Hidden Front
English

Rules & strategy

Opening principles

What to do in the first ten moves of a Junqi game: probe cheaply, take the railways, protect your big pieces and read the first exchanges.

Use low-ranked pieces to test unknown opponents while arranging your army to act on the results. A probe can narrow a hidden rank without exposing a valuable piece. Compare that information with the piece you risk losing.

Move cheap pieces first

Lead with front-row pieces you can afford to lose. A Lieutenant or Captain may survive, lose, or trade with an unknown enemy. Use the outcome and any earlier movement to narrow down the enemy’s rank; a trade can also mean a bomb or a mine.

Avoid attacking with a piece whose loss would hurt. If your attacker survives defeating a known rank 6, the opponent can infer rank 7 or higher, even though its exact rank stays hidden. Expect them to respond with bombs or high officers. A piece the opponent has already identified has less to lose by fighting.

Take the railways

Railways are the only fast routes on the board, and they run along both edges and across both front rows. In the opening, aim to:

  • place a sturdy piece on the squares where the three bridges land in your front row, so nothing crosses unopposed;
  • get a piece onto at least one outer railway, where it can threaten the whole length of the board;
  • keep your own railways clear enough that you can move along them when you need to.

A piece on a front-line station controls the bridge behind it. If you can hold a station with a piece that beats most of what the enemy will send, you have cut the enemy's options from three crossings to two.

Do not cross early with your best pieces

Crossing the front line brings your piece near unknown enemies. An untouched piece that started in the enemy front row cannot be a bomb, but a bomb may move there later. In the first few moves, cross with pieces you can afford to lose and check the available replies before committing a stronger piece.

Use camps as a shield

The camps in rows three to five are untouchable, and in the opening they are ideal parking spots for the pieces you are not ready to commit: the Field Marshal, the General, a bomb. A strong piece in a camp also threatens every square around it without ever being at risk. When the enemy advances past it, it steps out and attacks from behind.

Conversely, do not let enemy pieces settle in your camps. An enemy piece in your fourth-row camp is immune and blocks several of your roads at once. Occupy your central camps before the enemy can.

Read the first exchanges

Every fight teaches both players something, and the lesson is often larger than the result.

  • A piece that captured your Captain is at least a Major. Note it, and send nothing smaller at it.
  • A piece that retreated rather than fight a Lieutenant is probably weak, or an Engineer, or a bomb the opponent is saving.
  • A piece that slid several squares along a railway cannot be a landmine or the flag, which are immobile, and if it turned a corner it is an Engineer.
  • A piece the opponent moves out of the way of your advance is one they value. A piece they leave in your path is one they are willing to lose, or a bomb.

Hidden Front lets you write a note on any enemy piece during the game. Record confirmed clues from the first exchange onward.

Tempo matters

Because each turn moves one piece, every move you spend repositioning is a move the opponent spends advancing. Prefer moves that do two things at once: a Captain that advances onto a station both probes and blocks a bridge; a Colonel that steps into a camp both hides and threatens.

Remember also the draw rule: 100 moves without a fight is a draw, and clock timeouts count as moves. A player who is ahead cannot sit still forever, and a player who is behind can sometimes play for the draw by refusing contact.

A sample opening plan

  1. Advance a Lieutenant onto one bridge station. If it survives a few turns there, it blocks that crossing.
  2. Move a Captain along your front-row railway to threaten the enemy piece that arrives opposite your other stations.
  3. Slide a Colonel or Brigadier onto an outer-column railway so that any enemy piece stepping onto that column is under attack.
  4. Step the Field Marshal into a central camp.
  5. Make your first real attack with a Brigadier on the enemy front-row piece that has moved the least; immobile pieces that are not in the back rows are not mines, so the piece is a hidden officer or a bomb, and either answer is useful.

From here the game turns on deduction, which is the subject of the next article.

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More to read

  • The complete rules of Junqi

    Every rule Hidden Front plays by, from setup and movement to combat, winning, draws and the online clock.

  • Reading the board

    How roads, railways, the front line, camps and headquarters work, and how the terrain shapes every game of Junqi.

  • The twelve pieces and what each one is for

    A guide to every Junqi piece, from Field Marshal to Flag, with its count, strengths, weaknesses and the job it does best.

  • Setup strategy

    Where to put your flag, landmines, bombs, Field Marshal and Engineers, and the layouts that beginners should avoid.

  • Working out hidden ranks

    Use moves and combat results to narrow down enemy ranks, and keep observations separate from guesses.

  • The endgame

    Finding the flag, clearing the mines, spending bombs wisely and avoiding the immobilisation loss in the final phase of a Junqi game.

  • A short history of Junqi

    Where army chess came from, how it relates to L'Attaque and Stratego, the flip and dark variants, four-player Junqi, and how Hidden Front's rules fit in.

  • Frequently asked questions

    Answers about playing Hidden Front: cost, accounts, inviting friends, phones, languages, disconnections, ranking seasons, fairness, safety and the project itself.

  • Glossary of Junqi terms

    The vocabulary of Junqi and Hidden Front, from bomb and camp to station, trade and zugzwang, with the Chinese names for the pieces and terrain.