Stratego facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Stratego

A game of Stratego in session
Years active	1946–present
Genre(s)	Board game Strategy game War game
Players	2
Setup time	2 to 10 minutes
Playing time	15 minutes to 2 hours
Random chance	Some
Skill(s) required	Strategy, tactics, memory, bluff

Stratego ( strə-TEE-goh) is a strategy board game for two players on a board of 10×10 squares. Each player controls 40 pieces representing individual officer and soldier ranks in an army. The pieces have Napoleonic insignia. The objective of the game is to find and capture the opponent's Flag, or to capture so many enemy pieces that the opponent cannot make any further moves. Stratego has simple enough rules for young children to play but a depth of strategy that is also appealing to adults. The game is a slightly modified copy of an early 20th century French game named L'Attaque. It has been in production in Europe since World War II and the United States since 1961. There are now two- and four-handed 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 rulesets.

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; first general.

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

The game box contents are a set of 40 gold-embossed red playing pieces, a set of 40 silver-embossed blue playing pieces, a glossy folding 15+1⁄2 in × 18+1⁄2 in (39 cm × 47 cm) rectangular cardboard playing board imprinted with a 10×10 grid of spaces, and instructions printed in English on the underside of the box top. The early sets featured painted wood pieces, later sets colored plastic. The pieces are small and roughly rectangular, 1 in (25 mm) tall and 3⁄4 in (19 mm) wide, and unweighted. 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

Computer software version of Stratego

Players alternate moving; red moves first. Each player moves one piece per turn. A player must move a piece in his turn; there is no "pass" (as in the game of Go).

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 his moveable pieces. It is possible to have ranked pieces that are not moveable because they are trapped behind bombs.

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 substantially greater complexity 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.

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 a piece it has no hope of capturing (more square rule).

When the player wants to attack, they move their piece onto a square occupied by an opposing piece. 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. 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 itself being destroyed. 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. The original rules contained a provision that following a strike, the winning piece immediately occupies the space vacated by the losing piece. This makes sense when the winning piece belongs to the player on move, but no sense when the winning piece belongs to the player not on move. The latter part of the rule has been quietly ignored in most play.

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 over-the-board 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 incomplete 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.

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:

Rank	Piece	No. per player	Special properties
B	Bomb	6	Immovable; is captured by Miner
10/1	Marshal	1	Can be captured by the Spy if the Spy attacks first.
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	moves any distance in a horizontal or vertical straight line, without leaping over pieces/lakes
1/S	Spy	1	Defeats the Marshal, but only if the Spy makes the attack
F	Flag	1	Immovable; capturing the opponent's Flag wins the game

The higher ranked piece always captures the lower, except when stated otherwise.

Some versions (primarily those released since 2000) make 10 (the Marshal) the highest rank with the Spy ranked 1, while others (versions prior to 2000, as well as the Nostalgia version released in 2002) have the Marshal piece ranked at 1 and the Spy designated S. The European version depicts pieces with the lower number to be higher ranked, whereas the American version depicts pieces with the higher number to be higher ranked.

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; these are essentially different games.

Digital Stratego, online gaming and AIs

Accolade first introduced a Microsoft DOS-based Stratego AI in 1990, but it was not even so good as a rank beginner human player, lacking any apparent strategic conception and making many tactical blunders. Modern AIs exist and compete in various tournaments including the Computer Stratego World Championship, but are currently no better than an intermediate level human player.

A digital Stratego CD-ROM was introduced by Hasbro Interactive in 1998 for Windows 95/98. It included all the games of Ultimate Stratego as well as classic Stratego, and was designed to be used over an LAN, modem-to-modem, or over the internet.

In 2013, Jumbo, together with Keesing Games launched stratego.com, which is free to play online with other players. Since its launch, the site has come to have the largest stratego player base.

Related and derivative games

Stratego and its predecessor L'Attaque have spawned several derivative games, notably two 20th century Chinese games, "Game of the fighting animals" (Dou Shou Qi) also known as Jungle or "Animal Chess", and Land Battle Chess (Lu Zhan Qi).

