Damage Xiangqi turns Chinese chess into HP combat

Damage Xiangqi launched on Steam on August 21 with a combat-driven reinterpretation of Chinese chess. Ichigeki Games gives every piece health, attack and defense, replaces instant captures with damage and lets players take three actions per turn after Red’s opening move.

Damage Xiangqi: confirmed launch details

An attacked piece may counter, and damage varies within configurable limits. The Cannon still attacks over exactly one screen piece but jumps onto the target’s point after a killing blow. Traditional rules for blocked Horse legs, Elephant eyes, palace movement, river-crossing Soldiers and facing Generals remain available.

What the design asks from players

Health values turn board control into attrition. A piece can absorb an attack and remain useful, but a counterstrike makes every exchange uncertain. Three actions enable sequences that would take several turns in standard xiangqi, so players must calculate an opponent’s entire response rather than only the next move.

Platform and release context

The release supports four CPU strengths and online matches through friend invitations or room codes, including reconnection. Players can adjust damage variance, counter rates, action count and individual piece statistics. It remains a xiangqi variant, so newcomers may still need to learn the underlying movement rules before evaluating the combat layer.

The feature list reflects the developer’s official Steam information available on August 21, 2026. Post-launch patches can change balance, compatibility or content, so the live store page and current build remain the final references.

Source: official Steam store page. The release date, modes and named features in this report come from that primary source; the analysis is our own.

More strategy releases: Provinces, Settler’s Domain and DEFEAT THE GOBLIN KING.