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I just finished entering a variant of my own called Chessembly that is almost identical to this! It hasn't been posted to this site yet, but probably because Jeff Miller apparently beat me to it by many years. I was a bit upset to see it already in existence, but then I should have known this type of variant would be invented by now. In fact, in my version I was thinking of adding certain restrictions that I also see here in Unachess 2 and Parachute.
http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/chessembly
The main difference between my version and this (which would greatly influence the opening of the game) is that a person cannot drop ANY piece past the first four ranks, not just the pawns. This would make dropping an army on one side of the board the most likely opening for both players (then some movement would start to happen gradually as the overall assembly becomes apparent). It basically means that each player has their own "drop" territory (on their own side of the board).
I played similar variant, but with 2 differences: 1. Kings must be dropped on first moves. 2. Pawns may be dropped anywhere, expect 1st and 8th ranks. Another variant, i can suggest (i did not played it yet): Pawns have same defination of forward. This one may be played with 3 players. Actually, with any number of players, from 2 to 16. For multiplayer variant, rules for capturing/mating king and pieces of lost player must be chosen before playing, many variants are possible.
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The original Unashogi is quite interesting, but has a fatal flaw. Because King drops are unrestricted, impasses are easily attained by dropping the King into the promotion zone, making draws very common, as most pieces have a forward bias to them making a King on the far side of the board very difficult to mate, especially if surrounded by friendly pieces.
I am working on a variant that will fix these problems, called Unashogi II. It solves the impasse rule by restricting King drops to the first three ranks. However, this also requires a second rule restricting entering the promotion zone while the King is in hand to prevent players from simply stalemating an in-hand King. I am currently testing two different versions of the rule, one only allowing entry when the friendly King is placed, and the other only allowing entry if the enemy King is placed.