🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Fri, Jan 3 06:23 PM UTC in reply to Talisnbear from 04:09 PM:
Variants tend to [be] best when varied from traditional chess (IMO).
The use of Horsemen instead of Pawns, as well as the use of Nightriders and Cannons already makes this very different from Chess. In general, the best Chess variants will maintain a balance between being like Chess and being different from it. They should be different enough to offer something of interest that Chess does not, but they should also be similar enough to not lose what makes Chess a worthwhile game. So more differences from Chess wouldn't necessarily make it an even better game.
Here I'd opt to change the knights to camels for a bit more reach on a 10x10 board.
There are 10x10 Chess variants with Camels, such as Devingt Chess or Cardinal Super Chess. There are also other large variants with Camels, some of them being listed on the Piece:Camel tag page. While Camels do move further than the Knight, they are colorbound, which means they cannot actually reach as many spaces as a Knight.
The suggestion -- if you are adding the cannon -- sort of sister to the rook -- why not the Vao as a sister to the bishop. It would create some added symmetry to the game.
The use of Horsemen instead of Pawns, as well as the use of Nightriders and Cannons already makes this very different from Chess. In general, the best Chess variants will maintain a balance between being like Chess and being different from it. They should be different enough to offer something of interest that Chess does not, but they should also be similar enough to not lose what makes Chess a worthwhile game. So more differences from Chess wouldn't necessarily make it an even better game.
There are 10x10 Chess variants with Camels, such as Devingt Chess or Cardinal Super Chess. There are also other large variants with Camels, some of them being listed on the Piece:Camel tag page. While Camels do move further than the Knight, they are colorbound, which means they cannot actually reach as many spaces as a Knight.
My own games Eurasian Chess and Gross Chess do this.