The endgame

As pieces leave the board, check which routes to the flag are still open and how many pieces each side can move. Keep an Engineer for mines and a bomb for defenders your other pieces cannot beat.

Decide which headquarters holds the flag

Use what you have observed in the enemy back rows. An unmoved piece may be a mine, the flag, an officer or a bomb; movement rules out mines and the flag. Separate what you know from what the layout suggests:

• If only one headquarters has immobile pieces on its approaches, the flag is almost certainly there.
• If both are guarded, count the mines you have seen removed. The enemy began with three. Whatever is left is spread across both corners, and the corner with more unknown immobile pieces is the better bet.
• A headquarters that an enemy piece walked into during the game does not hold the flag; the opponent would not freeze a piece on their own flag's square, and a piece cannot enter an occupied one.

If you cannot decide, attack the corner that costs less to open. Breaking into the wrong headquarters still removes mines and clarifies the picture.

Clear the mines

Only an Engineer survives attacking a landmine, so the endgame runs through your Engineers. Protect the one that will do the work:

• Bring it forward along railways in straight lines, so it does not reveal itself by turning a corner, and escort it with a piece that beats Captains and Lieutenants.
• Attack mines from squares the enemy cannot reach in one move. After each mine, the Engineer stands on a square that was mined for a reason; check what can reach it.
• If a piece you thought was a mine turns out to be an officer, your Engineer is gone. Before each mine attack, ask whether a bomb or a weak officer would make the opponent's layout make more sense.

Without Engineers, you can clear a mine with another ranked piece or a bomb, losing the attacker too. Count how many mines block the route and how many pieces you can afford to trade. Two bombs clear two mines, but whether that is enough depends on the layout and the route to the flag.

Spend bombs on the right piece

If a high officer blocks your route to the flag, compare it with your remaining ranks. A bomb can remove it through mutual removal; an equal rank also trades, and a higher rank survives. Save the piece you need for that fight, rather than spending it on a low-ranked probe.

Bombs also make excellent defenders at the end. A bomb standing in the square in front of your flag's headquarters removes the piece that finally arrives there, whatever it is.

When to trade

Before an equal-rank trade, count the pieces that would still have legal moves on each side. Headquarters occupants are frozen, but camp occupants may still move or attack adjacent enemies. Prefer a trade that removes the opponent’s last mobile piece without leaving you unable to move.

Favour trades that remove enemy Engineers while you still have mines, and avoid trades that cost your last Engineer while they still have mines.

The immobilisation win

A side with no piece that can move at the start of its turn loses, and in the endgame this is a real threat. Landmines, the flag and pieces inside headquarters do not count as mobile, and a piece in a camp is mobile only if it has somewhere to go. Watch for two situations:

• You are short of mobile pieces. Keep more than one piece with a legal move, whether in a camp or elsewhere, and be cautious about attacking an unknown piece with your last mobile officer.
• The opponent is short of mobile pieces. Capturing their last mobile piece can win without reaching the flag. Check actual legal destinations: an attack against a stronger enemy is still a legal move, so strength alone does not immobilise an officer.

The clock and the draw

A draw follows 100 consecutive moves without combat. Online timeouts count as moves too. Combat resets the counter, so keep it in mind when choosing whether to attack or avoid contact. Either player can offer a draw; the same player must wait at least 10 moves before offering again.

A typical finish

1. Identify the flag's corner from the immobile pieces and the count of removed mines.
2. Bring an Engineer to the second-row railway beside that corner, escorted by a Major.
3. Remove the mine in front of the headquarters, then the one beside it.
4. When the enemy's last high officer moves to intercept, meet it with the bomb you kept in a nearby camp.
5. Walk any piece into the headquarters.

The hard puzzles in the learning section are built from exactly these sequences.