Jungles and Mountains Chess

I had been thinking of this game off and on for about a year. But it kept evolving into a much bigger game which drifted further away from chess and more towards a role-playing game with quicksand, natives, wild animals, etc. Perhaps these ideas were form watching too many Tarzan shows as a little kid? Perhaps from reading too many Edgar Rice Burroughs novels? Finally, on the morning of 29 October 2006 I awoke with the idea of this simple very chess-like version of the game. The link to the pre-set follows. You may need to cut-and-paste the link into the search-bar. http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DJungles+and+Mountains+Chess%26settings%3DJPG-juxta

Setup

See pre-set or above for graphical representation:

r n b q k b n r
g d e g g d e g
g g g g g g g g
M M M M M M M M
M M M M M M M M
g g g g g g g g
g D E g g E D g
R N B Q K B N R

In the above text description:
r/R, n/N, b/B, q/Q, k/K  = chess pieces, Black is lower case
e/E = Engineer
d/D = Dozer (Bull-Dozer)
g = green (Jungle Green)
M = Mountains

Pieces

See setup. Also:

g = green:  This jungle terrain is removed by Dozers.  While present on squares, other pieces cannot move onto or through the jungle brush.

M = Mountainous materials.  Rocks, boulders.  This material is removed by Engineers.  While present on squares, other pieces cannot move onto or through the mountainous material.

Other pieces are as in chess.  Castling, check and check mate apply.
There are no pawns.

Rules

As in chess except for jungle and mountain aspects; no pawns; and addition of Engineers and Dozers.

Engineers: 
Move 1 step diagonally.  They cannot move through uncleared jungle.  They can cut through and remove mountain materials. When they move onto a mountain square, that material is removed, automatically. Engineers can capture and can be captured. 

Dozers: 
Move 1 step orthogonally.  They cannot move through mountainous material.  They do cut through and remove jungle brush by bull-dozing over it.  When they move onto a brush square, that material is removed, automatically. 
Dozers can capture and can be captured.

Note: Jungle and Mountain terrain cannot be added to squares, only removed.

Notes

To be added as needed due to questions or improvements to rules.


Gary K. Gifford,  29 October 2006; rules updated 19 Nov. 2006.
Set-p image added March 29, 2008.