How to Play Stratego Game — Rules & Pieces

Last updated: November 2026

This page covers the complete rules used by the Stratego Game you can play on our home page: how the board works, how to place your 40 pieces, how movement and attacks resolve, which pieces beat which, and how a game ends.

The board

The board is a 10x10 grid — 100 squares — divided into your half, your opponent's half, and two neutral zones in the middle. Lakes block movement: there are two 2x2 water squares, and no piece may enter them or jump over them. Your pieces always face you; your opponent's pieces face away, so you see only their backs. That hidden information is the whole game.

Setting up your army

Each side has exactly 40 pieces. Before the first move you place all of them on your own four rows in any arrangement you like. You get:

That adds up to 40. The flag goes on one of your two back rows. Bombs cannot move once placed, so put them where they will actually do damage — usually guarding the flag or a flank you expect an attack on.

Moving

On your turn you move one piece. Most pieces move exactly one square up, down, left or right — no diagonals, no jumping over other pieces. The board's middle region is where the two armies meet, and the lakes force traffic into narrow corridors you can predict.

Two pieces move differently. Scouts can move any number of open squares in a straight line, like a rook in chess — that makes them excellent early probes for finding where the enemy is thin. Bombs never move at all, which means a bomb that ends up on the wrong square is wasted.

Attacking

If you move onto a square occupied by an enemy piece, both are revealed and ranks are compared. The higher rank wins; the loser is removed from the board.

There are three exceptions you must know:

  1. Bombs beat everything that attacks them, whatever its rank — the attacker dies, the bomb stays.
  2. Miners (rank 3) defuse bombs. A miner attacking a bomb wins. Nothing else does.
  3. The Spy kills the Marshal — but only when the spy attacks. If the Marshal attacks the spy, the spy dies.

If two pieces of equal rank meet, both are removed. A piece that attacks the enemy flag wins the game immediately, and the flag never moves.

Winning and losing

You win by capturing the opponent's flag, or when the opponent has no legal move left. That second condition catches people out: if every piece you have left is unable to move, you lose. Keep at least one mobile piece at all times.

The complete ranking chart

Rank Piece Count Notes
10 Marshal 1 Beaten only by the Spy attacking it
9 General 1
8 Colonel 2
7 Major 3
6 Captain 4
5 Lieutenant 4
4 Sergeant 4
3 Miner 5 Defuses bombs
2 Scout 8 Moves any distance in a straight line
1 Spy 1 Kills the Marshal when it attacks
— Bomb 6 Cannot move; beats any attacker
— Flag 1 Cannot move; captured to win

Mistakes that lose games

Leading with your Marshal. It wins every fair fight, so it feels safe, but the moment it takes something valuable the enemy knows exactly where it is — and a spy or a bomb ends it. Hold it back until the endgame.

Putting bombs in the front row. They never move, so a bomb two rows from the enemy is just a slow obstacle. Bombs belong deeper, protecting the flag or blocking the lane the enemy will try to run.

Forgetting the scout's range. Scouts move like rooks, which makes them the fastest way to test a whole row. Run one along an edge early and you learn a lot for the price of one piece.

Crowding your own side. Every piece packed behind another cannot reach the board. Leave lanes open so pieces can flow to whichever flank needs them.

Play it now

Head back to the home page and press Start — the game loads in place, right below the button, and you play against the computer. No download and no account. If you want the background on hidden-piece strategy games, see About.