Alligators vs Engineers

Inspired by the misreading of this post on Boing Boing, I've worked out some preliminary rules on alligators vs engineers chess.

Alligators vs Engineers

Rules for a standard chess set, v 0.1

All of the pawns are alligators and the rest of the pieces are the engineering team.

You'll need: chess set, masking tape, post-it notes or some other way of marking some squares. Use a sharpie if you don't mind marking up your board.

Setup:

Mark the river by marking a row, two squares wide, across the board, two squares from one edge.
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Place all of the alligators in the river to start.
Place the engineering team on the larger side, in standard position, 2 layers deep.
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Play:

The goal for the engineers is to get all the engineers to safety across the river before being eaten. An engineering piece exits the board by moving off of the board on the side across the river using normal movement.

The goal for the alligators is to eat engineers, for they are tasty.

Choose who starts using your favourite randomness generator.

Movement:

Alligators can move one space in any direction while in water, but only forwards and back while on land. They may move one or two spaces from the river, then one space afterwards. Alligators attack targets on land by moving diagonally, but may attack any adjacent target in the water.

Lunging: Alligators always have the option of moving one or two spaces from the water, not just on their first move. This means that they can exit the water, re-enter the water, then lunge again. Only rooks may be attacked with a lunge.

Kings are extra tasty - killing a king will hatch a new alligator in the river, restoring a previously killed alligator. This new alligator must be placed at the edge of the board (upstream or downstream).

Engineering team pieces move following their normal movement rules. Engineers cannot enter or cross the river, except:
Drawbridges: Rooks, placed beside the river allow any unit that starts its turn adjacent to the rook to move through the rook to the opposite side of the river. Units use their normal movement rules to enter the square the rook is on, then end their movement on side of the river opposite the bishop. Rooks may only be destroyed by a lunging alligator.

Boats: Bishops can enter the river, but cannot enter and exit on the same turn. Other engineering units may move through bishops while they are on the river, according to the moving unit's movement rules. Other units cannot stop on a bishop, but can only pass through them.

Lightfooted: the queens may pass through any square occupied by an alligator as if it was unoccupied, but must stop if they enter an unoccupied square. They may cross the river this way.

I haven't play tested it yet, so if you try it, let me know how it goes.

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