For Horde Chess:

1)Allow the Hordes' Pawns to move one or two steps from any square on their half of the board. As usual, allow "in passing" captures. This small change might be enough to change the balance of power.

2)Adding more Pawns might work as suggested by kkkeeek.

3)How about adding a King to the Horde, but still require the chess set to capture every Pawn and then checkmate the lone King? The King could be checked and captured if not moved out of check, but not checkmated until the last Pawn is captured. If he is checkmated but still has one or more Pawns left of the Horde, it will be a win for the Horde.

I think idea 1 would be the most workable and easiest to impliment. If it proved to give the Horde an advantage it might have to have some modifications made to it, like only allow each Pawn the two step move if they're on the second row or haven't individually been moved if on the third or fourth row. It'd certainly give the Horde some more options just being able to move two steps from the third and fourth row. Would it be enough to offset the chess set's advantage though. How's 'bout some beta testing? Fencer could you set up a section of this site for play testing some of these games or rules changes that people come up with?

Idea 3 would change the nature of the game and probably wouldn't be Horde Chess any more. All the same, how many times would the Horde have prevailed if it just had a little more power on the board to tip the scale a little towards it? The King is the weakest of the chess pieces and still the symbolic leader of the troops. This idea could work also if you just added the King as an extra piece and didn't treat his capture as any different than losing a Pawn and required the chess set to capture all the Pawns and the King in any order. If it isn't enough to tip the power, perhaps two Kings could added? Put them in the space on the back row? Or maybe add a Knight? I'd start with just adding one King and see what happens to the winning statistics, especially if the added King is treated as just another piece on the board. That should be an easy addition to the game.

Maharajah Chess

1) Adding a second Maharjah seems like giving to much power to the Maharajah's side. Especially if the Maharajah side can continue on in the game after losing one of the Maharajahs. I suppose it'd need testing. If it proves too powerful, a weaker piece could be tried. I'm amazed the Maharajah wins almost 30% percent of the games here. It obviously is a strong piece that can checkmate by itself without back up. Just adding a Rook to its side might be more than enough to balance its chances out. It could lose the Rook and continue on, but the Maharajah would be like the King and lose the game if checkmated.

2) How about adding a row of Pawns to the Maharjah's side? That should help slow down the advance of the chess set's pieces. And, as with the Chess Set's side, no promotions.

2¢