The primary goal of Nova Chess is the same as in chess: checkmate the opposing king. A player that delivers stalemate to the opponent also wins. A player that causes threefold repetition of a given board position loses, although the burden of proof is on the player claiming the win.
There is no castling and there is no en passant capture.
In NC64, the board is an 8x8 grid. Each player has the same forces: eight pioneers, one king, one hero, two queens, two monks, two rooks; there are 2520 different possible starting arrays. In NC100, the board is a 10x10 grid. Each player has the same forces: ten pioneers, one king, two heroes, three queens, four monks, four rooks; there are 4,504,500 different possible starting arrays.
To generate the array for Nova Chess, playing cards can be used. Details are in the readme.rtf files included in the download.

 
Pieces:

• King, queen, and rook are as in orthodox chess.
• A hero moves like a rook, turns at a right angle, and makes another rook move. It cannot stop before the turn and therefore cannot move like an ordinary rook.
• A monk moves like a bishop or king.
• A pioneer moves one square forward. It captures like a king, though it cannot capture backwards to the second rank. A pioneer on its starting rank can slide two squares forward. A pioneer with no enemy pioneer on the file in front of it can slide any number of squares forward. In all multiple-square moves, however, the pioneer cannot cross a square adjacent to an enemy pioneer.
  A pioneer may promote when it makes any move that ends on the last rank. Promotion is to any piece previously lost. If no piece is available, or if the player so chooses, the pioneer can remain a pioneer and move like a king while on the last rank; such a pioneer is referred to as a veteran. A veteran can promote following any move provided a piece is available, but if one is not, and it moves off of the last rank, it becomes an ordinary pioneer again.