Chesimals are "Autonomous Multi-unit Pieces", or AMPs. Each chesimal has one or more leader or brain units or whatever you choose to call it, that activates the individual units that make up the chesimal. Any unit, to be able to be activated and then move, must be touching, that is, directly adjacent to, in one of the 8 surrounding squares, either a leader unit, a unit that is touching a leader unit, or touching a piece touching… in other words, the leader must be able to trace an unbroken line of friendly units to the unit being activated and moving, at the time of that activation and move. The piece may move into isolation as a result of its activation and move, but must be connected to the leader to actually activate and move.
Chesimals 0.1:
Two simple chesimals can be constructed from wazirs and ferzes and fought on a board to gain some idea of how they work. One consists of a leader and 5 wazirs, the other of a leader and 5 ferzes. The rules are simple. Each leader may activate up to 6 pieces, including itself, each turn. The wazirs and ferzes have the standard 1-square orthogonal or diagonal move, and the leaders move as kings.
Chesimals 0.5:
Two more pieces can be played around with, a leader and 4 modern elephants or modern dabbabahs/warmachines. The leaders, moving like a Q2, or like a 2-step king and able to change direction [but not make a null move]*, are amplified, also - basically to keep up with the rest of the AMP.
*I've used these pieces in some games and called them sliding generals, both linear [Q2] and bent.
Chesimals 0.75
There is a mutant chesimal that works a little differently, as it's hyper. It's a king/leader and 6 guards. The leader can activate 7 pieces, but with a difference. As long as the unit being activated is contiguous with the leader, it may be activated and move repeatedly in one turn. One unit may thus move up to 7 times in one turn. And now this little bit of viciousness is going into quarantine until "ordinary" chesimals are well-established.
Chesimals 1.0:
Here are 3 somewhat more complex chesimals. The first two are extensions, or better yet, combinations of the smaller chesimals. They consist of 1 leader unit, 4 1-square pieces, and 4 2-square pieces. The leader moves as a bent sliding general and can activate up to 9 pieces.
One chesimal is made up of 4 wazirs [W], 4 modern dabbabahs [DW], and a [bent sliding general] leader. The second is 4 ferzes [F], 4 modern elephants [AF], and a [bent sliding general] leader. The third piece is made up of a king [the leader], 2 knights, and 4 guards [non-royal kings/commoners/men].
One interesting exercise is to pit the first 2 chesimals against each other on a decently large board. I used a 12x16, since I had one lying around.
As a bit of shorthand, we could call the 1st chesimal type an "orthogonal", or "ortho", AMP, and the second, a "dia" AMP [or orthamp and diamp, even]. The third type, with a king and knights and [royal] guards, is a "royal" piece.
Chesimal Fusion I
A 12x16 board can be made from 3 chessboards, if one is cut in half. A nice number of pieces is 32 per side, or 2 chess sets. This game can be played using 2 standard sets of chess pieces and 3 standard 8x8 boards, suitably rearranged. The preset shows kings, knights, and pawns, and also warmachines, elephants, and sliding generals. For an over the board game, these last 3 piece types can be replaced by rooks, bishops, and queens, respectively.
There are 4 pieces per side:
- one 9-unit ortho AMP - 1S, 4DW, 4W; or 1Q, 4R, 4P for over the board with 2 FIDE piece sets
- one 9-unit dia AMP - 1S, 4AF, 4F; or 1Q, 4 B, 4P
- two 7-unit royal AMPs - 1K, 2N, 4G; or 1K, 2N, 4P
Victory is by capturing both enemy kings.
A turn consists of each side moving one AMP, with white moving first each turn.
Capture is by replacement.
The capturing unit must stop in the captured unit's square.
Captures are made by individual units, not AMPs.
The AMP may continue activating and moving other of its units after one or more of its units has made a capture. The royal "pieces" may thus capture up to 7 enemy units in a turn, and the ortho and dia 9 each.
I originally pushed pieces around on a board, and quickly realized I had no way of telling just which pawns belonged to which AMP. So I gave up trying, and re-worked the rules to allow some different effects. That's why the preset shows pawns instead of ferzes, wazirs, and guards.
There are actually 2 ways to play this game. One way allows free swapping of units among leaders. The other doesn't. This is the way that does; that's why it's called "Fusion".
