Rankfall
Play on Rankfall
Stratego Rules
Capture the opposing flag while protecting your own. Both players start with the same pieces, but each player sees only their own ranks during play. Every move changes the board and may give your opponent a clue about what you are moving.
The Objective and Starting Board
The board has ten rows and ten columns. Each player fills the four rows nearest their side with 40 pieces. The two middle rows start without pieces and contain two lakes. Red takes the first turn, then the players alternate.
The flag’s position is secret. Any of your movable pieces can win the game by legally attacking the opposing flag. Set up your army
Legal Moves and Scout Movement
On your turn, choose one movable piece. Most pieces can move one square up, down, left, or right. An empty square is a move. An enemy-occupied square is an attack. You cannot land on a friendly piece, move diagonally, or enter either lake.
A Scout can travel several squares in one straight line if the route is clear. It can stop on an empty square or attack the first enemy piece along that line. Pieces and lake squares block the route. Bombs and Flags stay in their starting squares.
For example, a movable piece on E4 can step to E5 when it is empty. A Scout on C4 cannot travel to C7 because the lake at C5 and C6 blocks the file. Full piece chart
Attacks, Ties, and Special Pieces
When two numbered pieces fight, the higher rank normally wins. If the attacker wins, it takes the defender’s square. If the defender wins, it stays put and the attacker is removed. Equal ranks remove both pieces.
A Miner (3) defeats a Bomb when it attacks. Other attackers lose to the Bomb. A Spy (1) defeats a Marshal (10) when the Spy initiates the attack. If the Marshal attacks first, the Marshal wins instead. Combat examples
The Two-Square Rule
Rankfall limits how often the same piece can move between the same pair of squares on your consecutive turns. Suppose you move one piece A4 → A5, then A5 → A4, then A4 → A5, with your opponent taking a turn between each move. Rankfall blocks the fourth move back to A4. Choose another legal destination or move a different piece.
Winning by Capture or by Blocking Moves
You win immediately when one of your pieces captures the enemy Flag. You also win when the other player starts their turn and cannot make any legal move or attack.
A player can lose with pieces still on the board. For example, a player whose only remaining pieces are a Flag and Bombs has no way to take a turn.
Rankfall and the Tabletop Rules
Rankfall starts with both armies already placed and offers private custom setup before the first move. The browser handles combat and covers the board when it is time to pass the device.
Jumbo’s tabletop quick-start guide also describes a restriction on continuously pursuing another piece without attacking. Rankfall currently enforces the two-square rule described above. A pursuit across several different squares is governed by Rankfall’s ordinary movement rules and its two-square limit. Jumbo’s tabletop quick-start guide