Spies & Lies is played in 3 rounds. Each round consists of 3 phases:
1. Deployment: each player places one Soldier card from your hand face down below each of your 4 Mission cards. Your soldiers’ ranks (1-10) must always increase from left to right, with the exception of the Sergeant (4) who can be placed in any position (to surprise the enemy and make deduction more difficult).
2. Intelligence: turn over the intel card. Each player must now place an Intel token on each of their Mission cards that corresponds to a Soldier whose rank number is shown on the Intel card, with the exception of the Sergeant.
3. Mission: Use deduction to guess which Soldiers your opponent has send out on the 4 missions. If you correctly identified your opponent’s Soldier, move your Infiltration marker 2 spaces along the numbered track. The Soldier you identified ‘retreats’. If you did not correctly identify your opponent’s Soldier, your Infiltration marker stays put. Instead, your opponent can immediately activate their Soldier’s special ability and earn any Infiltration points or move the Double Agent directly.

As soon as your Infiltration marker reaches 10 on the track, you have successfully infiltrated the enemy and can move the Double Agent towards the enemy flag. The first player to land on the enemy’s flag with the Double Agent wins (or the player who is closest to doing so when the third round ends).