Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Dec 7, 2003 09:54 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
One 4-player layout with less variance than most in distance covered by
'diverted' Pawns would be my Simple Fivequarters one
(http://www.chessvariants.com/multiplayer.dir/fivequarters.html). Moving
towards Mordor would of course take Pawns off their 'normal' course on
any 4-player board but that need not matter as they could lose the ring
only by being captured or winning the game, and so would never revert to
being ordinary Pawns in the wrong place.