Stratego game rules
Game board
Stratego game board is 10 by 10 squares representing a battlefield. There are two 2 by 2 areas in the middle called "lakes".
Pieces
Each player has 40 pieces representing an army, which consists of 33 moveable and 7 non-moveable pieces.
Moveable pieces, ranked from high to low, are:
- Marshal: 1 piece
- General: 1 piece
- Colonel: 2 pieces
- Major: 3 pieces
- Captain: 4 pieces
- Lieutenant: 4 pieces
- Sergeant: 4 pieces
- Miner: 5 pieces
- Scout: 8 pieces
- Spy: 1 piece
- Bomb: 6 pieces
- Flag: 1 piece
| Name | Rank (10⊳1) | Rank (1⊳S) | Sample figures | ||
| Marshal | 10 | 1 |  |
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| General | 9 | 2 |  |
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| Colonel | 8 | 3 |  |
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| Major | 7 | 4 |  |
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| Captain | 6 | 5 |  |
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| Lieutenant | 5 | 6 |  |
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| Sergeant | 4 | 7 |  |
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| Miner | 3 | 8 |  |
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| Scout | 2 | 9 |  |
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| Spy | 1 | S |  |
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| Bomb | - | - |  |
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| Flag | - | - |  |
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Preparation or setup phase
Place your pieces in the four back rows corresponding to your side of the board. The two middle rows are left unoccupied at the start of the game. Pieces are not visible for your opponent.
Once both players are ready the game can start.
Gameplay
Players alternate turns. Player 1 (known as "red") moves first; player 2 ("blue") follows.
On your turn you must do one of the following:
- Move one of your pieces; or
- Attack an opponent piece
Moving pieces
- Pieces move one square at a time forward, backward or sideways (never diagonally).
- As an exception, the scout may move any number of unoccupied squares forward, backward or sideways. Moving more than one square will reveal its rank.
- Pieces cannot jump over another piece.
- Pieces cannot move onto a square already occupied by another piece, unless attacking.
- Pieces cannot move onto or through the lakes in the middle of the board.
- Flag and bombs cannot move; they remain in the square they were positioned at initial setup.
- There are additional rules that prevent a piece from performing an otherwise legal move (see below).
Attacking pieces
- You may attack any opponent piece that is adjacent to one of your moveable pieces.
- The scout may attack an opponent piece right after it moved (in the same turn). This means it may attack any piece that is in the same row or column, given that there is no other piece (or lake) between them.
- Attacking and attacked piece ranks are revealed, and one or both pieces are captured (removed from the board).
- If the attacking piece has higher rank, the lower (attacked) piece is captured and the attacking piece occupies its square.
- If the attacking piece has lower rank it is captured (the higher attacked piece stays in its square).
- If both pieces are equal ranks, they are both removed from the board.
- The flag is captured by any attacking piece.
- Any piece will be captured if it attacks a bomb, except for the miner, who has the ability to defuse them (meaning the bomb is captured when attacked by a miner)
- As an special privilege, the spy captures the opponent marshal when attacking it (but the marshal will capture the spy if it attacks first).
Winning the game
The first player to capture the opponent flag wins the game.
If a player cannot move or attack in his/her turn, he/she loses the game. This is possible if all moveable pieces have been captured or they are blocked (by bombs and/or flag).
In the exceptional case that after an attack both pieces are captured and neither player can move any further, the game ends in a draw.
Additional moving rule: three moves on two squares
A piece cannot move back and forth between the same two squares more than three consecutive times (turns). This is regardless of the piece being just moved or also attacking an opponent piece in those squares.
After moving the same piece over the same two squares in three consecutive turns, in his/her next turn the player should move any other piece. If this is not possible, they must surrender and opponent wins the game.
To include the scouts in this rule it is generalized as: a piece cannot cross the same square boundary more than three consecutive times. This means that a scout can move back and forth over the same row (or column) as long as it does not cross a square boundary more than three times.
Additional moving rule: more squares or continuous chasing
It is not allowed to continuously "chase" one or more opponent pieces. Chasing is defined as moving a piece adjacent to an opponent piece ("threatening"), and he/she moving it away in the immediate following turn ("evading").
If a chasing move would lead to a position on the board which has already taken place ("board repetition") this potential move is considered illegal and the player should perform another move.
As an exception, moving a piece back to the square where it was in the immediate preceding turn is always allowed, as long as the two-squares rule is not violated. This is regardless of the piece being in a chasing situation.
For reference, some typical chasing situations are:
- A piece running after another around a lake or around an isolated bomb.
- A piece continuously threatening another (diagonally positioned) by moving within a 2 by 2 area.