Stratego - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stratego is a board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

featuring a 10×10 square board and two players with 40 pieces each. Pieces represent individual officers and soldiers in an army. The objective of the game is to either find and capture the opponent's Flag or to capture so many of the opponent's pieces that he/she cannot make any further moves. Players cannot see the ranks of each other's pieces, so disinformation

Disinformation

Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...

and discovery are important elements of the game.

Gameplay

Typically, one player uses red pieces, and the other uses blue pieces. Pieces are colored on both sides, so players can easily distinguish between their own and their opponent's. Ranks are printed on one side only and placed so that players cannot identify specific opponent's pieces. Each player moves one piece per turn. If a piece is moved onto a square occupied by an opposing piece, their identities are revealed, the weaker piece is removed from the board, and the stronger piece is moved into the place formerly occupied by the weaker piece. If the engaging pieces are of equal rank, they are both removed. Pieces may not move onto a square already occupied by another piece without attacking.

Two zones in the middle of the board, each 2×2, cannot be entered by either player's pieces at any time. They are shown as lakes on the battlefield and serve as choke point

Choke point

In military strategy, a choke point is a geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile or a bridge, or at sea such as a strait which an armed force is forced to pass, sometimes on a substantially narrower front, and therefore greatly decreasing its combat power, in order to reach its...

s to make frontal assaults less direct. The goal is to capture your opponent's flag, make him/her surrender, or capture all your opponent's pieces. The average game has 381 moves. The number of legal positions is 10¹¹⁵. The number of possible games is 10⁵³⁵.

Setup

Players may arrange their 40 pieces in any configuration on a designated 4×10 section of the playing board. Such pre-play distinguishes the fundamental strategy of particular players, and influences the outcome of the game...

Pieces

For most pieces, rank alone determines the outcome, but there are special pieces. The most numerous special piece is the Bomb, which only Miners can defuse and which immediately eliminates any other piece that strikes it, but cannot move. Each team also has one Spy, which wins when it attacks only the Marshal. The Spy loses if it is attacked by any piece, including the Marshal and except for the opposing Spy, in which case both are removed.

Classic version

From highest rank to lowest the pieces are:

Rank #	Piece	Number available	Special Abilities
10 or 1	Marshal	1
9 or 2	General	1
8 or 3	Colonel	2
7 or 4	Major	3
6 or 5	Captain	4
5 or 6	Lieutenant	4
4 or 7	Sergeant	4
3 or 8	Miner	5	Can defuse bombs
2 or 9	Scout	8	Can move any distance in a straight line
1 or S	Spy	1	Can defeat the Marshal
B	Bomb	6	Destroys any piece except Miner, cannot move
F	Flag	1	Wins/loses the game when captured, cannot move

Ice vs Fire

In the new Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...

version, though just a variant and not intended to replace the original game:

Rank #	Piece	Number available	Special Abilities
10	Dragon	1	Can fly in a straight line over occupied squares
9	Mage	1	Can force a piece up to 2 squares away to reveal
8	Knight	2	Can move 2 spaces in a straight line by revealing itself
7	Beast Rider	3	Can move 2 spaces in a straight line by revealing itself
6	Sorceress	2	Can Hypnotize a piece to join you if its a lower level and it's 2 or less squares away
5	Lava beast(red)/Yeti(blue)	2	Can attack all adjacent and diagonal squares
4	Elf	2	Can attack something up to three squares away without risk
3	Dwarf	5	Can take out traps
2	(Wolf)Scout	4	Can move any distance in a straight line
S	Slayer	1	Can defeat the Dragon, but is beaten by all including dragon if is attacked first
T	Trap	6	Destroys any piece except Dwarf, cannot move
F	Flag	1	Wins/loses the game when captured, cannot move

Generalities

There is one Flag piece and six Bombs. The Flag and Bombs are the only pieces that cannot attack another piece due to being unable to move. The Bombs remain on the board even when hit unless by a Miner.

All movable pieces, with the exception of the Scout, may move only one step to any adjacent tile vertically or horizontally. The Scout may move any number of steps vertically or horizontally in a straight line (such as the rook

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

in chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

). In older versions of the game the Scout could only attack pieces if it began its turn adjacent to them. In more recent versions of the game the Scout can move several squares, ending with attacking an enemy piece. No piece can move diagonally, or back and forth between the same two tiles for more than three consecutive turns.

Some versions (primarily newer versions released since 2000) have higher ranks with higher numbers, while others (versions prior to 2000, as well as the Nostalgia version released in 2002) have higher ranks with lower numbers.

