Stratego
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Stratego is a strategy board game featuring a 10 x 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 such that players cannot identify specific opponent's pieces. Players may arrange their 40 pieces in any configuration on a designated 4 x 10 section of the playing board. Such pre-play distinguishes the fundamental strategy of particular players, and largely determines the outcome of the game.
Two zones in the middle of the board, each 2 x 2, cannot be entered by either player at any time. They are shown as lakes on the battlefield.
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Gameplay
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. Ties result in both pieces being removed.
From highest rank to lowest the movable pieces are:
- Marshal,
- General,
- Colonel,
- Major,
- Captain,
- Lieutenant,
- Sergeant,
- Miner,
- Scout,
- Spy.
The immovable pieces are the Bomb and the Flag.
The object of the game is to find and capture your opponent's Flag, or to capture so many pieces that your opponent cannot move at all.
For most pieces, its rank alone determines the outcome, but there are special pieces: Bombs (which only Miners can defuse, but which cannot move) and the Spy (which wins an attack against the highest-ranked piece, the Marshal, but loses when attacked by any piece, including the Marshal).
History
Stratego's origins go back to a game called "L'attaque" that appeared in Europe before World War I. Thierry Depaulis writes on Ed's Stratego Site (link below),
"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 - still to be identified - 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, 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, but 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.
Strategy
Some critics consider Stratego to be an inferior game to chess and its variants because the complete disposition of enemy forces is not apparent to either player. Stratego enthusiasts counter that these critics are missing the point: strategies in Stratego are rooted in exploiting the very limits on information about which chessplayers may complain. Few informed chessplayers would complain that Kriegspiel lacks strategic content -- yet Kriegspiel is simply a form of chess involving, like Stratego, tactical or strategic decisions made with limited information.
Overall strategy in Stratego involves 1) placing one's pieces initially so as to protect the Flag, while possibly misleading the opponent as to where it is; 2) making strong pieces available for attack, and 3) 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 Marshall 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, you 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 your opponent's Marshal wins its first battle (and is thus revealed), and you immediately move a piece near the back row on the other side, your 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 your opponent's Marshal next to your Spy so that your 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.
Human Stratego is a variation played by children at summer camps, with 40 or more players on each side. Each person receives a card or tile representing his or her rank and team color, and the teams spread out on either side of a boundary (such as creek or building). Immobile pieces such as bombs and the Flag pick an initial spot and are not supposed to move outside of a 5-foot radius from that spot. Other pieces roam about (singly or in organized squads) and challenge each other verbally. Designated referees (such as the camp counsellors) resolve the challenges without revealing the ranks of the participants to anyone else. When defeated, a "piece" returns to the campfire and toasts some more marshmallows until the game is over.
In the TV series The X-Files, Mulder's sister Samantha was abducted from their home while the siblings were playing Stratego.
External links
- Ed's Stratego Site (http://www.edcollins.com/stratego/) - best resource for Stratego on the Web.
- Metaforge WebStratego (http://www.metaforge.net/webstratego/?Commish/) Metaforge WebStratego - Java applet to play Stratego online.de:Stratego