The complete rules of Junqi

Junqi (军棋), also known as Luzhanqi (陸戰棋) or army chess, is a two-player strategy game of hidden information. Each side commands 25 pieces whose ranks the opponent cannot see. You win by capturing the enemy flag, or by leaving your opponent with no piece that can move. This page is the rule set Hidden Front implements. The same engine runs in your browser and on the game server, so what you read here is exactly what the game enforces.

The goal

There are two ways to win:

1. Capture the enemy flag. The moment one of your pieces enters the headquarters holding the enemy flag, the game ends.
2. Immobilise the opponent. If your opponent has no piece that can legally move at the start of their turn, you win. Landmines and the flag never move, and pieces inside headquarters are frozen, so a side can run out of mobile pieces long before it runs out of pieces.

If the flag is captured during a fight that also removes the opponent's last mobile piece, the flag capture is what ends the game and is shown first.

The board

The board is 5 columns wide and 12 rows tall, with each player owning the six rows nearest them. Between the two halves runs the front line, which can only be crossed at three stations in columns A, C and E; the gaps in columns B and D are mountains that nothing can pass. Columns are lettered A to E and rows are numbered 1 to 12.

Each half contains:

• Two headquarters in the back row at columns B and D. One of them holds your flag. Any piece that enters a headquarters can never move again.
• Five camps, drawn as circles. A piece standing in a camp cannot be attacked. Camps also connect diagonally to their neighbours.
• Railways, drawn as thick lines, running along the outer columns and across four rows. A piece on a railway can travel any distance in a straight line.
• Roads, the thin lines, which allow one step at a time.

The board guide covers each of these in detail.

The pieces

Each player has 25 pieces: nine officer ranks numbered 1 to 9, plus three special pieces without a number.

Rank	Piece	Count	Notes
9	Field Marshal	1	The strongest piece
8	General	1
7	Major General	2
6	Brigadier	2
5	Colonel	2
4	Major	2
3	Captain	3
2	Lieutenant	3
1	Engineer	3	Turns corners on railways; defuses landmines
	Bomb	2	Destroys whatever it fights, and itself; cannot start in the front row
	Landmine	3	Never moves; only the back two rows
	Flag	1	Never moves; one of the two headquarters

Setup

Before the game both players arrange their pieces on their own half, hidden from each other. Three rules restrict where things go:

• The flag must be in one of your two headquarters.
• Each landmine must be in one of your back two rows, but never inside a headquarters.
• A bomb may not start in your front row.

Ranked pieces may start anywhere on your half except camps, including the other headquarters. All camps and the three front-line stations are empty at the start. Hidden Front gives you a random layout to begin with, and you can rearrange it or shuffle again before you confirm.

Moving

Players alternate turns. On your turn you move exactly one piece.

• On a road, a piece moves one step to a connected neighbour. Camps are also connected diagonally, so a piece can step diagonally into or out of a camp.
• On a railway, a piece that starts on the railway may slide any number of spaces along one straight railway line, as long as every space it passes through is empty. It cannot pass through other pieces.
• The Engineer is the only piece that may change direction while moving along railways. It may follow any connected railway path, turning as many corners as it likes, again only through empty spaces. Off the railway, an Engineer moves one step like everyone else.
• A piece that starts on a road moves one step even if the step lands on a railway.
• Landmines and the flag never move. A piece that has entered a headquarters never moves again.
• You may not move into a camp occupied by an enemy, because pieces in camps cannot be attacked. You may move into an empty camp.

Combat

Moving onto a space occupied by an enemy piece is an attack. Both pieces are compared and the result is resolved in this order:

1. If either piece is a bomb, both are removed.
2. If the defender is the flag, the attacker captures it and the game ends.
3. If the defender is a landmine: an attacking Engineer removes the landmine and survives. Any other attacker is removed together with the landmine.
4. Otherwise the higher rank survives and the lower rank is removed. If the ranks are equal, both are removed.

Only the attacking piece moves. A defending piece in a camp cannot be attacked. Both players see which pieces survive or are removed, but enemy ranks remain hidden until the game ends. Use movement and combat outcomes to narrow down their identities.

Draws

Junqi has no stalemate by repetition, so Hidden Front uses two draw rules.

• 100 quiet moves. If 100 consecutive moves pass without a single fight, counting both players' moves together, the game is drawn. A turn lost to the clock counts as a move. If the 100th move leaves the opponent with no legal move, the win is awarded instead of the draw.
• Agreed draw. Either player may offer a draw at any time, on their turn or not. If the opponent accepts, the game is drawn. If they decline, or simply finish their own turn without answering, the offer lapses. The same player must wait ten moves before offering again.

The clock in online games

Online games are timed by the server, so neither player's device can bend the clock.

• Placement: once both seats are filled, both players have 90 seconds to confirm a layout. A connected player who has not confirmed starts with a random layout. A player who has left without confirming loses their seat, and the remaining player waits for a new opponent.
• Each move: 30 seconds. If the clock runs out, the turn passes to the opponent. A player's third timeout in one game is a forfeit. If the opponent would have no legal move after a timeout, the player who timed out wins, since the opponent is immobilised.
• Disconnection: a player who loses connection during a game has 60 seconds to return, and their move clock keeps running while they are away. After 60 seconds the game is lost.

Games against the computer and games with a friend over an invite link use the same rules but are more relaxed about time.

Variations you may know

Rule sets differ from family to family and from site to site. The common points of variation are whether pieces in headquarters may move, how many landmines and bombs each side has, whether a bomb may start in the front row, whether railways run through camps, and how draws are handled. The history article describes the main variants and how Hidden Front's rules compare.