Gameplay
Stratego, as you may have guessed, is a game all about strategy. It’s almost like chess, actually. Each player has 30 game pieces, and all of them have different meanings, but perhaps the most important one is the piece that represents the flag. The object of the game is to steal your opponent’s flag—but the tricky part? You have no idea where it is, and it could be any one of your opponent’s 30 pieces. And it’s probably surrounded by bombs.
The game comes with 60 game pieces: 30 red and 30 blue. Each of the pieces has an illustration visible on one side that designates it as one of 12 possible pieces:
The rest are designated a number, which correlates to how powerful the pieces are:
Except for in the case of a Spy attacking a Marshal, the highest-ranked piece will always win in an attack. So, if a Lieutenant attacks a Major, the Major wins and the Lieutenant is out of the game.
On each player’s turn, they can move one space—backwards, forwards, side-to-side, whatever you choose. If you’d like to move to a square that has an opponent’s piece, you can “attack” that piece, and both players must reveal what their piece is. If the attacker has the higher-ranked piece, they take the place of the lower-ranked piece. If the defender has the higher-ranked piece, they stay where they are and the lower-ranked piece is out. If the pieces are ranked the same, both pieces are out.
To start the game, each player organizes their pieces on the first three rows of the board that are closest to them. You can organize your pieces however you wish—a big strategic element of the game. The red player gets to go first. Whoever gets their opponent’s flag first wins!
History
Stratego is actually a slightly modified version of an early 20th century French game called L’Attaque. People have been playing it in Europe since World War II, but it only arrived in the United States in 1961. Jacques Johan Mogendorff has the trademark in the United States, though it was first registered in 1942 in the Netherlands. There it was owned by Hausemann and Hotte, and over the years it has been licensed to Milton Bradley, Hasbro, Barnes & Noble, and Target, though it is now owned by Jumbo Games.
Variations
There are many, many variations of Stratego. One of them, which actually comes along with many of the classic versions, includes Battle Cards. The original rules still apply, but this variation adds a little more excitement to the game. It comes with 15 different cards: 6 Move cards, 6 Attack cards, and 3 Defense cards.
The game comes with 2 decks of the Battle Cards, one red deck and one blue deck. Each of the decks are shuffled and placed facedown by each player’s side of the board. Each player draws the top three cards at the start of the game. Before the game begins, you have the option to discard all three of your cards, place them at the bottom of your deck, and pick up 3 new cards.
On your turn, you can swap a card, placing a card from your hand at the bottom of your deck and picking up a new one, or you can move or attack and optionally play a card. If you swap a card, it ends your turn and you can’t swap a card on your next turn. After you play a card, it is out of the game and cannot be shuffled back into the deck.
Other variations, including, but not limited to:
Reception & Awards
Stratego is a classic game played all around the world; there’s actually Stratego competitions in many different countries, but the game is particularly popular in the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, and Belgium, where regular world and national championships are organized. The Stratego World Championships have been held every year since 1997, and are sponsored by the International Stratego Federation. Since 1958, over 40 million Stratego games have been sold around the world.
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