Flag picture round: 8 flags your quiz teams won't get in one go

Everyone can do France, Japan and the Stars and Stripes, which is exactly why a flag round shouldn't be built out of them. The fun is in the second tier: flags that look familiar from a news bulletin or a football tournament, where teams end up arguing about whether that's the right shade of green. Here are eight of those, ready to run.

Tap a flag to check the answer, or use the button under the grid to open the whole round in the quiz builder with the answers already filled in.

How to run it

Put the grid up on the screen and give teams three or four minutes. That's longer than it sounds for eight pictures, but flag rounds generate more table debate than almost anything else, and the debate is the point. Eight is a good number because the last one or two are there to separate the strong teams, not to humiliate everyone.

Score one point per flag. For a round like this, where several answers are territories rather than countries, be generous with half points: a team that writes "Denmark" for the sixth flag has clearly recognised something. Say upfront that the answer can be a country, a territory or a historical state, so nobody feels tricked.

If you're using quizquiz.co, the round shows up in presentation mode as a numbered grid, and teams playing on their phones type one answer per number. Marking is then per picture, so you can give partial credit without a calculator.

A few things worth saying when you reveal the answers

Reveal all eight before you start talking, because almost every one has a story worth thirty seconds of a host's time.

The fourth flag is the only national flag in the world that features a modern assault rifle, an AK-47 crossed with a hoe over an open book. It has been that way since independence in 1975, and attempts to redesign it have never quite got through parliament. The BBC has covered the debate more than once.

The fifth is one of the oldest symbols on any flag still in use: the triskelion, three armoured legs joined at the thigh, has been associated with the island since at least the 13th century. The island's motto translates roughly as "whichever way you throw it, it will stand", which is also a decent philosophy for quiz hosting.

The sixth was adopted in 1985 and is unusual among Nordic flags for not using the Nordic cross. The red and white disc is meant to show the sun rising over the ice. It was a close-run thing: the alternative design with a cross lost by a handful of votes.

The seventh belongs to a British Overseas Territory and is one of the few flags anywhere to show a shipwreck. The coat of arms depicts the Sea Venture, which ran aground there in 1609 on its way to Virginia, an event that is thought to have inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest.

The last one is a historical flag rather than a current one. It was taken during a British expedition in 1897 and is held by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It's a hard one for a pub quiz, so count it as the bonus flag and tell teams that before the round starts.

Making it harder or easier

To make it easier, swap in two or three flags everyone will get (Canada, Brazil, South Korea) so each team starts with a few points on the board. Momentum matters in a quiz night.

To make it harder, show only a cropped quarter of each flag. The clue is still there, but teams have to work from colour and a single detail rather than the whole design. Our picture round ideas post has more ways to twist a standard round like this one.

If you want more geography in the same quiz, our capital cities questions pair well with this round, and the country outline picture round is the natural follow-up for the week after.