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 differences between the two games is that in Jungle, the pieces are not hidden from the opponent, and the initial setup is fixed. According to historian R.C. Bell, this game is 20th century, and cannot have been a predecessor of L'Attaque or Stratego.

A modern, more elaborate, Chinese game known as Land Battle Chess (Lu Zhan Qi) or Army Chess (Lu Zhan Jun Qi) is a descendant of Jungle, and a cousin of Stratego: It is played on a 5×13 board with two un-occupiable spaces in the middle and each player has 25 playing pieces. The initial setup is not fixed, both players keep their pieces hidden from their opponent, and the objective is to capture the enemy's flag.[2] Lu Zhan Jun Qi's basic gameplay is similar, though differences include "missile" pieces and a xiangqi-style board layout with the addition of 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, adding naval and aircraft pieces and is known as Sea-Land-Air Battle Chess (Hai Lu Kong Zhan Qi).[3]

• Tri-tactics, by Gibson & Sons introduced in the 1950s combining L'Attaque, Dover Patrol and Aviation
• Game of the Generals, a Philippine variety of Stratego introduced in 1973 played on a modified (8×9) chessboard
• battle for the temple, an Israeli game by Isratoys company

A capture the flag game called "Stratego" and loosely based on the board game is played at summer camps. In this game, two teams of thirty to sixty players are assigned ranks by distribution of coloured objects such as pinnies or glowsticks, the colours representing rank, not team. Players can tag and capture lower-ranked opponents, with the exception that the lowest rank captures the highest. Players who do not know their teammates may not be able to tell which team other players are on, creating incomplete information and opportunities for bluffing.

Versions

Stratego Fortress

The game remains in production, with new versions continuing to appear every few years. These are a few of the notable ones. In addition, the first U.S. edition (1961) Milton Bradley set, and a special edition 1963 set called Stratego Fine, had wooden pieces. The 1961 wood pieces had a design that looked like vines scaling a castle wall on the back. But note that later 1961 production featured plastic pieces (not true first editions). All other regular edition sets had plastic pieces. A few special editions as noted below had wooden or metal pieces.

Classic versions

These have 10×10 boards, 40 pieces per side with classic pieces and rules of movement.

Official Modern Version: Also known as Stratego Original. Redesigned pieces and game art. The pieces now use stickers attached to new "castle-like" plastic pieces. The stickers must be applied by the player after purchase, though the box does not mention any assembly being required. Rank numbering is reversed in European style (higher numbers equals higher rank). Comes with an optional alternate piece, the Infiltrator.

Stratego 50th Anniversary 1997 by Spin Master comes in both a book style box and a cookie tin like metal box, with original artwork, pieces and gameplay. Optional Cannons (2 per player) playing pieces.

Nostalgia Game Series Edition: Released 2002. Traditional stamped plastic pieces, although the metallic paint is dull and less reflective than some older versions, and the pieces are not engraved as some previous editions were. Wooden box, traditional board and piece numbering.

Library Edition: Hasbro's Library Series puts what appears to be the classic Stratego of the Nostalgia Edition into a compact, book-like design. The wooden box approximates the size of a book and is made to fit in a bookcase in one's library. In this version, the scout may not move and strike in the same turn.

Michael Graves Design Stratego by Milton Bradley introduced in 2002 and sold exclusively through Target Stores. It features a finished wood box, wooden pedestal board, and closed black and white roughly wedge- shaped plastic pieces. Limited production, no longer available.

Stratego Onyx: Introduced in 2008, Stratego Onyx was sold exclusively by Barnes & Noble. It includes foil stamped wooden game pieces and a raised gameboard with a decorative wooden frame. One-time production, no longer available.

Franklin Mint Civil War Collector's Edition: In the mid-1990s, Franklin Mint created a luxury version of Stratego with a Civil War theme and gold- and silver-plated pieces. Due to a last-minute licensing problem, the set was never officially released and offered for sale. The only remaining copies are those sent to the company's retail stores for display.

Variant versions

These have substantially different configurations and rules.

