Luzhanqi

Army Chess · Land Battle Chess · 陆战棋 · 军棋

Chinese Army Chess: deploy twenty-five pieces with their ranks hidden, probe the enemy lines, and bluff your way to the opposing flag.

2 players
vs AI or a friend
Works offline
Free

How to play Luzhanqi

Each side deploys twenty-five pieces: officers from Field Marshal down to Engineer, plus bombs, landmines and a flag.
When two pieces meet, the higher rank wins, and equal ranks remove each other.
A bomb destroys whatever it meets, and itself with it.
Landmines and the flag never move. Only an engineer can clear a landmine without being lost.
Railways carry pieces a long way in a straight line, and engineers can turn corners on them. A piece in a camp cannot be attacked.
Capture the enemy flag to win.

Full rules with diagrams ↓

Luzhanqi in Classic Board Games Offline

Three ways to play: Hidden, Open and Flip.
Arrange your own deployment or start from a random setup.
The app settles every battle, so hidden ranks stay hidden with no referee needed.
Eleven more classic board games in the same free app, all playable offline.

Luzhanqi rules in full

The board

Each player has a half of five columns and six rows. Pieces stand on posts joined by roads and railways. Five round camps sit in the middle of each half, and two headquarters in the back row.

① Headquarters. ② Camps. ③ The front: the halves meet at only three crossings, railways on the left and right and a road in the middle; mountains block the other two columns.

Post
Camp: a piece inside cannot be attacked
Headquarters: the flag starts here, and a piece that enters can no longer move
Road: one step at a time
Railway: any distance in a straight line
Mountain: no way through

The pieces

Each side has twenty-five pieces, which fill every post in its half except the five camps.

Piece	Rank	Each side	Notes
Marshal	9	1	When it falls, the position of its side's flag is revealed
General	8	1
Major General	7	2
Brigadier	6	2
Colonel	5	2
Major	4	2
Captain	3	3
Lieutenant	2	3
Engineer	1	3	Clears landmines, and turns corners on the railway
Bomb	–	2	Removes whatever it meets, and itself
Landmine	–	3	Never moves; removes any attacker except an Engineer
Flag	–	1	Never moves; lose it and you lose the game

Deployment

The flag must stand in one of your two headquarters.
Landmines may only go in your back two rows.
Bombs may not go in your front row.
In Hidden and Open games you arrange your own army or start from a random setup. In Flip games all fifty pieces are shuffled face down across both halves.

Moving

On a road a piece moves one step to the next post, including the diagonal roads into and out of camps.
On a railway a piece moves any distance in a straight line, as long as no piece stands in the way. Only the Engineer may turn corners on the railway.
Landmines and the flag never move, and a piece that enters a headquarters stays there for the rest of the game.
A piece may move into an empty camp, and a piece inside a camp cannot be attacked.

Battles

Move onto an enemy piece to attack it. The higher rank wins and stays; equal ranks remove each other.
A bomb and whatever it meets are both removed, whichever side attacked.
An Engineer that attacks a landmine clears it and takes its post. Any other piece that attacks a landmine is removed together with it.
Any piece that reaches the enemy flag captures it and wins the game.

Hidden, Open and Flip

Hidden: you see your own pieces, not your opponent's. A piece that wins a battle is revealed.
Open: both players see every piece.
Flip: every piece starts face down. On your turn, either turn one face-down piece over, which uses the turn, or move one of your own face-up pieces. Face-down pieces cannot be attacked.

Winning and draws

Capture the enemy flag, or leave your opponent with no piece that can move.
The app declares a draw when the same position comes up three times with the same player to move, or both players make forty moves without a battle or a flip.

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Play Luzhanqi for free

On Android phones and tablets, with no internet needed.