Regimental Chess

Regimental Chess was generated from the desire to create a solid game emulating the strategy and tactics of battle. Strategy being the art of positioning ones formations. Tactics being the art of how they fight. At first, the creator of this game increased the number of pieces and the size of the battlefield. The quick realization is that chess evolved into, and solidified, into a board 8 squares by 8 squares for good reason. The two small armies are therein locked into combat where every position counts. Increase the size of the field or the army, and all that is lost. Then came the epiphany: move multiple pieces in formations rather than just one piece at a time. Formations that are governed by rules. Formations that can be broken apart. No point system is necessary. If a formation breaks up or loses pieces through attrition, it simply becomes less effective as a fighting unit until it is either annihilated or becomes too small to remain relevant to the battle. It then became a matter of experimenting with the numbers of pieces and size of the board to create a balance whereby every formation plays an important role in any given game. In the Napoleonic Wars, well formed infantries defeated the cavalry charge because horses refused to charge into a wall of bayonets held by foot soldiers that no longer turned to run. But the same densely packed infantry made an easy target for an artillery strike. The artillery, in turn, was itself vulnerable to a cavalry charge. This historic dynamic of rock-paper-scissors underpins the balance of Regimental Chess. The king is most often captured by a formation of rooks and queens, acting like a heavy artillery. However, this group has a difficult time capturing the king if he is surrounded by his horses. Because of the way they are formed and move, the horses are extremely vulnerable to charge of densely packed infantry. This infantry, in turn, can be quickly wiped out by the rooks and queens.…