Hidden armies · bluff & deduction
The classic game of battlefield deception — take the flag, win the war.
Born in the Netherlands in 1947. Forty pieces per side, identities hidden, armies deployed in secret — your Marshal can be assassinated by a Spy, your Bombs wait for a Miner, and the killing blow sits where your opponent cannot see it. Capture the enemy flag before they take yours.
A compact live-fire exercise: 13 pieces per side, full combat rules. Click a blue piece to move — run into red and battle resolves instantly, and you won't know what hit you until the ranks are revealed. Capture the red flag, or wipe out every movable red piece, to win.
Each army fields 40 pieces. Higher rank wins a fight; equal ranks destroy each other — and four special pieces can flip any outcome. Below is the complete standard lineup (Jumbo / Hasbro classic rules).
| Rank | Power | Count | Special ability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marshal | 10 | 1 | Strongest piece — fears only the Spy |
| General | 9 | 1 | — |
| Colonel | 8 | 2 | — |
| Major | 7 | 3 | — |
| Captain | 6 | 4 | — |
| Lieutenant | 5 | 4 | — |
| Sergeant | 4 | 4 | — |
| Miner | 3 | 5 | Only piece that defuses Bombs |
| Scout | 2 | 8 | Moves any distance in a straight line (no jumping) |
| Spy | S | 1 | Kills the Marshal only when attacking first |
| Bomb | — | 6 | Immovable; destroys every attacker except the Miner |
| Flag | — | 1 | Immovable; lose it and you lose the game |
Screen your back four rows and deploy all 40 pieces however you like. The setup is half the battle.
Move one piece per turn, one square orthogonally (Scouts excepted). No entering lakes, no jumping pieces.
Move onto an enemy piece to fight: both ranks are revealed, the higher rank takes the square, equal ranks trade.
Take the enemy Flag — or leave them with no legal move — to win instantly. Remember every revealed piece: memory is intelligence.
Twin lakes: two 2×2 lakes sit at the center of the battlefield. No piece may enter or cross them, leaving only three lanes. Hold the middle lane and you hold the war.
Rookies die to boldness; veterans win on deployment. Four iron laws bought with a thousand defeats — memorize them before you improvise.
SETUP / DEPLOYMENT
Corner the Flag in your back row and wall it in with Bombs. But don't park all your Miners in the rear — once the enemy starts defusing you'll have no counter. Three or four Bombs on the Flag plus one decoy is the classic build.
RECON / INTELLIGENCE
Open with Scouts and low ranks to probe the enemy line — every fight is intelligence bought with blood. Keep notes: which square ate a high rank? Which pieces never move? A zone that sits still is Bombs and a Flag.
SIEGE / ASSAULT
Miners are your siege hammers: the toughest flag fort falls to a single defusing Miner. Escort them with high ranks and clear the lanes — late in the game one Miner is worth half a Marshal.
BLUFF / DECEPTION
The Spy is the cheapest piece on the board and kills the most expensive one. Creep it forward inside a crowd while your pawns feint elsewhere — the moment the enemy Marshal shows itself, it's already dead.
You learn the rules on a screen; you learn the mind games on a table. Three editions, three ways to play.
$25 – 35
$20 – 50
$15 – 25
* Prices are reference ranges — always check the retailer's live page. Purchase links point to Amazon search results for easy comparison. For deep reviews and worldwide player ratings, see the Stratego entry on BoardGameGeek.