Forty pieces each, set out face down on a field of lakes and open ground. You know where every enemy piece stands and not what any of them is — until one of yours attacks it. Find the flag before they find yours, against Probe, a three-time Computer Stratego World Champion, or against a friend.
10×10The field
40Pieces each
3Probe levels
2Rule sets
25Achievements
Out now — free on iOS and Android, and on the Microsoft Store for Windows
Red and blue, and a white flag neither of them is raising
What it is
A game of logic, deception and memory
The rules fit on a card. The game does not: every match turns on what you can work out about pieces you cannot see, and what you can make the other side believe about yours.
Ranks stay hidden
Both armies start face down. A piece shows its rank only when it attacks or is attacked, and the game counts for you which ranks the other side has lost — but which piece is which, you have to remember.
Probe across the board
The computer opponent is Probe, three times Computer Stratego World Champion. It plays at three strengths, from a forgiving Sergeant to a General that will punish every bluff you run twice.
Your setup, your game
Fortify the flag behind bombs or hide it in plain sight; open fast with scouts or wait behind the lakes. Build your own setups and save them, or start from ones played in competition.
Online, casual or rated
Find a random opponent, or create a room and send the code to a friend. Online games carry an Elo rating, kept separately for the classic game and for Barrage.
One device, two players
Pass and play at a table or on a plane. Between turns the game asks you to hand the device over, so neither of you sees the other’s ranks.
A game in seconds, and finished later
Start a new game straight away with a ready setup, and pause a game against Probe to pick it up again whenever you like.
How a game goes
Set out, advance, attack, and find the flag
Set out your army
Your forty pieces fill the four rows nearest you. Where you put the flag, the bombs and the strong pieces decides what kind of game it will be.
Move one piece a turn
One square forward, back or sideways — never diagonally, and never into the two lakes in the middle of the field. Bombs and the flag never move.
Attack, and both ranks are shown
Move onto an enemy piece to attack it. Both pieces turn over; the lower rank is removed, and equal ranks both go. Now you know something — and so do they.
Capture the flag
The first to take the other’s flag wins. So does the one whose opponent has nothing left that can move.
Your move: red sees its own ranks, and not blue’s
The army
Twelve kinds of piece, and three that break the rules
Rank 1 is the strongest. The number beside each piece is how many of it you have in the classic game.
1
MarshalThe strongest
×1
2
GeneralRank 2
×1
3
ColonelRank 3
×2
4
MajorRank 4
×3
5
CaptainRank 5
×4
6
LieutenantRank 6
×4
7
SergeantRank 7
×4
8
MinerDefuses bombs
×5
9
ScoutRuns any distance
×8
S
SpyTakes the Marshal
×1
BombNever moves
×6
FlagLose it, lose the game
×1
Anything that attacks a bomb is destroyed — except a Miner, which removes it.
Bombs and Miners
A Scout moves any number of empty squares in a straight line, and can attack at the end of the run.
Scouts
The Spy loses to everything — but if it attacks the Marshal, the Marshal is gone.
The Spy
A piece may not shuttle back and forth between the same two squares for more than three turns in a row.
The Two-Squares rule
Barrage keeps eight pieces each: the flag, a Marshal, a General, a Miner, two Scouts, the Spy and one bomb. Fast, open, and all bluff.
Barrage
Ways to play
Against Probe, against a stranger, or across the table
Play against Probe
Three strengths — Sergeant, Major and General — each with its own leaderboard. Probe sets out its own army from a library of setups, so no two games open the same way.
Classic and Barrage
Play online
Tap Random to be matched with anyone, or tick Match Elo rate to meet players near your rating. To play a friend, one of you creates a room and the other joins it with the code.
Elo rated
Pass and play
Two players, one phone or tablet. Each sets out their army in private, and the game tells you when to pass the device.
No connection needed
Tutorial
New to hidden-rank games? A short tutorial teaches the rules before your first game against Probe.
Free
Online, you can say something without typing: a row of emote icons is the only chat there is. A rating counts as ranked once you have played twenty games against at least ten different opponents.
Screens
Made for a phone, and fine on a desk
The board turns itself to fit the screen, portrait or landscape. Tap any screen to see it full size.
Three ways inLate in an online gameSetups from competition playStarting an online gameTwo achievements in one winYour record against Probe
Leaderboard
The best against Probe, live
Each of Probe’s three strengths keeps its own board. Your rating there adds up everything you have done against it:
achievements × 1,000
+ wins × 100
+ bombs defused × 10
+ your winning streak
General Expert
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Player
Rating
Wins
Major Intermediate
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#
Player
Rating
Wins
Sergeant Beginner
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Player
Rating
Wins
The top twenty of each board, read from the same place the game reads them. The online Elo boards, and where you stand on every board, are in the game.
What it costs
Free to play, with a few things to buy once
Every way to play is free on iOS and Android. Purchases are one-time and are kept for good; there is no subscription and nothing that runs out.
Free
The whole game
Probe at all three strengths, online play and pass and play
Classic and Barrage, the tutorial, achievements and leaderboards
Your own custom setups, and games saved to finish later
An advertisement now and then before a game — never during one
One-time purchases
From the store in the game
Super Setups — the collection of setups selected from competition play
Setup slots — room to keep many more setups of your own
Complete game — both of the above, and no advertisements
The Windows version has no advertisements and no store inside it. Purchases are restored on a new device through the store you bought them from. See the privacy policy for exactly what the game collects.
Updates
Still being looked after
2.3.20Oct 2, 2026
Bug fixes.
2.3.0Dec 16, 2025
A new version of the Probe engine, and a much improved online game.
1.0Aug 1, 2019
The first release.
Contact
Get in touch
YellowGames — Heroic Battle is made by one person, and that person reads the mail.
Bugs, ideas, or a move Probe made that you think was illegal — all the same address. Players also meet on the Heroic Battle Discord, and the game has a Send feedback form of its own.