Ultimate Stratego: No longer in production, this version can still be found at some online stores and specialty gaming stores. This version is a variant of traditional Stratego and can accommodate up to 4 players simultaneously. The Ultimate Stratego board game contained four different Stratego versions: "Ultimate Lightning", "Alliance Campaign", "Alliance Lightning" and "Ultimate Campaign".

Science Fiction Version: Jumbo B.V. / Spin Master version of Stratego, common in North American department stores. The game has a futuristic science fiction theme. Played on a smaller 8×10 board, with 30 pieces per player. Features unique Spotter playing pieces.

Stratego Waterloo: For the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo in June 2015, the Dutch publishing group Jumbo published Stratego Waterloo. Instead of using ranks, the different historical units that had actually fought at the battle were added as Pawns (Old Guard, 95th Rifles...) – each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The Pawns are divided into light infantry, line infantry, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, artillery, commanders and commanders-in-chief (Wellington and Napoleon). Instead of capturing the Flag, the players must get two of their pawns on the lines of communication of their opponent.

Stratego Conquest: 1996, two- to four-handed game played on world map; alternate pieces cannons and cavalry

Stratego Fortress: A 3D version of Stratego featuring a 3-level fortress and mystical themed pieces and maneuvers

Fire and Ice Stratego: The Hasbro version called Fire and Ice Stratego has different pieces and rules of movement. The game features a smaller 8×10 board and each player has 30 magical and mythological themed pieces with special powers.

Promotional

Hertog Jan, a Dutch brand of beer, released Stratego Tournament, 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, or straight, directions only. If one player is unable to move any more of his or her pieces, the game results in a tie because neither player's Flag was captured.

Themed

These variants are produced by the company with pop culture themed pieces.

Produced by Avalon Hill:

• Stratego: Legends (1999)

Produced by USAopoly:

Competition

Stratego is a very competitive game and this competition has increased over the years. There are now many Stratego competitions held throughout the world. The game is particularly popular in the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, and Belgium, where regular world and national championships are organized. The international Stratego scene has, more recently, been dominated by players from the Netherlands. Stratego World Championships have been held since 1997 and continue to be held yearly around August; the latest was 2019.

Competitive Stratego competitions are now held in all four versions of the game:

Classic Stratego

Competitions in the original game include the "Classic Stratego World Championships", the "Classic Stratego Olympiad" and several National Championships from various different countries.

Ultimate Lightning Stratego

In this version of the game, each side has only 20 pieces. A few pieces have variant moves and there are a few rules differences. Games take only a fraction of the time needed for Classic Stratego. Competitions in this version include the "Ultimate Lightning World Championships" and the "Ultimate Lightning European Championships".

Duel Stratego

The version is played with 10 pieces per side on an 8×10 board. Competitions in this version now include the "Stratego Duel World Championships," which were held for the first time in August 2009 (Sheffield, England).

Stratego Barrage

To force decisions in knock-out stages in tournaments, in 1992 Stratego Barrage was developed by Marc Perriëns and Roel Eefting. In this "Quick-Stratego" a setup can be made in one minute and played in 5 minutes. The eight pieces with which Barrage is played are the Flag, the Marshall, the General, 1 Bomb, 1 Miner, 2 Scouts and the Spy. Since 1992 Dutch Championships and since 2000 World Championships in Barrage have been organised. Cambodian Champion is Sor Samedy, Dutch Champion (2014) is Ruben van de Built, World Champion (2013) is Tim Slagboom.

