Stratego

Stratego

Stratego board Stratego board Initial set up of Stratego. This board was made by Milton Bradley with plastic pieces.
Players	2
Setup time	3 to 5 minutes
Playing time	30 to 120 minutes (player dependent)
Chance	none
Age range	8 and up
Skills	strategy

Stratego is a strategic board game featuring a 10 × 10 square board and two players with 40 pieces each. Pieces represent individual officers and soldiers in an army. One player uses red pieces, one player uses blue pieces.

Pieces are colored on both sides, so players can easily distinguish between their own and their opponent's. But the ranks are printed on one side only, and placed so that players cannot identify specific opponent's pieces. Players may arrange their 40 pieces in any configuration on a designated 4 ×10 section of the playing board. Such pre-play distinguishes the fundamental strategy of particular players, and largely influence the outcome of the game.

Two zones in the middle of the board, each 2 × 2, cannot be entered by either player at any time. They are shown as lakes on the battlefield.

Gameplay

Computer software version of Stratego

The object of the game is to find and capture the opponent's Flag, or to capture so many pieces that the opponent cannot move at all.

Each player moves one piece per turn. If a piece is moved onto a square occupied by an opposing piece, their identities are revealed, and the weaker piece is removed from the board. Pieces may not move onto a square already occupied by the same team. Ties result in both pieces being removed.

For most pieces, its rank alone determines the outcome, but there are special pieces: Bombs (which only Miners can defuse and which immediately eliminate any other piece that strikes them, but which cannot move); the Spy (which wins when it attacks the highest-ranked piece, (the Marshal), but loses when attacked by any piece whatever, including the Marshal).

From highest rank to lowest the movable pieces are:

10 or 1 : one Marshal

9 or 2 : one General

8 or 3 : two Colonels

7 or 4 : three Majors

6 or 5 : four Captains

5 or 6 : four Lieutenants

4 or 7 : four Sergeants

3 or 8 : five Miners (the only piece that can defuse Bombs)

2 or 9 : eight Scouts (the only piece capable of moving more than one space)

S : the Spy (can kill the Marshal, but is killed by all others and by the Marshal if it attacks the spy)

There are one Flag piece and six Bombs, typically labeled 'F' and 'B' respectively.

Some versions (primarily newer versions released since 2000) have higher ranks with higher numbers, while others (versions prior to 2000, as well as the Nostalgia version released in 2002) have higher ranks with lower numbers.

All movable pieces may move only one step to any adjacent tile vertically or horizontally. The exception is the Scout, which may move any number of steps vertically or horizontally in a straight line (such as the rook in chess). Additionally, no piece may move diagonally, or back and forth between the same two tiles for three consecutive turns.

The Bombs and the Flag cannot move once placed on the board.

Variants

Hertog Jan, a Dutch brand of beer, released a promotional version of Stratego with variant rules. It includes substantially fewer pieces, including only one Bomb and no Miners. Since each side has only about 18 pieces, the pieces are far more mobile. The scout in this version is allowed to move three squares in any combination of directions (including L-shapes) and there is a new piece called the archer, which is defeated by anything, but can defeat any piece other than the Bomb by shooting it from a two-square distance, in direct orthogonal directions only.

Sabotage is an online variant of Stratego played at ItsYourTurn.com. The most notable differences are the introduction of the Saboteur and the Recon. The Saboteur combines the Spy and Miner giving it the ability to eliminate both the highest piece and Bombs. The Recon replaces the Scout and instead of being able to 'fly' (move several places in one move) it moves like any other piece, but can identify all the opponent pieces on the 8 squares around its own square. Once identified, the opponent pieces remain visible during the rest of the game. The same game is called Espionage on BrainKing.com, where Saboteur is called Sapper and Recon - Spy.

Sabotage has 4 variants. Apart from regular Sabotage where each player moves 2 pieces per move, there are also Mini Sabotage (smaller board, fewer pieces), Sabotage Rush (each player moving 4 pieces per turn), Sabotage Open Rush (without volcanoes, 5 moves per turn), Sabotage MiniRush (small board, no volcanoes, 3 moves per turn). Each variation requiring a different strategy.

Sabotage has its own group of fans joined in the Sabotage League.

History

The origins of Stratego can be traced back to traditional Chinese board game Jungle also known as Game of the Fighting Animals (Dou Shou Qi) or Animal Chess. The game Jungle also has pieces (but of animals rather than soldiers) with different ranks and pieces with higher rank capture the pieces with lower rank. The board, with two lakes in the middle is also remarkably similar to that in Stratego. The major difference between two game is that in Jungle the pieces are not hidden from the opponent and initial setup is fixed.

A modern, more elaborate, Chinese game known as Land Battle Chess (Te Zhi Lu Zhan Qi) or Army Chess (Lu Zhan Jun Qi) is a descendant of Jungle, and a cousin of Stratego - the initial setup is not fixed, one's opponent's pieces are hidden, and the basic gameplay is similar (differences include "missile" pieces and a Chinese Chess style board layout with railroads and defensive "camps"; a third player is also typically used as a neutral referee to decide battles between pieces without revealing their identities). An expanded version of the Land Battle Chess game also exists - this adds naval and aircraft pieces and is known as Sea-Land-Air Battle Chess (Hai Lu Kong Zhan Qi).

In its present form Stratego appeared in Europe before World War I as a game called L'attaque. Thierry Depaulis writes on Ed's Stratego Site [1]:

"It was in fact designed by a lady, Mademoiselle Hermance Edan, who filed a patent for a 'jeu de bataille avec pieces mobiles sur damier' (a battle game with mobile pieces on a gameboard) on 11-26-1908. The patent was released by the French Patent Office in 1909 (patent #396.795). Hermance Edan had given no name to her game but a French manufacturer named "Au Jeu Retrouvé" was selling the game as L'Attaque as early as 1910... "

Depaulis further notes that the 1910 version divided the armies into red and blue colors. The rules of "L'attaque" were basically the same as the game we know as Stratego. It featured standing cardboard rectangular pieces, color printed with soldiers who wore contemporary (to 1900), not Napoleonic uniforms.

