How to Play Army Chess (Junqi), Flip Version
Junqi (军棋, "army chess"), also called Luzhanqi (陆战棋, "land battle chess"), is a Chinese war game where each side has 25 pieces of different ranks. In the classic game each player sets up in secret. In the flip version (翻棋) played here, all 50 pieces start face down, mixed together, and you discover the board as you play.
The board
The board has 5 columns and 12 rows: two halves of six rows with a front line between them.
- Posts are the rectangles where pieces stand.
- Camps (行营) are the circles, five on each half. A piece in a camp can't be attacked. In the flip version the camps start empty.
- Headquarters (大本营) are the two arched posts in the middle of each back row.
- Railways are the thick lines: the second and sixth rows of each half, the two outer columns, and the centre column where it crosses the front line.
- Roads are the thin lines. Camps connect diagonally to the posts around them.
- Between the two halves, only the outer columns and the centre column connect. The other two columns are blocked by mountains.
The pieces
Each colour has 25 pieces. From highest rank to lowest:
| Piece | Count |
|---|---|
| Field Marshal (司令) | 1 |
| General (军长) | 1 |
| Major General (师长) | 2 |
| Brigadier (旅长) | 2 |
| Colonel (团长) | 2 |
| Major (营长) | 2 |
| Captain (连长) | 3 |
| Lieutenant (排长) | 3 |
| Engineer (工兵) | 3 |
| Bomb (炸弹) | 2 |
| Landmine (地雷) | 3 |
| Flag (军旗) | 1 |
A turn
On your turn, do one of these:
- Flip any face-down piece, yours or not (you can't tell until it's turned).
- Move one of your own face-up pieces.
The very first flip of the game decides the colours: the first player plays the colour of the piece they turned over.
Moving
- Along a road: one step to a connected post.
- Along a railway: any distance in a straight line, as long as every post on the way is empty.
- The engineer may turn corners on the railway, going anywhere the railway reaches through empty posts.
- Landmines and the flag never move.
- On kawu a piece may leave a headquarters. (In the classic game a piece in headquarters is stuck; here pieces are dealt there at random, so we let them out.)
Attacking
Move onto a face-up enemy piece to attack it. Pieces in camps can't be attacked.
- The higher rank wins and stays; the lower piece is removed.
- Equal ranks: both are removed.
- A bomb and the piece it meets are both removed, whichever one attacked.
- A landmine destroys any attacker except the engineer (which clears the mine) and the bomb (both removed).
- The flag falls to any attacker.
Winning
- Capture the enemy flag and you win.
- A player who has no legal action on their turn loses.
- If 40 moves go by on each side with no flip and no attack, the game is a draw.
On kawu
Play the computer at three levels (it can't see face-down pieces any more than you can), two players on one device, or online with a friend. Online, the server keeps the face-down pieces hidden from both players.
Frequently asked questions
Who is red and who is blue in flip Junqi?
Nobody knows at the start. The first player flips any piece, and whatever colour it turns out to be is their colour for the rest of the game.
What can capture a landmine?
Only the engineer can clear a landmine and survive. A bomb that hits a landmine destroys both. Any other piece that attacks a landmine is lost.
Can you attack a face-down piece?
No. You can only attack enemy pieces that are face up. A face-down piece has to be flipped first, by either player.
Last updated 2026-10-19