Opening strategies

Good for beginners and counter-attackers.

The setup. Your Privates form a V with its point on the front row, and your top officers sit inside it. Nothing reaches them without going through a Private first.

How it plays. Let the opponent come to you, and let their unknown pieces run into the wall of Privates. Every challenge tells you something:

• Your Private is removed: the attacker is an officer, not a Spy. Send your own Spy, which beats any officer. Your 5-Star works too: only a Spy beats it.
• The attacker is removed: it was a Spy.
• Both are removed: it was a Private.

The Flag. In the back-row corner, behind a Private with a Lieutenant beside it. Guards that cheap don't look like they're guarding anything.

Aggressive control of the board.

The setup. Two lanes, usually the third and seventh files, each with a Private in front of a top General and another Private behind.

How it plays. Push both lead Privates forward together to take ground and test what stands in front of them. Each General follows a square behind its Private, so a Spy coming at it down the lane meets the Private first. Once a lane looks clear of Spies, send the General through to clear out their officers and put them on the back foot. If a Spy does catch a General, the Private behind is right there to take it back.

The Flag. On the side away from your main attack. Here the 5-Star leads on the right and the Flag sits on the left, so the fighting pulls the enemy away from it.

A tactical blitz.

The setup. Your Flag goes in the middle row on one flank, behind Privates and a Sergeant. A General sits in the back-row corner where Flags usually hide, with a Spy and a Private close by.

How it plays. Walk a junior officer (here the 2nd Lieutenant) carefully up the far edge, as if it were your Flag making a run. While the opponent sends Spies and Generals after it, move your real Flag up its own flank behind its escort. Or, if their defence has thinned out, send your 5-Star through the middle.

Reaching the back row. Arrive on a square with no enemy piece beside it and you win at once. If one is beside it, your Flag has to survive their next move.

A Flag run wins against people, on the Ranked ladder, in the Daily Challenge and in the Gauntlet. In Play the AI games only capturing the Flag wins, but the decoy still pulls defenders away from your 5-Star's path.

Probe with junior officers. Send a Sergeant or a Lieutenant into an unknown piece. If your 1st Lieutenant loses, that piece is a Captain or higher, or a Spy. If both go, it was another 1st Lieutenant. It costs you little and tells you a lot.

Bluff. Move a junior piece with the care you'd give a General or your Flag, or march a Sergeant at their front line like a Spy on the hunt.

Remember every challenge. A piece that beat your Captain is a Major or higher, or a Spy. If it then backs away from your Private, suspect the Spy: a General has nothing to fear from a Private.

Want a full setup to start from? Load one of the six formations and rearrange it before you press Ready.