Stratego

Overview

Two players each hide an army of forty pieces and try to capture the enemy flag. You can see where your opponent's pieces are, but never what they are until you attack.

Checked against the English rules of Stratego Original published by PlayMonster, and the International Stratego Federation's Game Rules, which build on Jumbo's Stratego Original rules (2006 version) for tournament play.

1. Setup

The board is 10×10, with two lakes in the middle that no piece may enter or cross.

Players draw lots for colour, because Red always moves first. Each player places forty pieces on the four rows nearest them, with the backs facing the opponent so only they can see the ranks. The two middle rows start empty.

Piece	Number	Count
Marshal	10	1
General	9	1
Colonel	8	2
Major	7	3
Captain	6	4
Lieutenant	5	4
Sergeant	4	4
Miner	3	5
Scout	2	8
Spy	1	1
Bomb	none	6
Flag	none	1

The higher the number, the higher the rank. That is how current editions number the pieces; go by the names and numbers printed on your own set.

2. Movement

On your turn you move one piece: one square forward, backward, left or right. Never diagonally, never onto or over a lake, never onto a square holding your own piece, and no jumping.

Bombs and the Flag never move.

Scouts may move any number of empty squares in a straight line, and may attack at the end of that move. They cannot pass over pieces or lakes.

3. Combat

Move onto an enemy piece to attack: say the rank of your piece, and your opponent says theirs.

• The higher rank wins and the lower is removed. If the attacker wins, it takes the square; if the defender wins, it stays put.
• Equal ranks are both removed.
• You are never obliged to attack.

The exceptions:

Miner defuses Bomb. Any other piece attacking a bomb loses, and the bomb stays. A Miner that attacks a bomb removes it and takes its square.

Spy beats Marshal, but only when the Spy attacks. If the Marshal attacks the Spy, the Spy loses, and any piece that attacks the Spy wins.

Any piece can capture the Flag, including a Scout from a distance.

4. Winning

Capture the flag, or leave your opponent with no piece that can move, for example only bombs and the flag, or bombs blocking their last movable pieces.

5. The two-squares rule

You may not move a piece back and forth between the same two squares more than three times in a row. The player who started moving back and forth must be the first to stop.

You also may not chase an opponent's pieces endlessly. In ISF tournaments this is the more-squares rule: the chasing player may not make a chasing move that recreates a position already seen (ISF 11).

6. Tournament points (ISF)

• Touching your own piece does not oblige you to move it (ISF 7.1).
• If a piece moves more than one square, the opponent may ask to check that it really is a Scout, before making their own move (ISF 7.4).
• Bluffing is allowed, by word or gesture (ISF 16), but naming the wrong rank when attacking is not (ISF 8.5).

Commonly argued

• The Spy only beats the Marshal when the Spy attacks.
• Equal ranks both go. The attacker gains nothing from initiating.
• Only the Miner can defeat a Bomb, and the bomb survives every other attack.
• Bombs and the Flag cannot move, ever.
• No diagonal movement, for any piece.
• Red moves first.