user13936: My club has recently been playing the variant Etchessera.  For those unfamiliar, this variant allows you to build an army consisting of a King and up to 39 points worth of pieces according to the following system:

Pawn - 1pt
Knight - 3pt
Bishop - 3pt
Rook   - 5pt
Queen  - 9pt

While I realize that the relative point values are often listed differently, and can change based upon what other pieces remain, we were wondering if there should be a clear winner between the standard chess army and one consisting of 4 queens and 3 pawns.  

Through our own games, the match-up appears to still be about equal provided the classic army plays defensive openings and forces a few trades.  However, my club is a very small sample size and I was looking to see if this has ever been explored elsewhere.  

user8860: A clarifying comment says "Pawns can be placed in any of the first 3 rows. 
Any other piece must be placed in the back row. White moves first unless 
black used less points to construct their army."  So the position I gave
earlier doesn't work, but since Black is allowed to move first with fewer than
39 points there's still a forced win:
[FEN "1b1qkqq1/8/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR b - - 0 0"]

1. Qxf2+ Kxf2 
2. Qh4+ g3 
3. Qgxg3+ hxg3 
4. Qxg3#


13936: <p>My club has recently been playing the variant <a href="http://etchessera.com" rel="noreferrer">Etchessera</a>.  For those unfamiliar, this variant allows you to build an army consisting of a King and up to 39 points worth of pieces according to the following system:</p>

<ul>
<li>Pawn - 1pt</li>
<li>Knight - 3pt</li>
<li>Bishop - 3pt</li>
<li>Rook   - 5pt</li>
<li>Queen  - 9pt</li>
</ul>

<p>While I realize that the relative point values are often listed differently, and can change based upon what other pieces remain, we were wondering if there should be a clear winner between the standard chess army and one consisting of 4 queens and 3 pawns.  </p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zs0b5.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zs0b5.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Through our own games, the match-up appears to still be about equal provided the classic army plays defensive openings and forces a few trades.  However, my club is a very small sample size and I was looking to see if this has ever been explored elsewhere.  </p>
 8860: <p>A clarifying comment says "Pawns can be placed in any of the first 3 rows. 
Any other piece must be placed in the back row. White moves first unless 
black used less points to construct their army."  So the position I gave
earlier doesn't work, but since Black is allowed to move first with fewer than
39 points there's still a forced win:</p>

<pre><code>[FEN "1b1qkqq1/8/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR b - - 0 0"]

1. Qxf2+ Kxf2 
2. Qh4+ g3 
3. Qgxg3+ hxg3 
4. Qxg3#
</code></pre>
