Board and fog
The board and army are the same as Mini Xiangqi. Fog of War then hides the board: you see your own pieces and every point they can reach, and everything else is fog.
The opening position from three angles. Red and Black each see only their own side clearly, while the server holds the true board in the middle. Vision is recomputed after every move, so opening a line or losing a piece immediately changes what each player knows.
You never see enemy pieces outside your vision, whether a fogged point is empty, or the identity of a shrouded blocker.
Winning and draws
Capture the general to win. There is no checkmate and no check warning, so you can move into danger, leave your general exposed, or let the generals face each other across an open file.
There is no stalemate draw: if the side to move has no legal move, it loses. With no check to freeze you, this almost never happens. Draws are judged from the true position, not either player's view: the game draws on threefold repetition, and also after 60 plies (30 moves by each side) without a capture.
Edge cases
Two pieces interact with fog in ways worth seeing up close.
Cannons
A cannon captures by jumping exactly one screen and landing on the first enemy piece beyond it. Under fog the rule is screen shrouded, target revealed: the screen shows as occupied but unidentified, the empty gap behind it stays fogged, and the capturable target is revealed as the enemy piece.
Horses
A horse moves one point orthogonally and then one diagonally outward, and cannot move if the leg point in between is occupied. If a hidden piece blocks the leg, the leg point shows as occupied but unidentified, and the destinations behind it drop out of your view.
A complete game under fog
To see the whole army work under Fog of War, step through a game where Mistboard’s engine, Misty DMX, plays both sides. Each ply is shown three ways: what Red can see, the server’s true board, and what Black can see.
Play status
Dark Mini Xiangqi is open for alpha play. You can play Misty DMX, create an invite, or find an opponent from the homepage play panel by choosing Dark Mini Xiangqi in the Variant row.