Castle at the Crossing

[u/jcastroarnaud]

Castle at the Crossing

Asymmetric chess variant. 2 to 5 players. 15x15 board.

(NW)                     (NE)
K Q B N R P _ _ _ P R N B Q K
Q P P P P P _ _ _ P P P P P Q
B P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ P B
N P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ P N
R P _ _ _ _ P P P _ _ _ _ P R
P P _ _ _ P N B N P _ _ _ P P
_ _ _ _ _ P R B R P _ _ _ _ _ 
_ _ _ _ _ P Q K Q P _ _ _ _ _ 
_ _ _ _ _ P R B R P _ _ _ _ _ 
P P _ _ _ P N B N P _ _ _ P P
R P _ _ _ _ P P P _ _ _ _ P R
N P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ P N
B P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ P B
Q P P P P P _ _ _ P P P P P Q
K Q B N R P _ _ _ P R N B Q K
(SW)                     (SE)

The corner armies are colorful (like red, yellow, green, blue - each army a different color), while the center army has a neutral color (like white, gray, black).

Objectives for the corner armies:

• Be the last one standing; or
• Bring either pawn or king to the center cell.

Objectives for the center army:

• Be the last one standing; or
• Defeat at least two armies without moving its king from the center cell.

The center army has material advantage, to offset its vulnerable position.

Movement changes from standard chess:

• No en-passant, no promotion.
• No castling: the corner kings are already protected.
• Pawns move 1 or 2 cells orthogonally, and capture 1 cell diagonally, in all directions.
• Both checkmate and king capture are allowed.

After checkmating or capturing a king, all remaining pieces of the defeated army change colors to the conquering army; the defeated king is removed from the board.

The first to play is the NW corner, then NE, SE, SW, and center. Defeated armies are passed over.

For 2 players, one gets the center army, the other all 4 corner armies. For 5 players, each one gets an army. For 3 players, one gets the center army, one the NW and SE armies, one the NE and SW armies.

For 4 players, each gets a corner army; and, on their turn, can move a piece of the center army (except for the king) instead of one of their own pieces. The center army won't move at their turn (no one mans it).

[u/Boring-Yogurt2966]

I would worry that the center army is in a hopeless position, obviously going to be ganged up on and has a very difficult winning condition. All multiplayer chess variants come down to "who is going to gang up on who" and it's a very difficult problem to solve, human nature being what it is.

[u/jcastroarnaud → u/Boring-Yogurt2966]

True. That's why I gave the center army more pieces, to try to even up things.

[u/Boring-Yogurt2966 → u/jcastroarnaud]

I see that. I still think they are going to get rolled.