A game of hidden ranks and daring captures. Outflank the enemy. Take the flag.
A beginner's strategy guide — read it in three minutes, then try every idea free.
Send two or three Scouts (9) up the flanks in the first few turns. Scouts are your cheapest, fastest pieces — they travel any distance in a straight line — so losing one costs you almost nothing, and every enemy piece they bump into is a piece you now know about.
The idea: information is the opening currency. Until you know where the enemy's heavies (1, 2, 3) and bombs sit, every attack you make is a guess. A scout screen turns guesses into knowledge, and knowledge tells you where your real attack should go.
Once your scouts have found a suspicious clump of unmoving enemy pieces, send a Miner (8) at it. Miners defuse bombs, and at rank 8 they're strong enough to survive most of what isn't a bomb or a heavy.
The idea: never lead with your heavies. Your 1, 2, and 3 are irreplaceable — if a Marshal (1) dies on a bomb in turn six, you've lost your best attacker for nothing. Miners are the correct tool for the bomb question, and every bomb they clear is a lane your heavies can safely use later.
Park your flag on the back rank with bombs on two sides of it and a heavy (1, 2, or 3) nearby — but not adjacent, so a single scout can't map the whole castle at once. Keep your other heavies central, where they can answer threats on either flank.
The idea: the opening is about not losing, not about winning. Most beginner games are decided by an early blunder — a flag left in the open, a Marshal traded for a Sergeant. A fog bank gives you a position with no cheap tricks available to the enemy, so the game gets decided by play, not by one mistake.
The Assassin kills any piece it attacks — including the Marshal (1). But any piece at all can kill it, even a lowly Scout. So don't spend it early. Hide it two rows back, let your scouts identify the enemy's heavies, and only then send the Assassin on its one mission.
The idea: the Assassin is a question your opponent can't answer until it's too late. As long as it's hidden, the enemy's Marshal can't safely attack anything near it. The threat is often stronger than the kill — but when a revealed General (2) overextends, take the trade without hesitation.
After scouting both flanks, pile your mid pieces (4–7) onto the weaker one — three or four attackers against one or two defenders. Force trades: when you attack with a 5 and they answer with a 6, you win the exchange, and your next wave is already behind it.
The idea: local superiority beats global strength. You don't need the best army, just the best army on one flank. Keep one heavy in reserve behind the push — when the flank collapses, that reserve turns a small advantage into a run at the flag.
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