't bother with the idea of trying to make a Western shogi set.

No offense to the guy but shogi on principle is meant to be played with wedge-shaped pieces, or really any shape with two faces.

People have made European shogi sets before, but honestly, they're really impractical. One could raise the point they're intuitive for beginners, but everyone's gotta suck up at some point and learn to read the kanji characters.

the practical "Hunter" Moves like a king, attacks like knight. This is my official request, as I sent this in my post in my game v. AidenB. This would be a practical piece, as it can hit pieces from faraway, yet move more controlled than a knight hopping. Also, as @Vickalin knows, I want to face Martin0 in Bulldog, so instead of witches we could both try hunter instead!

Also the look could be a king with a hunter style hat? I mean, the witch is complicated also, so I hope Vickalin won't have much trouble developing this piece.

HorribleTomato, you have a lot comments here, so let me add some information. If you want to face @Martin0 in a title game you will need to qualify first. That means you need to become a tier-3 player, which is winning a game over someone who also has a win.

But this is a good time for you. I'm looking for some players in a new 8-player tournament - (check here).

Also, I like the idea of the hunter. I might even play a game with it - could be fun (based on what other players enter the tournament). If you want to try the hunter, we can use one of these graphics. But I can't start a game for several days. Let me know what you think.