Strategy

In contrast to chess

Chess

, Stratego is a game with incomplete information

Perfect information

In game theory, perfect information describes the situation when a player has available the same information to determine all of the possible games as would be available at the end of the game....

. In this respect it resembles somewhat such chess variant

Chess variant

A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...

s as Kriegspiel

Kriegspiel (chess)

Kriegspiel is a chess variant invented by Henry Michael Temple in 1899 and based upon the original Kriegsspiel developed by Georg von Rassewitz in 1812. In this game each player can see their own pieces, but not those of their opponent...

or dark chess

Dark chess

Dark chess is a chess variant with incomplete information, similar to Kriegspiel. It was invented by Jens Bæk Nielsen and Torben Osted in 1989. A player does not see the entire board, only their own pieces , and squares where these pieces could move.- Rules :The goal of this chess variant is not to...

. Collecting the information, planning, and strategic thinking play an important role in Stratego. Psychological

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

aspects are very important too.

Basic strategies

Overall strategy in Stratego involves:

placing one's pieces initially so as to protect the Flag, while possibly misleading the opponent as to where it is
making strong pieces available for attack
identifying patterns in the enemy's movement during game play that give clues as to the distribution of his or her forces
starting with stronger pieces and/or Bombs farther away from the Flag (although this is risky), so as to trick one's opponent into attacking the wrong side of the board

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 Marshal 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). 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 game play, players 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 the Flag.

Flag placement

Since one of the win criteria is to capture the Flag, its placement is vital. It is commonly placed on the back row surrounded by two or three Bombs for protection. Some players will use this generalisation to their advantage and place the Flag somewhere unprotected, for example the Shoreline Bluff (also called "the Lakeside Bluff"), i.e. placing the Flag directly adjacent to one of the lakes where the opponent may not think to look for it.

Inexperienced players may accidentally alert an opponent to the location of their Flag by calling too much attention to it when they initially position their pieces on the board. This is often done by simply placing their Flag down first and then constructing their defenses around it. One counter measure for this is to place all the pieces on the board randomly and then rearrange them into the desired setup. This tactic became obsolete when some newer versions came supplied with a cardboard privacy screen.

Bluffing

Some common bluffs include

A cluster of Bombs set by itself may deceive one's opponent into thinking that the Flag is there when, in fact, it is on the other side of the board.
Charging with a small unit, e.g. a miner, towards a known medium sized unit, e.g. a major, with the view to get past and attack a bomb.
If the opponent's Marshal wins its first battle (and is thus revealed), and a player immediately moves a piece near the back row on the other side, the opponent will probably assume that this piece is the Spy when, in fact, the Spy may be on the other side of the board (and already close to the Marshal). This is a common tactic as it may cause the Marshal to move next to the Spy, thereby allowing the spy to attack first.
One could threaten a known Colonel with an unrevealed Sergeant to convince the opponent to retreat.

Effective scouting

Scouts are very useful towards the end of the game, once the board is more clear. They can be used to identify bombs on the back row, reveal bluffs or even capture the flag. They are most effective when they are moved one space at a time until necessary, as the moment they move multiple spaces, they are identified as a scout.
Since they can move along a whole line, they are also effective for catching a spy daring to take a step into one's territory, even when they are standing on the other side of the board.

Spy strategies

In most games, it is advisable to have the Spy shadow a General or a Colonel. These pieces are normally vulnerable to attack by the opposing Marshal. Keeping a General or Colonel in the same vicinity as the spy allows an effective retreat to where the opponent's Marshal can be ambushed by the Spy.

Spy bluffs are also effective. For example, using a Sergeant to shadow a Colonel might confuse an opponent, and he may be reluctant to have his Marshal attack the Colonel.

Miner strategies

Sophisticated players might identify opposing Bombs, but leave them in place, interfering with the enemy's movement. To do this, it is vital to memorize the location of all the opponent's Bombs as they are identified. By keeping the Miners unmoved in his own territory during the early game, a player can create the Bomb bluff, in which the opposing player may mistake those unmoved Miners for Bombs.

Protecting pieces

One of the most important concepts of Stratego is the incomplete knowledge and misdirection, so the manual recommends taking a piece with one that is not much stronger than it, for example take a Captain with a Major. In the same manner, one strategy is to protect with an "evens and odds" system, where a piece is protected by one two levels stronger than it, an odd piece protecting another odd piece, for example protecting the Captain with a Colonel.

Enforcing an advantage

If a player is lucky enough to have gained an advantage over his opponent, it is worth enforcing that advantage, by trading equal pieces of higher strength. For example, attacking a Major with another Major is much more of a loss for the opponent if he doesn't have any Colonels, Generals or Marshals remaining on the board.

