Flip First, Claim a Color
Banqi uses the xiangqi army, but every piece starts face-down on a short 8×4 board. You do not pick red or black. The first disc you turn over is yours; the other player takes the opposite color. After that, each turn is a flip or a one-step move. You win by capturing the last enemy piece, or by leaving the opponent with nothing legal to do.
How Banqi Works
The board is eight files by four ranks. All thirty-two pieces start hidden. The first flip assigns that color to the player who turned it. A face-up piece of your color moves one square orthogonally. Captures follow Taiwanese rank: king, advisor, elephant, chariot, horse, cannon, soldier. Equals may take equals. A soldier may take a king; a king may not take a soldier. Face-down discs cannot be captured.
A cannon steps one square when it is not capturing. To capture, it jumps exactly one screen onto an enemy that is already showing, any rank. The AI on this site never peeks at hidden pieces. A player with no legal flip or move loses. After one hundred twenty half-moves without a capture or a flip, this site declares a draw.
Flip Before You Hunt
There are no home camps. The army is mixed across thirty-two squares. Turning discs near the center often gives you a usable piece sooner; discs on the edge can wait and serve as cannon screens. Every flip adds information and also adds something the opponent can capture, so knowing when to stop flipping is part of the game.
Soldiers Take Kings
The king outranks everything except that one reversal. Once your king is showing, any hidden neighbor might be a soldier. Cannons are weak in a face-to-face fight, but a jump over one screen captures any face-up enemy. The screen may be hidden or one of your own pieces. Parking a cannon on a crowded file is usually better than walking it into a duel.
Replay the Flip That Hurt
There are multiple AI levels, and you can sit first or second. Hints help when a surprise disc wrecks a plan; undo lets you try a different square. After the game, the move record is most useful for finding the turn that exposed a king, skipped a capture, or walked a soldier next to the general. The search stays in the browser.
8×4board
32hidden at the start
K→Pseven capture ranks
Wipeoutor no legal move wins
