Like chess, the players manuver pieces in an attempt to capture their opponent's. Feudal replaces the pieces from chess with the King, Prince, Duke, Knights, Sergeants, Pikemen, Squires and Archers. Like chess, each piece has a particular manner in which it is allowed to move. Unlike chess, the board for Feudal sports terrain. There are forests and mountains on the board which affect the movement of pieces.
Setup is random.
A divider is placed across the center of the board to prevent the players from seeing what each other are doing and pieces can be set up anywhere on a player's side of the board. There is also a castle, which is a specific piece. Feudal is an attempt to create a version of chess which plays more like a wargame. It falls somewhere into the middle ground which I think would cause it to lose most of its audience. The game is still too abstract to attract many avid wargamers and the variations are unlikely to appeal to hardcore chess players.