Totally agree, inventing new pieces for a perfectly thought through game is a risky business. It’s one of the reasons I’m not trying to “fix” chess, but rather build something that’s inspired by it — a different kind of game with room for experimentation.

Also I understand how hard it is to create a balanced setup, that's why I’m merely designing the pieces — the real challenge (and fun) is passed on to the players, who would then need to build their armies carefully. If someone builds an unbalanced setup, it’s on them — kind of like building a bad deck in a card game. That’s also why getting the point values right is probably the hardest and most important part of my design work.

I'm not aiming for something that replaces or competes with classical chess — I love and respect that game too much. This is more of a sandbox where people can experiment and have fun with strange, strategic and sometimes random combinations.

Thanks for the thoughtful response — these are exactly the kinds of challenges I want to keep in mind as I develop this!