The modern game, with its Napoleonic imagery, was originally published in the Netherlands by Jumbo, and was licensed by the Milton Bradley Company for American distribution, and first published in the United States in 1961 (although it was trademarked in 1960). The Jumbo Company continues to release European editions, including a three- and four-player version, and a new Cannon piece (which jumps two squares to capture any piece, but loses to any attack against it). It also included some alternate rules such as Barrage (a quicker two-player game with fewer pieces) and Reserves (reinforcements in the three- and four-player games). The four-player version appeared in America in the 1990s.

Other themed variants appeared first in North America: a Star Wars version, a Lord of the Rings variant, and a "Legends" variant with fantasy pieces arguably inspired by Magic: The Gathering. The Legends variant added more rules and complexity, giving the players choices of pieces with special attributes, collectible "armies" from more than a hundred individual pieces offered in six sets, and varied boards with terrain features.

Pieces were originally made of printed cardboard. After World War II, painted wood pieces became standard, but starting in the late 1960s all versions had plastic pieces. The change from wood to plastic was not made so much for economy, but because the wooden pieces tended to fall over and the plastic pieces could be designed not to. European versions introduced cylindrical castle-shaped pieces that proved to be popular. American variants later introduced new rectangular pieces with a more stable base and colorful stickers, not images directly imprinted on the plastic.

The game is particularly popular in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, where regular national and world championships are organized. The international Stratego scene has, in recent years, been dominated by players from the Netherlands.

European versions of the game show the Marshal rank with the numerically-highest number (10), while American versions give the Marshal the lowest number (1) to show the highest value (i.e. it is the #1 or most powerful tile). Recent American versions of the game which adopted the European system caused considerable complaint among American players who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. This may have been a factor in the release of a "Nostalgic" edition, in a wooden box, reproducing the "classic" edition of the early 1970s.

Electronic Stratego was published by Milton Bradley in 1982. It has features that make many aspects of the game strikingly different from those of classic Stratego. Each type of playing piece in Electronic Stratego has a unique series of bumps on its bottom that are read by the game's battery-operated touch-sensitive "board". When attacking another piece a player hits his Strike button, presses his own piece and then the piece he is targeting: the game either rewards a successful attack or punishes a failed strike with an appropriate bit of music. In this way the players never know for certain the rank of the piece that wins the attack, only whether the attack wins, fails, or ties. Instead of choosing to move a piece, a player can opt to "probe" an opposing piece by hitting the Probe button and pressing down on the enemy piece: the game then beeps out a rough approximation of the strength of that piece. There are no bomb pieces: bombs are set using pegs placed on a touch-sensitive "peg board" that is closed from view prior to the start of the game. Hence, it is possible for a player to have his own piece occupying a square on which a bomb has been placed. If an opposing piece lands on the seemingly-empty square, the game plays the sound of an explosion and that piece is removed from play. As in classic Stratego, only a Miner can remove a bomb from play. A player who successfully captures the opposing Flag is rewarded with a triumphant bit of music from the 1812 Overture.

Strategy

In difference to chess, Stratego is a game with incomplete information. In this respect it resembles somewhat to such chess variants as Kriegspiel or Dark chess. Collecting the information, planning and strategic thinking play an important role in Stratego. Psychological aspects are very important too.

Overall strategy in Stratego involves:

• placing one's pieces initially so as to protect the Flag, while possibly misleading the opponent as to where it is;
• making strong pieces available for attack, and
• identifying patterns in the enemy's movement during gameplay that give clues as to the distribution of his or her forces.

Placing the Spy too far forward, for example, makes it more likely to be captured early on, but placing it too far back may make it inaccessible when the enemy Marshal is identified. Likewise, Miners are weak, but their ability to defuse bombs may be needed early (although some players prefer to leave Bombs "unexploded" as long as possible, particularly if they hamper an opponent's movements). A cluster of Bombs around empty space may deceive one's opponent into thinking that the Flag is there when, in fact, it is on the other side of the board. The placement of "reserve troops" in the rearmost row and deployment of Scouts, which can move in an unimpeded straight line, is also a strategic point.

During gameplay, players must identify Bombs without sacrificing too many troops, determine the probable location of the enemy Flag, and form an attack plan that takes into account the likely ranks of the troops and exact location of the Bombs that usually surround it. Misdirection plays a role, as well. For instance, if the opponent's Marshal wins its first battle (and is thus revealed), and a player immediately moves a piece near the back row on the other side, the opponent will probably assume that this piece is the Spy, when in fact the Spy is on the other side of the board (and already close to the Marshal). Luring the opponent's Marshal next to the Spy so that the Spy can attack first is a common tactic. Likewise, one could move boldly to attack a known Colonel (rank 3) with an unrevealed Captain (rank 5) in order to convince the opponent to retreat.

Off-board

There have been two official releases of a software version of Stratego, both of which played weakly against human opponents.

External links

• International Stratego Foundation - ISF, the International Stratego Foundation
• International Stratego ranking/rating list - the world ranking list of the ISF
• Ed's Stratego Site - Stratego information resource
• Metaforge WebStratego - Compete head-to-head in real time in an online adaptation of Stratego
• Gravon - Stratego online featuring many of the top European players
• Stratega - a computer version of Stratego for Macintosh computers
• Stratego and other Stratego games at BoardGameGeek