Tournaments

World Championships

Year	Host	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1997	London	Peter van Bodegom	George Franka	Erik van den Berg
1998	London	Luc Adriaansen	Sander Rinzema	Erik van den Berg
1999	London	Johnny van Geffen	René Helmus	George Franka
2000	London	Erik van den Berg	André Pols	Wim Snelleman
2001	Berlin	Erik van den Berg	René Helmus	Vincent de Boer
2002	Rotterdam	Erik van den Berg	Dennis Baas	Wim Snelleman
2003	Vienna	Vincent de Boer	André Pols	Wout Gulden
2004	Antwerp	Vincent de Boer	Erik van den Berg	Luc Adriaansen
2005	not held
2006	Antwerp	Erik van den Berg	Ricardo Kik	Mark Blockhaus
2007	Antwerp	Vincent de Boer	Ralf Sandkuhle	Erik van den Berg
2008	Kyiv	Pim Niemeijer	Tim Slagboom	Vincent de Boer
2009	Gladbeck	Steffen Annies	Tim Slagboom	Pim Niemeijer
2010	Maastricht	Pim Niemeijer	Tim Slagboom	Andreas Bonnermann
2011	North Shields	Richard Ratcliffe	Tim Slagboom	George Franka
2012	Haastrecht	Pim Niemeijer	Richard Ratcliffe	Martin Ehrenberger
2013	Berlin	Tim Slagboom	Steffen Annies	Axel Hangg
2014	Thessaloniki	Tim Slagboom	George Franka	Ruben van de Bilt
2015	Waterloo	Pim Niemeijer	Johnny van Geffen	Vincent de Boer
2016	Rendsburg	Stavros Sekertzis	Tim Slagboom	John Schepers
2017	Marmari	Anjo Travaille	Tim Slagboom	John Vandoros
2018	Naarden	John Vandoros	Vince van Geffen	Sem van Geffen
2019	Sheffield	Tim Slagboom	Pim Niemeijer	Angel Baron
2020	Geraardsbergen
2021	TBA

Other tournaments

• 1991 First Dutch Championship. In 1991 the first Dutch Stratego Championship was being organised by Johan van der Wielen, Roel Eefting and Marc Perriëns. Over 100 players participated in this event in Nijmegen. Wim Snelleman was the winner. Several Dutch Championships would follow.
• 1997 First Cambodian Championship. In 1997 Cambodia had the scoop to be the first Asian country in which its national Classic Stratego Championship was being organised. Organizer Roel Eefting defeated runner-up Max van Wel.
• 1998 Second Cambodian Championship. In 1998 Roel Eefting surprisingly lost his title to fellow Dutchman Marc Nickel (Derks), who ironically was invited by him on a journey together through Cambodia.
• 2007 World Team Cup. The World Team cup is played annually at the World Championships. It is a four player event with teams competing for their country. Holland defeated Germany in the 2007 World Team Cup.
• 2007 Stratego Olympiad. The 2007 Stratego Olympiad was held as part of the list of events within the Mind Sports Olympics. The 2007 event was held near London, England on 25 and 26 August 2007. Roel Eefting won both the event and the World Title on Barrage (Quick-Stratego which is played with 8 pieces).
• 2007 Stratego World Team Championship. The Stratego World Team Championship is held as part of the events at the Mind Sports Olympics. This event is a three player event with teams competing for their country. Great Britain defeated Holland in the 2007 World Team Championships.
• 2007 Computer Stratego World Championship. StrategoUSA conducted the first open tournament ever held for Stratego AI programs during December 2007. Programs played Classic Stratego rules in a round robin format. The tournament was a demonstration of state-of-the-art Stratego AI, with the hope it would spur new research into Stratego AI methodology. The winning program was Probe, which finished with a record of 17–0–3 (W–L–D).
• 2008 Computer Stratego World Championship. The 2008 tournament was held during December with six programs participating. Once again, StrategoUSA hosted the tournament online. Probe repeated as the champion, with a record of 22–3–0 (W–L–D).
• 2009 Computer Stratego World Championship. The 2009 tournament was held in December. Once again, StrategoUSA hosted the tournament online. The winner was Master of the Flag II, with a record of 30–3–2 (W–L–D).
• 2010 Stratego World Championship. The 2010 tournament was held in August, in Maastricht, Netherlands, Pim Neimejer (Netherlands) won the World Championship (overall score). Lady Kathryn Whitehorn (England) won the Women's Stratego World Championship. In team play, The Netherlands National Team won Gold (first), Germany Silver (second), and England Bronze (third).
• 2010 Computer Stratego World Championship. The 2010 tournament was held in December. Once again, StrategoUSA hosted the tournament online. The winner was Probe, with a record of 24–3–3 (W–L–D).

See also

In Spanish: Stratego para niños