Co-op Chess Game: Serf Escape!

For our co-op version of chess, Lily and I designed a 3 player game called Serf Escape! Two players team up against one. One player controls all the pawns, representing the serfs that are trying to escape their servitude. One player controls all the knights, and his or her partner controls all the bishops, representing the king's army and the pope's army, respectively.

The starting position of the three players is thus:



The bishops and knights will move as they regularly do in chess. The front row of pawns is able to move 2 spaces forward or 2 spaces diagonally (either forward-left or forward-right, but not backwards. The back row of pawns is able to move 3 spaces forward or 3 spaces diagonally (also either forward-left or forward-right, but not backwards).


The serf player moves a pawn, then the royal army moves a knight.
Then the serf player moves a pawn, and the pope's army moves a bishop.

Play continues in this fashion.

The team of 2 tries to kill all the pawns to win. The serf team tries to escape to the edge of the board. However, pawns can not kill knights or bishops. They are too weak. But when they reach the edge of the board, they can be promoted to a rook. If it was the 2-space-moving pawn, it will become a rook that can move any number of spaces vertically or horizontally, and up to 2 spaces in any diagonal direction. If it was the 3-space-moving pawn, it will become a rook that can move any number of spaces vertically or horizontally, and up to 3 spaces in any diagonal direction.

At this point, the rook can kill off knights and bishops to try to make room for more of the pawns to escape and get promoted. The early game will start heavily favoring the knight-and-bishop team, but as the pawn team gets 1 or more rooks the game will heavily favor them, although they may not have too many pieces left at this point.

The winner will be the team that kills off all the other players pieces.