One of the great starting points and constant sources of inspiration for the creation of Endgame has been the fabulous game of chess.
The most relevant and noteworthy differences between chess and Endgame are summed up in the tables below.
Game artifacts
| Game artifact | Chess | Endgame |
|---|---|---|
| Game board | Board with 8 x 8 squares (□) | Battlefield with 8 x 8 squares (□), 2 x POW Camps, and 1 x Grey Market |
| (Vehicle) pieces | 2 x 16 pieces, in total 32 pieces | 2 x 16 vehicle pieces, in total 32 pieces |
| War pieces | ─ | 14 x weapon pieces |
| Happenstance pieces | ─ | 6 x happenstance pieces |
| Game bag | ─ | 1 x Grey Market bag |
Game modes
| Game mode | Chess | Endgame |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Yes | Yes |
| Including WMD | ─ | Yes |
| Including innovation (dynamic pieces) | ─ | Yes |
Vehicle & War pieces: Directions of movement
| Chess | Directions | Endgame | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pawn | N (and NE and NW en passant) | Armoured Car | N, E, S, W |
| Bishop | NW, NE, SW, SE | Tank | N, E, S, W |
| Knight | NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW, WNW, NNW | Truck | N, E, S, W |
| Rook | N, E, S, W | Warehouse | N, E, S, W |
| Queen | W, NW, N, NE, S, SW, SE, E | General & Doppelgänger | N, E, S, W |
| King | W, NW, N, NE, S, SW, SE, E | Minefield | ─ |
| ─ | ─ | Mortar | NW, NE, SW, SE |
| ─ | ─ | Drone | NW, NE, SW, SE |
| ─ | ─ | Missile | NW, NE, SW, SE |
Note that when playing the “innovation game mode”, some Endgame pieces may get additional capabilities over the course of a game.
Vehicle & War pieces: Moving and impact range
It is seen that some of the chess pieces have a much longer range than the equivalent Endgame pieces, making rapid attacks over the full chess board possible. However, a vehicle piece in combination with a missile can have a significant range of impact as well (see e.g. the example on the Tactics page).
Where the Pawn in chess can move up to 2 in its first move and then only 1 forward (or √2 in en passant) and never backwards or to the side, Endgame does not include any such restrictions.
| Chess | Moving & impact range (min-max in □) | Endgame | Moving range (min-max in □) | Impact range (min-max in □) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pawn | 1 – 2 | Armoured Car | 1 | 1 |
| Bishop | √2 – 7√2 | Tank | 2 | 2 |
| Knight | √5 – √5 | Truck | 3 | 3 |
| Rook | 1 – 7 | Warehouse | 1 | 1 |
| Queen | 1 – 7√2 | General & Doppelgänger | 2 | 2 |
| King | 1 – √2 | Minefield | 0 | 1 – √2 |
| ─ | ─ | Mortar | ─ | √2 – √2 |
| ─ | ─ | Drone | ─ | √2 – 2√2 |
| ─ | ─ | Missile | ─ | √2 – 3√2 |
Vehicle & War pieces: Airborne capabilities
| Chess | Ability to fly | Endgame | Ability to fly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pawn | No | Armoured Car | No |
| Bishop | No | Tank | No |
| Knight | Yes | Truck | No |
| Rook | No | Warehouse | No |
| Queen | No | General & Doppelgänger | No |
| King | Yes (once, during castling) | Minefield | No |
| ─ | ─ | Mortar | Yes |
| ─ | ─ | Drone | Yes |
| ─ | ─ | Missile | Yes |
Game pieces: Happenstance pieces
| Happenstance | Chess | Endgame |
|---|---|---|
| Embargo | ─ | No new weapons |
| Dud | ─ | Return weapon |
| Friendly fire | ─ | Fire weapon on your own vehicle |
| POW Exchange | ─ | Exchange imprisoned vehicle pieces |
| POW Escape | ─ | Vehicle piece escapes |
| AWOL | ─ | Vehicle piece captured |
Game mechanics: The Move
| Mechanism | Chess | Endgame |
|---|---|---|
| The move | Single step: Move a piece | Two steps: Move a vehicle piece, then move a war piece |
| Move two pieces at once | Castling | Dobbelgängering |
| Move a piece in a specific way once | En passant | ─ |
| Move a piece in a specific way once | Move a pawn two squares | ─ |
| Replace a piece with another piece | Pawn promotion | ─ |
| No legal move | Stalemate | ─ |
| Declaration and obligation | “Chess” declared and obligation for opponent to move | Declaration of “imminent danger” not required and no obligation for opponent to move |
Game mechanics: Eliminating (vehicle) pieces
| Mechanism | Chess | Endgame |
|---|---|---|
| A (vehicle) piece moving to a square occupied by the opponent´s piece | The opponent´s piece is captured and permanently removed from the board | Both vehicle pieces are placed in the appropriate POW Camps |
| A vehicle pieces fires a weapon at another vehicle piece | ─ | The vehicle piece that has been captured is placed in the appropriate POW Camp. |
| A vehicle piece enters the opponent’s Minefield | ─ | The vehicle that has entered the minefield is placed in the appropriate POW Camp |
The basics of the game
| Feature | Chess | Endgame |
|---|---|---|
| Point system | One: Basic | Two: Basic and Advanced |
| Game setup | Standard | Standard |
| Semi-random game setup | Freestyle (Chess960) | Semi-random (semi-random mirrored permutation) |
| Random game setup | ─ | Random (random mirrored permutation) |
| Luck | No luck | Some luck |
| Information | Perfect | Not perfect (initially) |
| Zero-sum game | Yes | No |