Attacking unknown pieces

A risky strategy, which might be necessary when losing, is to attack unknown, unmoved pieces with a strong piece. This strategy relies on odds, for example if a player attacks an unknown, unmoved piece with a General, it would lose to any of the 6 Bombs, the Marshal or the other General. Mathematically, the odds are 7 in 40, but realistically these can be improved by not attacking pieces likely to be Bombs, or by keeping track of the pieces already identified.

Chinese predecessors

The origins of Stratego can be traced back to traditional Chinese board game "Jungle

Jungle (board game)

Jungle or Dou Shou Qi is a traditional Chinese board game. It is also known as Jungle Chess or Animal Chess. It is a two player, abstract strategy game played on a 7x9 board...

" also known as "Game of the Fighting Animals" (Dou Shou Qi) or "Animal Chess". The game Jungle also has pieces (but of animals rather than soldiers) with different ranks and pieces with higher rank capture the pieces with lower rank. The board, with two lakes in the middle, is also remarkably similar to that in Stratego. The major differences between the two games is that in Jungle, the pieces are not hidden from the opponent, and the initial setup is fixed.

A modern, more elaborate, Chinese game known as Land Battle Chess (Lu Zhan Qi) or Army Chess (Lu Zhan Jun Qi

Luzhanqi

Luzhanqi is a two-player Chinese board game . There is also a version for four players. It bears many similarities to Dou Shou Qi, Game of the Generals and the Western board game Stratego...

) is a descendant of Jungle, and a cousin of Stratego: the initial setup is not fixed, both players keep their pieces hidden from their opponent, and the objective is to capture the enemy's flag. Lu Zhan Jun Qi's basic gameplay is similar, though differences include "missile

Missile

Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...

" pieces and a Chinese Chess-style board layout with the addition of railroads and defensive "camps". A third player is also typically used as a neutral referee to decide battles between pieces without revealing their identities. An expanded version of the Land Battle Chess game also exists, adding naval

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

and aircraft

Air force

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...

pieces and is known as Sea-Land-Air Battle Chess (Hai Lu Kong Zhan Qi). Unlike Stratego and its French precursor, L'Attaque, all of these Chinese games exist in the public domain.

European predecessors

In its present form Stratego appeared in Europe before World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

as a game called L'attaque. Thierry Depaulis writes on "Ed's Stratego Site":

It was in fact designed by a lady, Mademoiselle Hermance Edan, who filed a patent for a 'jeu de bataille avec pièces 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 named "Au Jeu Retrouvé" 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) uniforms, not Napoleonic uniforms.

Classic Stratego

The modern game of Stratego, with its Napoleonic imagery, was originally manufactured in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

by Jumbo, and was licensed by the Milton Bradley Company

Milton Bradley Company

The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...

for American distribution, and first introduced in the United States in 1961 (although it was trademarked in 1960).

Pieces were originally made of printed cardboard. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, painted wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

pieces became standard, but starting in the late 1960s all versions had plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

pieces. The change from wood to plastic was made for economical reasons, as was the case with many products during that period, but with Stratego the change also served a structural function: Unlike the wooden pieces, the plastic pieces were designed with a small base. The wooden pieces had none, often resulting in pieces tipping over. This, of course, was disastrous for that player, since it often immediately revealed the piece's rank, as well as unleashing a potential domino effect

Domino effect

The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence. The term is best known as a mechanical effect, and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes...

by having fallen pieces knock over other pieces. 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

Netherlands

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

and Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, 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 that 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.

Modern Stratego variations

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.

Electronic Stratego was introduced by Milton Bradley in 1982. It has features that make many aspects of the game strikingly different from those of classic Stratego. Each type of playing piece in Electronic Stratego has a unique series of bumps on its bottom that are read by the game's battery-operated touch-sensitive "board". When attacking another piece a player hits his Strike button, presses his own piece and then the piece he is targeting: the game either rewards a successful attack or punishes a failed strike with an appropriate bit of music. In this way the players never know for certain the rank of the piece that wins the attack, only whether the attack wins, fails, or ties (similar to the role of the referee in the Chinese game of Luzhanqi). Instead of choosing to move a piece, a player can opt to "probe" an opposing piece by hitting the Probe button and pressing down on the enemy piece: the game then beeps out a rough approximation of the strength of that piece. There are no bomb pieces: bombs are set using pegs placed on a touch-sensitive "peg board" that is closed from view prior to the start of the game. Hence, it is possible for a player to have his own piece occupying a square with a bomb on it. If an opposing piece lands on the seemingly-empty square, the game plays the sound of an explosion and that piece is removed from play. As in classic Stratego, only a Miner can remove a bomb from play. A player who successfully captures the opposing Flag is rewarded with a triumphant bit of music from the 1812 Overture
1812 Overture
The Year 1812, Festival Overture in E flat major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture or the Overture of 1812 is an overture written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1880 to commemorate Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of...

