Stratego is a game for two players played on a 10x10 board, who have forty pieces each. These pieces represent soldiers, officers and infantry in an army. The object of the game is to capture the opponent player’s Flag, or to capture maximum number of the opponent’s pieces so that your enemy’s army is crippled. Players do not have vital information regarding the ranks of the pieces as the pieces cannot be identified from the front. This hidden play element makes the game challenging, as the players have to discover the identities of the opponent’s army, and employ strategy to keep their own battalion pieces guarded. The game play of Stratego requires tactical skill, and an ability to detect your enemy’s moves before they are made.

Before the game begins, players must choose the colored pieces that will represent a side. Blue pieces represent one player, while red represents the other. While the pieces are colored on both sides, the ranks of the pieces are only printed on one side. This makes it impossible for an opponent player to distinguish the rank of the pieces. Each player can make one move per turn. If a piece moves into a square piece that has one of the pieces belonging to the opponent, then the identities of the pieces are disclosed, and the weaker piece is killed, and taken out from the board. The stronger piece or the higher ranking piece then occupies the square previously occupied by the lower ranking piece that is removed from the board. If it so happens that the two pieces are of equal rank, both are taken out of from the board. Two sections of the board in the middle comprising of 2x2 squares are the lakes on the battlefield, which cannot be entered by any piece. These squares are the choke points on the battleground, making the frontal attacks less direct.

The players’ pieces are arranged by each player on the 4x10 squares on each side of the board, in any order as the player wishes. The arrangement requires some strategic thought on the part of the players, influencing the game during its play. The rank of each piece predicts the outcome of the confrontation with the opponent player’s piece; however, there are certain pieces that fall outside this rule. Such a piece commonly found on both sides is the ‘bomb’, which is diffused only by miner. Other pieces immediately killed that come in contact with the bomb. Each player also has the ‘spy’ which wins the square when it attacks the Marshal, the highest ranking piece. The spy is killed when it is attacked by another piece, including the Marshal and also if it attacks any piece other than the Marshal. If it attacks the opponent’s spy then both the spy pieces are removed from the board. Apart from the army pieces that include one Marshal, one General, two Colonels, three Majors, four Captains, four Lieutenants, four Sergeants, five Miners, eight Scouts, and one Spy, there is one Flag and six Bomb pieces on each side. The Flag and the Bomb pieces cannot attack any other piece as they cannot move.
May 13, 2008, 7:10 pm

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