Stratego Game

Stratego Game is a free browser version of the classic hidden-piece strategy board game. Two armies of forty pieces meet on a 10x10 board, but you can only see your own side: your opponent's pieces show nothing but their backs. You win by capturing the enemy flag, and you lose the moment your own flag falls. No download, no sign-up, no waiting for a second player — start a Stratego Game and the computer takes the other side.

What is Stratego Game?

Stratego Game is a game of bluffing and memory dressed up as a battlefield. Every piece hides a rank, from the lowly Scout up to the Marshal, and every rank has exactly one thing it loses to. A Marshal crushes almost anything it meets — until a Spy walks up and takes it down. Bombs stop everything except a Miner. That single rule set turns each move into a small guess: is that piece in front of my Colonel a Bomb, or a Scout baiting me forward?

This page is an unofficial fan-made Stratego Game built by an independent developer. It follows the traditional rules, but it is not connected to Hasbro or Jumbo, the owners of the Stratego trademark. If you are looking for the physical board game, you are in the wrong place — this is the playable one.

How to play Stratego Game

1. Set up your army. At the start you place your forty pieces on your two back rows. Put the flag somewhere safe — a corner, behind a Bomb, or in the middle to confuse people who expect a corner.
2. Move one piece per turn. Pieces move one square up, down, left or right. They cannot move diagonally, and they cannot jump over another piece.
3. Attack by moving onto a piece. Your piece moves onto the enemy square and the ranks are compared. The higher rank survives. Equal ranks both come off the board.
4. Learn the exceptions. A Miner beats a Bomb. A Spy beats the Marshal, but only when the Spy attacks — if the Marshal attacks the Spy, the Spy dies.
5. Find the flag. The flag cannot move. Take it and the Stratego Game is over in your favour. Lose yours and it is over the other way.

Scouts are the one piece that can move any number of empty squares in a straight line — use them to probe the enemy line without risking anything valuable.

Rank order, strongest to weakest

The whole Stratego Game rests on this table. Print it, memorise it, or keep it open in a second tab while you play.

Five tips for winning more Stratego Game rounds

Bluff with your back rows. A lone piece sitting still in a corner looks exactly like a Flag or a Bomb. If you never move it, your opponent has to spend turns testing it. Two or three such pieces can soak up half their army.

Push Scouts early, then stop. The first ten turns are for information. Send Scouts down open files to find out where the bombs are, then trade them off before they get hunted down.

Keep a Miner near your own flag. Almost every cheap win in Stratego Game comes from a Miner walking through a bomb wall into an undefended flag. Do it to them before they do it to you.

Remember what you learned. Every piece that survives contact with your army has a known rank. Write it down mentally — which file the Marshal came from, where the Bomb that ate your Captain was — and attack the gaps.

Do not trade your Marshal for nothing. The Marshal wins almost every trade, but it is the one piece a Spy can remove for free. Once your Marshal has been seen, expect the Spy to come looking.

Play Stratego Game online, free, on any device

The whole point of a browser Stratego Game is that nothing stands between you and a match. There is no installer, no account, no email confirmation and no app store. Tap Start Game, the board loads in place, and you are placing pieces within a couple of seconds.

The game works with mouse or touch, so it plays the same on a phone, a tablet, a Chromebook or a desktop. Use the Fullscreen button next to the board for a bigger view on small screens, and the Like and Share buttons if you want to pass the game on to someone who will lose to you.

If you want to compare it with the tabletop version, the rules are the traditional ones: forty pieces per side, six Bombs, one Spy, one Flag, and the Marshal at the top of the ladder. What you lose is the plastic and the manual; what you gain is an opponent who is always ready.

Frequently asked questions

Is this Stratego Game free?

Yes. Every match is free, with no download, no account and no payment. There are no locked ranks and no energy timers.

Do I need to download anything to play?

No. The Stratego Game runs inside the page in an embedded frame. Nothing is installed on your device.

Can I play on a phone or tablet?

The game responds to taps as well as clicks, so it plays on phones and tablets. On a narrow screen the board is easier to read in fullscreen mode.

Do I play against the computer or against other people?

Against the computer. You get a single-player match against an AI opponent, which means you never have to wait for someone to join.

Which piece beats which?

The table above is the full order: Marshal 10 down to Spy 1, with the Miner as the only counter to a Bomb and the Spy as the only counter to a Marshal. Equal ranks both die.

Can the Flag move?

No. The Flag stays where you place it, and so do Bombs. Everything else moves one square at a time, except Scouts, which move any distance in a straight line.

Is this the official Stratego game?

No. This is an independent, unofficial fan build of the same classic rules. Stratego is a trademark of Hasbro and Jumbo, and this site is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by them.

What if the board does not load?

Reload the page and press Start Game again. If a blocker is active, allow the embedded frame for this site, or open the game in a new tab from the notice that appears after a few seconds.

Keep going

Read the full how to play guide for setup and piece-by-piece tactics, or find out who runs this site. Questions, bug reports and rule corrections are welcome on the contact page.