.

Release versions

Official Modern Version: Redesigned pieces and game art. The pieces now use stickers attached to new "castle-like" plastic pieces. The stickers must be applied by the player after purchase, though the box does not mention any assembly being required. Ranking order is reversed to adopt European play style (higher numbers equals higher rank).
Nostalgia Game Series Edition: Traditional stamped plastic pieces, although the metallic paint is dull and less reflective than some older versions, and the pieces are not engraved as some previous editions were. Wooden box, traditional board and game art.
Library Edition: Hasbro's Library Series puts what appears to be the classic Stratego of the Nostalgia Edition into a compact, book-like design. The box approximates the size of a book and is made to fit in a bookcase in one's library. In this version, the scout may not move and strike in the same turn.
Stratego Onyx: Stratego Onyx is sold exclusively by Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...

. It includes foil stamped wooden game pieces and a raised gameboard with a decorative wooden frame.
Franklin Mint Civil War Collector's Edition: The Franklin Mint created a luxury version of Stratego with a Civil War theme and gold and silver plated pieces. Due to a last-minute licensing problem, the set was never officially released and offered for sale. The only remaining copies are those sent to the company's retail stores for display.
Ultimate Stratego: No longer in production, this version can still be found at some online stores and specialty gaming stores. This version is a variant of traditional Stratego and can accommodate up to 4 players simultaneously. The Ultimate Stratego board game contained four different Stratego versions: "Ultimate Lightning", "Alliance Campaign", "Alliance Lightning" and "Ultimate Campaign".
Stratego CD-ROM: No longer in production, this version can still be found in many online stores. Produced by Hasbro Interactive this game combined Classic and Ultimate Stratego to give a choice of five different versions.

Promotional

Hertog Jan

Hertog Jan is a brewery in the Netherlands. Originally Hertog Jan was a brand only, owned by distributor De Kikvorsch in Deest. Under this brand several types of beer were released, of which the top-fermenting beers were all made at the Arcense Stoombierbrouwerij in Arcen...

, a Dutch brand of beer, released a promotional version of Stratego with variant rules. It includes substantially fewer pieces, including only one Bomb and no Miners. Since each side has only about 18 pieces, the pieces are far more mobile. The scout in this version is allowed to move three squares in any combination of directions (including L-shapes) and there is a new piece called the archer, which is defeated by anything, but can defeat any piece other than the Bomb by shooting it from a two-square distance, in direct orthogonal directions only. If one player is unable to move any more of his pieces, the game results in a tie because neither player's flag was captured.

Commercial

These variants are produced by the company with pop culture themed pieces.

The Lord of the Rings
Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia (film series)
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of English fantasy films from Walden Media that are based on The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of novels written by C. S. Lewis...
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)
Pirates of the Caribbean is a series of fantasy-adventure films directed by Gore Verbinski and Rob Marshall , written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

(2007)
Transformers (2007)
Sharpe's Assault
Richard Sharpe (fictional character)
Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series wherein the eponymous character was played by Sean Bean....
Duel Masters
Duel Masters
is a franchise based on a manga, anime and a trading card game. There is also a video game.-Trading Card Game:The card game originated in Japan, marketed by Takara Tomy. It was produced in English by Wizards of the Coast, who purchased the rights to the name Duel Masters from , which ran a...

Produced by Avalon Hill

Avalon Hill

Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...

Stratego: Legends
Stratego: Legends
Stratego: Legends is a strategy board game created and released by Avalon Hill in 1999, with rules similar to Stratego. Set in a mythical world called "The Shattered Lands", it pits the forces of good against the forces of evil...

(1999)

Produced by USAopoly:

Civil War Stratego (2007)

Competition

Stratego is a very competitive game and this competition has increased over the years. There are now many Stratego competitions held throughout the world.
Competitive Stratego competitions are now held in all 4 versions of the game.
Classic Stratego: Competitions in the original game include the "Classic Stratego World Championships", the "Classic Stratego Olympiad" and several National Championships from various different countries.
Ultimate Lightning Stratego: Competitions in this version include the "Ultimate Lightning World Championships" and the "Ultimate Lightning European Championships".
Duel Stratego: Competitions in this version now include the "Stratego Duel World Championships," which were held for the first time in August 2009 (Sheffield,England).
Stratego Barrage: to force decisions in knock-out stages in tournaments, in 1992 Stratego Barrage was developed by Marc Perriëns and Roel Eefting. In this "Quick-Stratego" a setup can be made in one minute and played in 5 minutes. The eight pieces with which Barrage is played are the Flag, the Marshall, the General, 1 Bomb, 1 Miner, 2 Scouts and the Spy. Since 1992 Dutch Championships and since 2000 World Championships in Barrage have been organised. Dutch Champion 2008 is Roel Eefting, World Champion is Dennis Baas.

