The SCA does something like this, and I've played around with different things like it before and thought it'd be a fun idea to pursue. I haven't made up any movement rules for any of the pieces yet, I've just drawn the pieces themselves. Not only would Dag chess be kinda fun to play at events, but its a god way to demonstrate unit tactics.


Here is an example of a typical shield wall:

I've never heard of this. Can you explain it more?

That looks a lot more like a play out of a football playbook than a chess board. Dagorhir football maybe? maybe we could have different shield wall formations, and develop combat "plays"?

Aye, yeah, I started something like that awhile ago. I heard the idea first from some SCA guys down here. My pieces went something like this:

Shield Blue
Single Blue
Dual Blue (Could attack twice)
Red
Archer (Ranged)
Javelin (Ranged)
Spear
Smashing (Mace/Hammer/Flail)

You also got two Knights, which could be declared as Single Blue, Red, Shield Blue, or Smashing, and could be moved 1 more space than the normal fighters of the same name.

EDIT: And you had a Lord, which was the basic "King" (from Chess). Later, some friends and I renamed it to Commander, to make it more ambiguous and less affiliated.

It worked, but I kind of put the project to the side. I still have the drawings up somewhere. If I can find them, I'd be happy to scan them into my computer and upload them. Feel free to build off the ideas I presented, but if you use the drawings, please give appropriate credit.

We tried using it for "battle plans". That went a lot more smoother than actual chess.