Hidden Ranks
Hide your ranks. Find the flag.
The classic game of hidden armies: you know your own pieces, and you can only guess at theirs. Bluff, probe, and strike your way across the board to the flag. Here is everything you need to know before you sit down.
- Free practice
- No sign-up
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Join a Game Room
Hidden RanksGot a room code?
- Players
- 2
- You need
- A board, 80 pieces
- Style
- Hidden information
- Goal
- Capture the flag
What is Hidden Ranks?
Two armies. One hidden flag.
Hidden Ranks is played on a 10 by 10 board with two lakes in the middle. Each player has an army of pieces whose ranks only they can see. You move one piece a turn, and when two pieces meet in a strike both ranks are shown and the higher one wins.
The aim is to strike the other player’s flag. Everything else is a way to get there: Scouts that run across the board to find out what a piece is, Bombs that stop a striker cold, a Miner that defuses them, and a Spy that can topple a Marshal if it strikes first.
The practice table
Try itLearn it one strike at a time.
Lay out your own army, then play against a bot that only knows what it has seen, just like you. Tap a piece to see where it can go, and the coach explains what to try.
- Easy, Normal, or Sharp bots. They play fair: they never peek at your pieces.
- Quick game is 8 pieces each. Full game is the classic 40.
- No account, no host, nothing saved.
A little history
A game of secrets, a century old.
Hidden-rank battle games go back to L’Attaque, which Hermance Edan invented in France in 1908 and patented in 1909. It was sold across Europe for decades, and has been reissued, copied and renamed many times since.
Families have played it under many names, with slightly different armies and rules. We teach one Classic version: a 40-piece army, a 10 by 10 board with two lakes, and the rules shown in the box on this page.
Fun facts
- Each army has 40 pieces, and a practice game that runs past the turn limit is called a draw.
- Bombs and the flag never move, so a piece that never moves might be either.
- A strike shows both ranks, to both players. What you learn, they learn too.
Why people love it
Bluff, probe, strike.
You only know half the board.
Every enemy piece is a question until a strike answers it. Choosing what to find out, and when, is the game.
Cheap pieces do the learning.
A Scout costs little, and a strike shows what the other piece is. Send them first.
Everything has a counter.
A Spy for the Marshal, a Miner for the Bomb, a Bomb for everything else. No piece is safe everywhere.
Your plan is hidden too.
A piece that never moves tells the other player something, and so does one that suddenly runs.
How to play
Move. Strike. Take the flag.
Setup
- Players: two: you and a bot. You are gold, at the bottom of the board.
- Armies: forty pieces each in the Full game, or eight each in the Quick game.
- Your setup: place your pieces on your four back rows, ranks hidden from the other player.
- First move: you move first.
Winning
Strike the other player’s flag, or leave them with no piece that can move. If neither happens before the turn limit, the game is a draw.
- 1
Move one piece
One square, up, down, left or right, onto an empty square. Never onto a lake or one of your own pieces.
- 2
Strike by moving onto an enemy
When you step onto an enemy piece, both ranks are shown. The higher rank wins and the other is removed.
- 3
Equal ranks are both removed
If two pieces of the same rank strike, both leave the board.
- 4
The Scout runs
It moves any distance in a straight line through empty squares, and can strike at the end of the line.
- 5
Bombs and Miners
Bombs and the flag never move. A piece that strikes a Bomb is removed, except a Miner, which removes the Bomb.
- 6
The Spy’s one trick
The Spy is the weakest piece, but if it strikes the Marshal it wins. If the Marshal strikes it, the Spy loses.
- 7
No shuttling
A piece may not go back and forth between the same two squares more than three times in a row.
These are our Classic rules, built from the Feral Game Kit's Hidden Ranks definition. They will be shown in every room before the game starts. Printable rules card →
Lessons
Learn it in a few minutes.
6 quick lessons, one idea each. Make the call, see why it works, and move on. Your progress is saved in this browser.
What a strike does
Your Captain (6) strikes a piece you have never seen, and it turns out to be a Major (7). What happens?
Scoring
What a strike does.
Hidden Ranks has no points: the game ends when a flag is struck or a player has no move left. A strike is the only way pieces leave the board, and it always shows both of them.
| When pieces meet | Result | |
|---|---|---|
| A higher rank strikes a lower one | The lower rank is removed | |
| Two equal ranks meet | Both are removed | |
| The Spy strikes the Marshal | The Marshal is removed | |
| The Marshal strikes the Spy | The Spy is removed | |
| Any piece strikes a Bomb | The striker is removed | |
| A Miner strikes a Bomb | The Bomb is removed | |
| You strike the enemy flag | You win |
The ranks, from strongest to weakest: Marshal (10), General (9), Colonel (8), Major (7), Captain (6), Lieutenant (5), Sergeant (4), Miner (3), Scout (2), Spy (S). Bombs (B) and the flag (F) never move.
Strategy
Play it smart. Then play it feral.
Tip 1
Guard the flag, hide the guards.
Put the flag on your back row, with Bombs beside it. A flag with no guards is a flag that falls.
Tip 2
Probe with Scouts.
A Scout that strikes an unknown piece loses little and learns a lot. Do it before a big piece strikes.
Tip 3
Keep the Spy near the Marshal.
The enemy Marshal is the one piece you cannot beat any other way. Keep your Spy close enough to strike it.
Tip 4
Save a Miner for the Bombs.
Pieces that never move might be Bombs. Only a Miner can clear one without being lost.
Tip 5
Watch what you reveal.
A strike shows your piece to the other player too. Don’t strike with your best piece just to find out what something is.
What would you do?
One decision. Every day.
A new Hidden Ranks puzzle every day, the same for everyone. Solve it, then send it to the group chat and see who gets it right.
Want more? See today's puzzles for every game →
Your path to game night
Learn it here. Play it with friends.
Finish the lessons or win a practice game and you're ready to sit down at a real Hidden Ranks table with your people.
The Feral Worlds community
Play-testing Hidden Ranks? Tell us in Discord.
Found a bug, a rule that feels off, or a house rule your family swears by? Our Discord is where we collect play-test feedback, and where game nights are starting to happen.
Glossary
Talk like a regular.
- Rank
- A piece’s strength. A higher rank wins a strike.
- Strike
- Moving onto an enemy piece. Both ranks are shown, and the lower is removed.
- Flag
- The piece you protect and try to capture. It never moves.
- Bomb
- A piece that never moves and removes any striker except a Miner.
- Miner
- The one piece that can defuse a Bomb.
- Scout
- The piece that moves any distance in a straight line.
- Spy
- The weakest piece, which beats the Marshal if it strikes first.
- Marshal
- The strongest piece. Only the Spy, striking, can beat it.
- Lake
- A square that no piece can enter. The board has two groups of four.
The Feral twist
Still under the hat.
Every game can be played Classic. In Feral mode, the host writes the house rules: a smaller army, random setups, whether a Scout may strike after running. We'll show you what Hidden Ranks can do when it's ready.
In the Board Games pack
Hidden Ranks is on the ballot.
Backers vote on which board games join the Board Games pack. Owning the pack means every one that joins is yours too.
$9.95, one time, to host every game in it. Playing is always free. Packs go on sale when the full game launches.
Hidden Ranks is on the ballot
Save me a seat.
Hear when the Kickstarter opens so you can vote Hidden Ranks into the Board Games pack, and when you can host it with friends.