1991 First Dutch Championship

In 1991 the first Dutch Stratego Championship was being organised by Johan van der Wielen, Roel Eefting and Marc Perriëns. Over 100 players participated in this event in Nijmegen. Wim Snelleman was the winner. Several Dutch Championships would follow.

1997 First World Championship

In 1997 the first World Stratego Championship was being organised by the ISK-Foundation (the precursor of the Dutch Stratego Union) as part of the first Mind Sports Olympiad

Mind Sports Organisation

The Mind Sports Organisation is an association for promoting mental-skill games including Contract Bridge, Chess, Go, Mastermind, and Scrabble. Since 1997 it has annually organised in England a multi-sport competition, the Mind Sports Olympiad main event.The MSO was founded in conjunction with...

. Peter van Bodegom was the winner.

1997 First Cambodian Championship

In 1997 Cambodia had the scoop to be the first Asian country in which its national Classic Stratego Championship was being organised. Organizer Roel Eefting defeated runner-up Max van Wel.

1998 World Championship

The 1998 World Championships was held in London as part of the second Mind Sports Olympiad

Mind Sports Organisation

and the winner was Luc Adriaansen.

1998 Second Cambodian Championship

In 1998 Roel Eefting surprisingly lost his title to fellow Dutchman Marc Derks, who ironically was invited by him on a journey together through Cambodia.

1999 World Championship

The 1999 World Championships was again held in London as part of the third MSO and the winner was J. Van Geffen.

2007 World Championship

The 2007 World Championship was held in Antwerp, Belgium

Belgium

at the Hotel ter Elst from August 10 through 12th. There were 44 participants, including the first ever player from the United States in the World Championships. It was won by Vincent de Boer.

2007 World Team Cup

The World Team cup is played annually at the World Championships. It is a 4 player event with teams competing for their country.
Holland defeated Germany in the 2007 World Team Cup.

2007 Stratego Olympiad

The 2007 Stratego Olympiad was held as part of the list of events within the Mind Sports Olympics. The 2007 event was held near London, England on 25 and 26 August 2007.
Roel Eefting won both the event and the World Title on Barrage (Quick-Stratego which is played with 8 pieces).

2007 Stratego World Team Championship

The Stratego World Team Championship is held as part of the events at the Mind Sports Olympics. This event is a 3 player event with teams competing for their country.
Great Britain defeated Holland in the 2007 World Team Championships.

2007 Computer Stratego World Championship

StrategoUSA http://www.strategousa.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page conducted the first open tournament ever held for Stratego AI programs during December 2007. Programs played Classic Stratego rules in a round robin

Round-robin tournament

A round-robin tournament is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".-Terminology:...

format. The tournament was a demonstration of state-of-the-art Stratego AI, with the hope it would spur new research into Stratego AI methodology. The winning program was Probe http://www.probe.imersatz.com, which finished with a record of 17–0–3 (W–L–D).

2008 Computer Stratego World Championship

The 2008 tournament was held during December with six programs participating. Once again, StrategoUSA http://www.strategousa.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page hosted the tournament online. Probe http://www.probe.imersatz.com repeated as the champion, with a record of 22–3–0 (W–L–D).

2009 Computer Stratego World Championship

The 2009 tournament was held in December. Once again, StrategoUSA http://www.strategousa.org/wiki/index.php/2009_Computer_Stratego_World_Championship hosted the tournament online. The winner was Master of the Flag II, with a record of 30–3–2 (W–L–D).

2010 Stratego World Championship

The 2010 tournament was held in August, in Maastricht, Netherlands, Pim Neimejer (Netherlands) won the World Championship (overall score). Lady Kathryn Whitehorn (England) won the Women's Stratego World Championship. In team play, The Netherlands National Team won Gold (first), Germany Silver (second), and England Bronze (Third.

2010 Computer Stratego World Championship

The 2010 tournament was held in December. Once again, StrategoUSA hosted the tournament online. The winner was Probe, with a record of 24–3–3 (W–L–D).

External links

International Stratego Federation – ISF, the International Stratego Federation
International Ultimate Lightning Association – Information on Ultimate Lightning Stratego.
Stratego USA – USA Stratego association
British Stratego Association
MyStratego
OnlineStratego

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