Napoleon is a variant of chess that is played with a regular set of pieces on a 16x16 square board. It was created to better signify a war by letting you put your pieces into groups that can move together and attack as a whole.

Objectives - To checkmate your opponent's King.

Setup - You have a 136 square board and 16 white, and 16 black chess pieces. You setup pieces on the first four rows of your side in any formation you choose, with the following restrictions:

No Pawns on the back row of your side.

Must have one Bishop on a black square and the other on a white square.

Must have at least two groups of pieces.

And the King and Queen must be in different groups.

Groups - Groups are collections of pieces (at least three pieces per squad) that are created at the beginning of the game by each player. They are created by placing your set of pieces on the board on adjacent squares by following the restrictions above. These restrictions apply for the entire game. Groups may be formed and reformed throughout the game. You may even create new groups during the course of the game.

Piece Movement/Attacking - All of the pieces move and attack like they would in normal chess except the Pawns and the King. The Pawns may move two squares in any direction but may only attack diagonally one square forward only. The King may move and attack two squares in any direction. Each group may only make one capture.

Turn Sequence - A single turn in Napolean consists of two phases: Movement/Attacking and then Connecting.

Move/Attack Phase - You may move any of your pieces or groups as they would normally move, as long as they remain in a squad (which applies the restrictions as usual).

Connection Phase - After you have moved/attacked if you chose to, you have to connect all of your pieces into groups. This is performed by moving your pieces as usual except for a certain action that is performed as follows: When after your move/attack phase two or fewer pieces are unable to connect to a group you may make a switch. A switch is made by losing one of the pieces already in a group in order to place an abandoned piece into a group. Losing one piece only allows you to place one abandoned piece into a group by placing it in the lost piece's square. If you choose not to make a switch you have to go ahead and lose the abandoned piece or pieces.

Variant For Four Players - Play for four players carries on like a two player game except that the setup is different. In a game for four players each person gets one fourth of the board to setup on. That means that each player get an 8x8 square area to place their pieces in. The same restrictions apply as a two player game.

Notes - Finally, in Napoleon there is no en passant, castling, or pawn promotion. I hope you have fun!