[One optional rule would be to allow a leader to change the color of an enemy unit it was directly adjacent to by "activating" it in a 2 step process. The first activation turns the enemy unit neutral, and a second activation turns the neutral piece to the friendly color. So a third activation would be required for the newly-friendly unit to move. This would be a 3 turn sequence, as no individual piece… [Note: I am going to slip and say "piece" where I mean "unit", if I haven't already. Guess I should just establish the convention of calling the multi-unit pieces amps or chesimals, and never "pieces", which could then be freely used for the individual units. Less confusion all around; I'll work on it] …can be activated more than once in a turn. And I'm not ready to mess with this rule yet. [Later, when things are more settled…]
Here is the preset for Chesimal Fusion I:
[http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DChesimal+Fusion+I%26settings%3DCFI]
Now I should attempt to put together coherent rules for this game. Here goes:
The following is the first draft of the "official" game rules posted on the CV site.
You can get to it by clicking on the "Rules" button at the top of the preset above.
BOARD
The board is 12x16. Set up, it looks like this:
(BOARD PIC HERE - STANDARD SETUP)
PIECES Level 1:
Leaders:
All leaders may move 2 squares, sliding 1 square in any direction, and then, if desired, sliding one more square, again in any direction, except back to the first square. Like all other units, leaders must be activated to move.
King 
The king is the only leader who can activate knights.
Kings can activate all piece types in a turn, activating any 6 other pieces [incl. the other leaders] and also itself as an optional 7th piece.
The king can activate pawns to move as both wazirs and ferzes, and can activate both ortho and dia amp units, all in the same turn.
Prince 
Princes may only activate certain units in a turn, but may activate up to 9 allowed units.
Princes may never activate knights, although they may trace a chain of units through knights to activate other pieces.
A prince must choose to be "Ortho" or "Dia" and announce it [or demonstrate it by movement] at the beginning of each turn. This is a free choice.
An ortho prince activates leaders, warmachines, and pawns. The pawns must move as wazirs for this turn, only. Next turn, each may move as either wazir or ferz.
A dia prince activates leaders, elephants, and pawns. The pawns must move as ferzes for this turn, only. Next turn, each may move as either wazir or ferz.
Troops
Knight 
The kings guard unit. It moves as a standard FIDE knight.
Warmachine 
The warmachine is an exclusive [see DHowe's Taxonomy] combination of dabbabah and wazir. It may step 1 square orthogonally, or leap 2 squares orthogonally.
Elephant 
The elephant is an exclusive combination of alfil and ferz. It steps one, or leaps two, squares diagonally.
Pawn 
The pawn is only a pawn when it is not activated. When it is activated, it promotes to, moves, and captures as a wazir, or a ferz, or a guard, depending on the specific leader who activates it at this time.
PIECES Level 2:
Chesimals
Each chesimal has one or more leader or brain units or whatever you choose to call it, that activates the individual units that make up the chesimal. Any individual unit, to be able to be activated and then move, must be touching, that is, directly adjacent in one of the 8 surrounding squares, either a leader unit, a unit that is touching a leader unit, or touching a piece touching… in other words, the leader must be able to trace an unbroken line of friendly units to the unit being activated and moving, at the time of that activation and move. The piece may move into isolation as a result of its activation and move, but must be connected to the leader to actually activate and move.
If 2 or more friendly chesimals are touching, a leader may activate any contiguous chesspieces, regardless of whether those pieces were part of another chesimal, subject to specific exceptions detailed in the rules. This is where the fusion part of the game comes in.
Ortho
9-unit ortho AMP - 1S, 4DW, 4W; or 1Q, 4R, 4P for over the board with 2 FIDE piece sets
Dia
9-unit dia AMP - 1S, 4AF, 4F; or 1Q, 4 B, 4P
Royal
7-unit royal AMP - 1K, 2N, 4G; or 1K, 2N, 4P
RULES
There are 4 pieces per side:
- one 9-unit ortho AMP
- one 9-unit dia AMP
- two 7-unit royal AMPs
Victory: the object of the game is to capture both of your opponent's kings - the individual king chesspieces, not the 7-unit royal AMP - before losing both of your own.
A turn consists of each side moving one AMP, with white moving first each turn.
Capture is by replacement.
The capturing unit must stop in the captured unit's square.
Captures are made by individual units, not AMPs.
The AMP may continue activating and moving other of its units after one or more of its units has made a capture. The royal "pieces" may thus capture up to 7 enemy units in a turn, and the ortho and dia 9 each.
There is no castling, pawn doublestep, or promotion in this game.
Alternate setup - here is an alternate setup:
(BOARD PIC HERE - STAGGERED SETUP)
