Stratego ( ) is a chess-like strategy board wargame for two players on a board of 10×10 squares. Each player controls an army of 40 pieces representing individual officer and soldier ranks through a numbering scheme. The pieces have Napoleonic insignia. The objective of the game is to either find and capture the opponent's Flag or to capture all movable enemy pieces so that the opponent cannot make any further moves. Stratego has simple rules but a depth of strategy.
The game is a slightly modified copy of an early 20th century French game named L'Attaque ('The Attack), and has been in production in Europe since World War II and the United States since 1961. There are now two- and four-player versions, versions with 10, 30 or 40 pieces per player, and boards with smaller sizes (number of spaces). There are also variant pieces and different .
The International Stratego Federation, the game's governing body, sponsors an annual Stratego World Championship.
Name and trademark Stratego is from the French or Greek strategos (var. strategus) for leader of an ancient (especially Greek) army:Webster's Third New International Dictionary, strategus or strategos:1 first general.Oxford English Dictionary, strategus or stragegos, source footnote
The name Stratego was first registered in 1942 in the Netherlands. The United States trademark was filed in 1958 and registered in 1960 to Jacques Johan Mogendorff and is presently owned by Jumbo Games as successors to Hausemann and Hotte, headquartered in the Netherlands. It has been licensed to manufacturers such as Milton Bradley, Hasbro and others, as well as retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Target stores, etc.
The contents of the game A B C D E F G H I J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This description is of the original and classic games; many variant shapes and colors of pieces and boards have been produced in the decades since.
The game box contents are a set of 40 gold-embossed red playing pieces, a set of silver-embossed blue playing pieces, and a folding rectangular cardboard playing board imprinted with a 10×10 grid of spaces. The early sets featured painted wood pieces, later sets colored plastic. The pieces are small and roughly rectangular, tall and wide, and unweighted.Milton Bradley 1961 edition (wooden pieces) and Milton Bradley 1967 edition (plastic pieces) More modern versions first introduced in Europe have cylindrical castle-shaped pieces. Some versions have a cardboard privacy screen to assist setup. A few versions have wooden boxes or boards.
Setup Typically, color is chosen by lot: one player uses red pieces, and the other uses blue pieces. Before the start of the game, players arrange their 40 pieces in a 4×10 configuration at either end of the board. The ranks are printed on one side only and placed so that the players cannot identify the opponent's pieces. Players may not place pieces in the lakes or the 12 squares in the center of the board. Such pre-play distinguishes the fundamental strategy of particular players and influences the outcome of the game.
Gameplay
Players alternate moving; red moves first. The right to move first does not significantly affect game play (unlike chess). Each player moves one piece per turn. A player must move a piece in their turn; one cannot skip a turn.
Two zones in the middle of the board, each 2×2, cannot be entered by either player's pieces at any time. They are shown as lakes on the battlefield and serve as choke points to make frontal assaults less direct.
The game can be won by capturing the opponent's Flag or all of their moveable pieces. It is possible to have ranked pieces that are not moveable because they are trapped behind bombs. In unusual cases, it is possible to draw, for example, when both players' flags are protected by bombs and each player has one remaining piece which is not a miner.
The average game has 381 moves. The number of legal positions is 10115. The number of possible games is 10535. Stratego has many more moves and possible board states than other familiar games such as chess and backgammon; however, unlike those games where a single bad move at any point may result in loss of the game, most moves in Stratego are inconsequential as players think in "games not moves".
Rules of movement
All movable pieces, with the exception of the Scout, may move only one step to any adjacent space vertically or horizontally (but not diagonally). A piece may not move onto a space occupied by a like-color piece. Bomb and Flag pieces are not moveable. The Scout may move any number of spaces in a straight line (such as the rook in chess). In the older versions of Stratego the Scout could not move and strike in the same turn; in newer versions this was allowed. Even before that, sanctioned play usually amended the original Scout movement to allow moving and striking in the same turn because it facilitates gameplay.
No piece can move back and forth between the same two spaces for more than three consecutive turns (two square rule). Nor can a piece endlessly chase an opposing piece it has no hope of attacking (more square rule).
When a player wants to attack, they "strike" by touching an opposing piece with their piece or by moving it onto the square the opposing piece occupies. Both players then reveal their piece's rank; the weaker piece (see exceptions below) is removed from the board. If the engaging pieces are of equal rank, both are removed. A piece may not move onto a square already occupied unless it attacks. The original rules also contained a provision that following a strike, the winning piece immediately occupies the space vacated by the losing piece.
Two pieces have special attack powers. One special piece is the Bomb which only Miners can defuse. It immediately eliminates any other piece striking it without being destroyed itself. Each player also has one Spy, which succeeds only if it attacks the Marshal or the Flag. If the Spy attacks any other piece, or is attacked by any piece (including the Marshal), the Spy is defeated.
Recording the game Competitive play does not include recording the game, unlike chess. The game is fast-paced, no standard notation exists, and players keep their initial setups secret, so recording games is impractical.
