Fun with Non-standard pieces

Here's some perverse yet hot ideas for new piece powers.  Stuff that I've toyed with in the past and then tired of after like a day:

• What if all these non-standard pieces were available to choose from out of a big grab bag of possibilities, but you could only select a couple of them, as if you had a set amount of points in the bank to use when purchasing your weirdo pieces  (knight = 3 pts, etc). 
• The selections might take place secretly, so you and your opponent don't know what you're up against until it's revealed in the game.  Either with a silent-assassin "surprise reveal" (only after the piece has moved shockingly and drawn blood) OR maybe you'd have to declare your selections as you dropped them onto the board before the 15th move or so.  You'd be unsure how well your army will match up against the unknown.  Sometimes, one player's special pieces might cut through the enemy's like a buzzsaw.  Other times it'd lead to more of an even standoff, or a tactical race as each side tried to exploit the other using its special talents.
• Going bigger with this idea: What if a chess variant started off with a Battle of the Champions!?!?!  Imagine if the two armies stood still at the beginning to watch two super-high-powered champion pieces duking it out for all to see in the big open space on the board.  It'd be a different matchup each time, thanks to the same kind of rock/paper/scissors mystery selection of one piece from many possible ones.  (Like in Ghostbusters, "Choose the form of the Destructor!")  These guys might be things like Dragons that'd take up four squares and have skin so tough that it'd require multiple hits to damage them, or maybe one could only be damaged from a diagonal attack, etc.  They might have special abilities like teleporting or splitting up into several minor pieces before recombining like in Fusion Chess, or they'd have unique weapon attack forms like spiked maces on a chain for example (I use a keychain to represent this, with one end anchored around the base of the piece) and they could swing the mace in a deadly arc that'd clear out anyone standing on the 8 adjacent squares! ......To be fair, only a small advantage would go to the side whose champion "won".   The battle might only decide who gets to move first, or whose king gets an extra ability (see below), or maybe each champion breaks up into several standard pawns or pieces after the battle---with the winner getting to swap out one standard piece for an additional non-standard one.  So the champion battle would be kind of like an opening salvo to get each army revved up, but without totally deciding the outcome.  .....Should champions be able to hurt the enemy army if they somehow outmaneuver the other champion?   I have no idea!  But that might add something to it if your dragon could break free of the titanic struggle and use that hard-won opportunity to roast an enemy pawn with its fire breath.
• What if each King had a one-use-only special power that he'd reserve for when he needed a desperate escape or some unusually daring offense?  (An example of this might be moving like a grasshopper piece or being able to move into check one time.  i.e. you wouldn't always be able to use this, depending on what kind of mating attack came your way, etc.)
• What about Chessers?   (Using checkers instead of some or all of the pawns.)   The bishop at C1 could then move onto the chesser standing on B2.  (Kind of like the Squire idea, with the two of them occupying the same square.)  Then the two could move (together!) to anywhere the bishop went.  Chessers could be dropped off on the 7th rank for fast promotion strikes, or pawns could be brought backwards to more useful posts, a rook under attack could leave the chesser behind and move back one square to raise an impromptu pawn wall in front of it, etc.
• What about a Summoner who could 'magically' sacrifice your own army's troops (including itself?) to merge those cannibalized points into some new terror piece during the game?

There's more stuff too.  Most of it's probably listed in some old 'Vampire Chess' thread, if that's a search you want to make.

So far, these pieces never control the square they occupy. I have invented the following piece to do so.

The Avenger. Moves like a knight, but when captured, is replaced by a checker, and the enemy piece placed on top. On the player's (owning the captured Avenger) turn (any turn, not necessarily the following), the player has the option of removing the checker (unless his/her own piece occupies it). If an enemy piece is on the checker, that piece is also removed from the board. This takes the turn. The checker does not move. 6 points.

Note that it is illegal for the enemy king to move onto the checker, as that would be moving into check.

I added the Chinese Drunken Bishop.

The name "Squire" is taken already, so change the name unless you think you can convince me to change the other piece's name and keep this one "Squire".

Oh, and about your squire, (perhaps you can call it a Page, or the other Squire a Page instead?) since it captures like a pawn, what if it gets stuck on the 7th rank?

Yes, theweaponking, please clarify this about the Siege Tower. I assume each part of the Siege Tower has the option of moving alone as a rook, but they can rejoin each other on the same square, and may move together if and only if their departure square is only one square. Is this correct? If so, It's worth a lot more than 9 points, since it's already more powerful than two rooks.

The Morpher's perhaps... 9 points?

Also, keep in mind that the Cavalier is limited to one color of squares (like the bishop).

Call it Esquire or whatever

and its starting position would have to be on the second rank to prevent that - and it can jump over pieces!

No, it can still get stuck on the 7th rank unless you allow it to advance from 7th to 8th as an exception to the rule.

Sorry, I am no artist, but if you can, go ahead.

looks like it will have to have the option to advance a single square too

ponnupazoozu wrote:                                                                                                                        

So: which piece is that?

A white Bloody Saint?

let's see, you've got thirty pieces so... a 10x10 or 15x15 board should do the trick if you want to use them all! not including normal pieces- that would be15x15 or 23x23 board.

Also, this is sounding more like Stratego than anything.

Should I include the Deathqueen (see post #51) in post #1 then?

Does the Vine occupy one square? The vine cannot be captured? I'm not sure it's worth 7 points...

I decided it's worth 1.1, 1.5, 2, 3 points respectively for Correspondence, 30min, blitz, and bullet.  I believe bonus time would devalue the Time Pawn.

Interesting piece-- first of its kind here.

Blader: Moves like a queen, if it captures a piece it can capture one more piece that is around it. It moves to the square of the captured piece. Worth: 11 points

Can it move diagonally across the middle line?

Does "around" mean one of the 8 surrounding "king-move" squares?

Yes.

I think the Blader is worth more than 11 points, especially since to guard a piece from the Blader, one must guard that piece and any piece surrounding it. Very convenient for checkmates. Unless you put a limit on checking ability.