Xiangqi
It's Chinese, I don't know exactly how to play it; but just randomly placing pieces everywhere is fun.
Stratego
That is one of my favorite board games, there are few rules to learn, and half of the fun is setting up the pieces in the best possible way.
I can't think of any others right now, but I hoped it helped.
I was thinking of a game that's more along the lines of Zatikon(www.Zatikon.com), which is a game in which you pick an army from a large pool of units, with the objective being to move a piece onto your opponents castle. It is played on an 11x11 board.
Stratego is a great game, I used to play it a lot when I was a kid. I've heard about Xiangqi but I've never given it a shot, I may be inclined to do so in the future.
Depends on what you mean by "similar." If you mean a 'perfect information game' (as in, a game that provides you with all elements from the beginning, with no luck elements involved) and has tactical/strategic value, then there are plenty of similar games. The GIPF boardgame series is a good example (http://www.gipf.com/). I love Go, and I prefer it over chess since it is more aligned to my way of thought process (though I still love chess, of course!). Oshi is pretty similar to chess, though relatively unknown by most people I'd bet. Shogi and as mentioned above, Xiangqi. Quarto. Pentago. Gobblet. Cathedral. Octi. Quoridor. Hive. Abalone. I'd recommend going to boardgamegeek.com to inquire further about any of these.
Cool, thanks for all the useful info.
Avlan Hill, spell not sure (have to check my old games) but they made reproductions of actual battles like D-day, Battle of the Bulge, Mid-Way, and more all the pieces are inplace with the value they would be in movement, terrain, and killing power! Many of the battles could have turned out different if they were conducted differently. Quite interesting and enjoyable to play and see the results!
Stratego, and, also, obviously Checkers
Trxilt is a game that has some Chess elements.
Trxilt game rules: https://trxiltgames.wixsite.com/trxilt-game/game-rules
Hey,
I was wondering if anyone played any strategy games similar to chess, without being "chess variants" in themselves?