However, digital interfaces such as web-based gaming interfaces may have a facility for recording, replaying and downloading the game. Those interfaces use an algebraic-style notation that numbers the rows ('ranks') 1 to 10 from bottom to top and the columns ('files') A to J from left to right. Alternately, a few interfaces designate the files as A to K, omitting 'I'. Moves are recorded as source square followed by destination square separated by a "-" (move) or "x" (strike). Revealed pieces on strikes precede the square designation, and may be by either rank name or rank number for brevity, for example "major B2xcaptain B3". The bottom half of the board is by default considered to be the 'red' side, and the top half the 'blue' side.
Strategy Unlike chess, Stratego is a game of imperfect information. In addition to calculated sequences of moves, this gives rise to aspects of battle psychology such as concealment, bluffing, lying in wait and guessing.
There are also strategic and tactical elements in the initial setup of the pieces. Stylistic preferences ("aggressive" vs "defensive") also enter into setup.
Pieces
Classic pieces
There are seven immobile pieces – six Bombs and one Flag – and 33 mobile pieces per player. They can move to the adjacent square in horizontal or vertical direction, with exception of the Scout, which moves any distance. From highest rank to lowest the pieces are: {| class="wikitable" |- ! US / EU Rank || "Classic" US Rank || Piece || Count per player || Special properties |- | B || B || Bomb || 6 || Immovable; any piece attacking a Bomb is removed from the game, unless the attacking piece was a Miner |- | 10 || 1 || Marshal || 1 || Most powerful piece, but vulnerable to capture by an attacking Spy |- | 9 || 2 || General || 1 || |- | 8 || 3 || Colonel || 2 || |- | 7 || 4 || Major || 3 || |- | 6 || 5 || Captain || 4 || |- | 5 || 6 || Lieutenant || 4 || |- | 4 || 7 || Sergeant || 4 || |- | 3 || 8 || Miner || 5 || Can defuse (i. e. capture) Bombs |- | 2 || 9 || Scout || 8 || Can move any distance in a horizontal or vertical straight line without leaping over pieces or lakes; originally unable to move and attack in the same turn, later changed to allow movement and attack. |- | 1 || S || Spy || 1 || Weakest piece, captured by any other attacking piece, but an attacking Spy can capture the Marshal |- | F || F || Flag || 1 || Immovable; capturing the opponent's Flag wins the game |} The higher ranked piece always captures the lower, except when stated otherwise. When a piece attacks another piece with equal rank, both are removed.
In the original versions published in the United States, the ranks were numbered with the most powerful Marshal piece ranked at 1, then numbers ascending as power fell until Scout was 9, and the Spy was not numbered but designated S. In 2000, this was inverted, with the Marshal ranked as 10, descending to 2 for the Scout, and the Spy ranked with number 1. "Classic" versions have been released since then with the lower number strongest, as in prior versions of the game.
Variant pieces
Variant versions of the game have a few different pieces with different rules of movement, such as the Cannon, Archer (possibly a different name for the Cannon), Spotter, Infiltrator, Corporal and Cavalry Captain. In one version, mobile pieces are allowed to "carry" the Flag. In some variants such as Stratego Waterloo and Fire and Ice Stratego, all or most of the pieces have substantially different moves.
History
Japanese Military Chess
Japanese Military Chess (Gunjin Shogi) has been sold and played since as early as 1895, although it is not known by whom and when it was invented. Dr. Christian Junghans reported this game in Monatshefte magazine in Germany in 1905. It seems, only after reading his article, Julie Berg took out a patent on a war game in London and Paris in 1907. Similarly, Hermance Edan took a patent for L'attaque game in 1909 and sold them in 1910.
The main differences between Gunjin Shogi and Stratego are: Gunjin Shogi needs a referee to resolve the battles of the pieces, which are kept face-down throughout the game. The Flag is placed only on the headquarters and a player who successfully occupied the headquarters of the opponent shall win the game. There are no Scout pieces. The Engineers and Spy have the same movement as the Scouts in Stratego. Only flag and senior officers can occupy the opponent's headquarters. Engineer (analogue of miner) can remove mines and tanks.
There are at least three different versions of Gunjin Shogi, distinguished by the number of pieces controlled by each player as well as the size of the board. The 23- and 31-piece versions are similar, influenced by the technology of World War I, and the 25-piece version is a more recent development, incorporating technologies developed during World War II.
French L'Attaque
+ Jeu de bataille ave pièces mobiles sur damier pieces Rank Piece Qty B mine 4 1 général chef d'armée 1 2 général chef de brigade 1 3 colonel 2 4 commandant 2 5 capitain 4 6 lieutenant 4 7 sergent 4 8 sapeur 4 9 éclaireur 8 S espion 1 F le drapeau 1 In nearly its present form Stratego appeared in France from La Samaritaine in 1910, and then in Britain before World War I, as a game called L'Attaque. Historian and game collector Thierry Depaulis writes: