Reading the board

Thin lines mark roads, thick lines mark railways, circles mark camps and the back-row squares mark headquarters. Their movement and combat rules determine which routes are open and where pieces are protected.

Coordinates

Hidden Front labels the five columns A to E from left to right and the twelve rows 1 to 12. Your own half is always the six rows nearest you. Lesson solutions and puzzle notes use these labels, so "C7" means column C, row 7.

Roads

Every thin line is a road. A piece on a road moves one step per turn to a directly connected neighbour. Most spaces connect to the ones above, below, left and right of them. The only diagonal roads on the board are the ones that run into and out of camps.

Because a road move is a single step, the central columns of each half are slow country. Pieces there take several turns to reach anything, which makes the centre a good place for pieces you want to keep out of early fights, and a poor place for a piece that needs to react quickly.

Railways

The thick lines are railways. A piece that begins its move on a railway may slide along one straight railway line as far as it likes, as long as every space it passes over is empty. It cannot jump over anything, and ordinary pieces cannot turn a corner mid-move: a Colonel on a horizontal railway can go left or right, not around the bend.

Railways run:

• down the two outer columns, A and E, from the second row of one side to the second row of the other;
• across the second row of each half, just in front of the headquarters row;
• across the front row of each half, the row nearest the river.

Headquarters and camps are never railway spaces, even when a railway line passes beside them. A piece standing in a camp is on a road for movement purposes and steps one space at a time.

The Engineer is the exception to the straight-line rule. It may travel along any connected railway path, turning as many corners as it likes in a single move, provided the path is clear. For example, it can travel between opposite corners of the railway network in one turn. An enemy piece that turns on a railway during one move must be an Engineer.

The front line

The two halves meet at the river. Only three bridges cross it, at columns A, C and E, and each bridge has a station in the middle. The stations are real spaces: a piece can stop on one, and a piece standing on a station blocks the whole bridge. Columns B and D have no crossing at all; those gaps are mountains.

The front rows and the three stations are railway spaces. Pieces may cross a clear bridge in a straight railway move. Only an Engineer can also turn and continue along the enemy front row in that same move. All three stations begin the game empty and cannot be used during setup.

Because there are only three crossings, the front line is where most of the early fighting happens. A strong piece parked on a station controls a bridge; a bomb waiting just behind a station punishes anything that charges across.

Camps

Each half has five camps, drawn as circles: two in the third row, one in the centre of the fourth row, and two in the fifth row (counting from your back row). A piece inside a camp cannot be attacked. Nobody may move into a camp that an enemy occupies.

Camps connect diagonally as well as orthogonally, so a piece in a camp can leave in eight directions and a piece next to a camp can step into it diagonally. Those diagonal roads are the only ones on the board.

A camp protects a piece that has been identified, shelters a weak piece, or lets a strong piece threaten neighboring roads. A piece can attack an adjacent enemy directly from the camp, leaving the camp as part of that move. Once outside, it loses the camp’s protection.

Headquarters

The two squares in each back row, at columns B and D, are headquarters. One holds your flag. At setup the other holds a ranked piece or a bomb; landmines cannot be placed there. It may become empty later if its defender is removed.

A piece that moves into a headquarters, yours or the enemy's, is frozen there for the rest of the game. Entering the headquarters that holds the flag captures it and wins; entering the other one simply takes that piece out of play. When you are attacking, make sure you know which headquarters is which before you commit a piece.

Landmines may not be placed in headquarters. That matters for defence: the flag's own square is never protected by a mine on it, only by the mines around it.

How the terrain shapes play

These features affect your plans:

• The outer columns are fast routes. Their railways run from your second row to the enemy’s second row, so a clear straight line lets a piece reach the enemy front row in one move. Keep your flanks guarded.
• The second row of each half is also a railway, which is why landmines often sit there: an Engineer arriving by rail will find them first.
• The stations decide who crosses. Three pieces on three stations seal your front completely, though it costs tempo to maintain.
• The camps in rows three to five are shelters in the middle of the fighting zone. Pieces that have been exposed can hide in them while the rest of the army regroups.
• The centre column has railway spaces in the second and front rows of each half. Between them, movement follows roads one step at a time, so pieces there take longer to deploy.

The lessons on movement and safe spots let you try each of these rules on a live board.