Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I hope this is the right place...

Let's change the rules of Chess, and allow an "Army List" to be chosen. A person must take exactly one King, for 0 points. Players take it in turns to deploy their pieces on their half of the board, instead of the standard method. All other rules for movement and taking of pieces apply, with the goal of Check-Mating the King as the win condition.

For example, a standard Chess set would include...

24 pts - 8 Pawns @ 3pts
24 pts - 2 Rooks @ 12 pts each
20 pts - 2 Knights @ 10 pts each
16 pts - 2 Bishops @ 8 pts each
16 pts - 1 Queen @ 16 pts
0 pts - 1 King

100 pts - Total

What would you set the points values at? This was just something rough and ready to get the ball rolling. Would you find it easier to balance at 1000 points?

Nice idea, would you be able to choose your own army too, ie nids or marines?

I can't see a reason why not... so long as your pieces had a key of some kind to keep them obvious.

Marine with Bolter = Pawn

JP Marine with BP + CCW = Knight

Missile Launcher = Rook

Chaplain = Bishop

Hero Character = Queen

Chapter Banner = King

You might find this interesting. Chess with points, terrain, and factions:
http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/board-games/loka.html

I'm sure there's a more detailed summary of the rules somewhere.

Also, the conventional points for chess (used in stalemates/timeouts) are:

Pawn: 1
Knight: 3
Bishop: 3
Rook: 5
Queen: 9

There are other ways of doing it, and also a system where the value of a piece is calculated by a computer in any given position relative to a pawn on a starting square, but that's the general way it's done. If you're interested, more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value

So based on the conventional points, each game would have 39 points, if each piece was valued as shown.

Would you feel that 2 Queens, 4 Rooks, and a Pawn would be evenly matched against a standard Chess set, if players took it in turns to place pieces anywhere on their half?

Part of my concern would be that there are only 32 boxes to deploy in, and a person could hypothetically have 40 models, including the King.

2 Queens, 4 rooks and a pawn should enjoy a significant advantage over a standard set. The points values are calculated within the scheme of chess. Swapping out for more useful pieces dramatically affects the game as mobility is so limited. Because of their tremendous range and threat, max out on queen then rooks and the rest is gravy (though at almost 2:1, might just be better to max out on rooks). Remember that if you can line up a queen or rook directly across from the enemy king with a queen or rook behind and take the pawn in front of the enemy king, the game is over if there is no piece that can capture the threatening piece. Normally, that would be the knight, but put a queen far out, and stack two rooks, rook takes pawn, king's knight takes rook, queen/rook takes knight while guarded by the other. Game over.

Ok, so, if you were going to assign points, how would you do it? Something for the giggles. Work out of 100, or work out of whatever you feel like. Try to come up with a points system.

There's a reason why various systems have field allowances or unit restrictions.

Consider what happens if you start with costs for upgrades instead of costs per model. Something like
- Each force consists of a king and fifteen pawns. The cost to upgrade each pawn is as follows:...

If you were to try to use a straight point system for chess, you'd probably have to charge points for having less than 16 pieces.

Lets put this in board games

Gonna bump this with a second suggestion for Loka. It seems like exactly what you're looking for.

One thing about the “elite” (all queen/rook) lists is that they have no depth and defense. Remember, you still need to protect your king. Pawns make for good walls. And in the mid-game, where you need to swap pieces, you won’t be able to go 1-1 very long.

My first thoughts on points was the traditional value. While it doesn’t scale well up to an even 100 points, I trust that it’s been tested as a relative value. Although that said, I wonder if it is weighted by fixed start positions? Is the rook undervalued because it’s hard to deploy early?

It would be fun to playtest with some friends, see if you can break the system. Try extreme lists, TAC ones, etc. The all-pawn list might not sound strong, but it can swap pieces all day, has good mutual support options, and the ability to potentially upgrade everyone to queens. Probably works as a hard counter to the all-queen list.

Neat idea. I think there might be some fatal flaws in the system, with broken lists, but the exercise finding them would be entertaining.

This might be of interest, it's working off a very similar idea and I think you can choose your pieces by point value:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/673576049/king-down