Military Chess

The chess variant has pieces inspired by military forces.

The information on boardgamegeek included that the game was marketed in 1880 by a company called A. N. Myers & Co from London, and invented by E. Joseph Cossman. However, you can read in the comments on this webpage, that the origin of the game in the 19th century is very unlikely, as at that time jeeps and bazooka's were not yet known. Possibly, there may be a confusion between two different games with the same name? If someone has more information or owns a set, please help us with providing more information!

Rules

The game is played on a checkered eight by eight board. In the middle, there is a river with four bridges where the river can be crossed; these bridges are between squares a4 and a5, c4 and c5, f4 and f5, and h4 and h5. Each side has two minefields; the minefields are between squares d2 and e2; d4 and e4; d5 and e5; and d7 and e7.

Players have twelve pieces:

• A general, who acts like a chess king.
• Two cannons, who move one square horizontally, vertically or diagonally (i.e., like a chess king), but can also fire at enemy pieces that are at most three squares away.
• One tank, who moves like a chess rook.
• One bazooka-man, who move like a chess queen, but at most three squares
• One jeep, who moves like the bazooka-man, i.e., a chess queen but at most three squares,
• Two infantry, who move like a chess queen, but at most two squares
• Four advanced guards, who move one or two squares in any direction except backwards (I assume this means diagonally forwards, sideways, or straight forwards).

These moves are limited by the bridges and the mines. It seems reasonable to assume that one must cross the river by a bridge, and one cannot cross the minefields.

I assume that each piece takes as it moves, except for cannons, who also can take pieces by firing: probably, a cannon does not move when firing, but instead removes the attacked piece.

From a picture at the Boardgamegeek website, one can guess the following on the opening setup:

• The advanced guards are at lines 2 and 7, i.e., at positions a2, c2, f2 and h2; and a7, c7, f7 and h7, respectively.
• The cannons are in the corners: at a1, a8, h1, h8.
• The infantery are at b1, g1, b8, g8.
• The tanks are at c1 and f8.
• The generals are at d1 and e8. (Shown in the diagram as a king.)
• The bazooka-men are at e1 and d8. (Shown in the diagram as a rotated queen.)
• The jeeps are at f1 and c8. (Also shown in the diagram as a rotated queen.)

One wins by taking (or mating?) the general of the opponent, or by moving ones own general to the opposite side of the board.

Comments?

Another setup might also be possible: place the king between the two "queen-like" pieces, i.e., between the bazooka-man and the jeep. I.e., use the following setup.