Ed's Stratego Site - The Stratego Message Board

September, 2001

Hi,

I am 19 and I am from Mexico. I found your page on the Internet yesterday and it's great! Finally, an excellent page about the best board game... STRATEGO !!

I used to play with my friend's copy of Stratego and recently we started playing, the ULTIMATE STRATEGO. We play every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I never get bored.

The intention of this mail, is to ask you permission to use your HISTORY OF STRATEGO sections. Here in my town I have a webpage, and we upload it with photos, jokes, and stuff. I wish to copy your section and translate it to Spanish, so everyone here can understand it. Also, I will mention your page as the one that wrote it and published it.

Please answer and tell me what do you think.

atte.
Antonio San Pedro V.
Tampico, Mexico
StrategoMaster (hehe)

September, 2001

Dear Ed,

Your site would be near perfection if it paid more attention to the early history of Stratego. Very sadly I must say 1961 is not the right date... You should have been born much earlier! ;-)

I picked up this message posted by Steve van Dulken in August, 2001 (Message Board, Part 2):

"I came across your site and was interested in your giving the patent number for Stratego. But 695583 is from 1902 and isn't for a game. I've checked and it is the registered number for the trademark Stratego and not the patent number."

This is absolutely right! But what your correspondent doesn't tell you - although it can easily be checked in the American 'Official Gazette' - is this:

The Stratego trademark was not filed by Milton Bradley but by a Dutch gentleman called Jacques Johan Mogendorff, "of The Hague", on 09-04-1958 (published under #695.583, 'Official Gazette' 01-19-1960.).

Jacques Johan Mogendorff was a Dutchman who claimed he had invented Stratego during W.W.II and published it for the first time in Holland in 1947 (the game was manufactured by Smeets & Schippers, of Weert and Amsterdam). In 1952 Mogendorff sold his rights to the Dutch game company Hausemann & Hötte, better known as Jumbo. He probably kept the American rights for himself since he filed Stratego as a trademark there and sold it afterwards with "his" game to Milton Bradley.

According to the Dutch collector and historian Fred Horn, Mogendorff simply copied during the war a handmade version of L'Attaque, as produced by the English company H.P. Gibson Ltd, a well-known distributor and publisher of board and card games. Gibson has been producing L'Attaque for years (seemingly up to the early 1980s), and the game was very popular in Britain in the 1930s. They probably got it from France a little after W.W.I. Between the wars they also published naval and air variants like Aviation, Dover Patrol, and Tri-Tactics.

As Bruno Faidutti rightly reminds L'Attaque - the ancestor of Stratego - was invented in France. It was in fact designed by a lady, Mademoiselle Hermance Edan, who filed a patent for a "jeu de bataille avec pieces 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 - still to be identified - was selling the game as L'Attaque as early as 1910 (as advertised in a Parisian department store catalogue: see R.C. Bell, 'Games to play', 1988, p. 39). A red army was opposed to a blue one (already!).

Below are two images of the patent itself (just the beginning) and of the drawing that was attached to the patent. As you can see it is extremely similar to Stratego. All basic mechanics and rules are described in the patent.

How the game crossed the Channel is still unclear. Maybe Gibson discovered the game in France during W.W.I and decided to buy the rights for Britain. Research is still going on. I'll let you know.

Best regards,

Thierry Depaulis

October, 2001

This message was sent to me anonymously. I don't usually respond to anonymous letters, but I responded to this one. My comments, as always, are in italics. The subject header was "The setups are bad."

There is only one '9' and most of these (setups) have about four.

My comment: You must be referring to the ranking system of the latest Stratego games. The Stratego games from the '60s, '70's, and '80s (and early '90s, I believe) have many 9's. In these versions, the 9 is the Scout, the lowest-ranked piece. The Marshal is a 1 and is the highest ranked piece. Throughout my entire site, all of my discussions, setups, tips, graphics, alternate ways top play, etc. are based with these old Stratego games in mind. THIS, to us 'old-timers', is the proper way to play.

As it is, I don't recommend the new sets at all. Their quality is horrible.

A second e-mail came immediately after the first. As with the first one, it was not signed. The subject header of this one was "I could"

I could make better setups with my eyes closed.

My comment: As I mentioned, most of the setups from the 1990 Accolade game are indeed absolutely horrible.

October, 2001

Hello,

I know this may seem like a strange question or e-mail, but I was playing chess with my wife the other night - we just started doing this - and I told her that if you think this is fun you should play Stratego. She never heard of it and I said this was a game I played when I was much younger. Anyhow, the last time I think I played this was in the '60s. So, my questions:

1) Is the original Stratego still around?

2) Where can I purchase Stratego, assuming they still make it.

Thank you very much for your time.

Joe Boyd,
Mt. Pleasant, SC

As is normally the case, my replies are not usually posted on this board, but I'll say this much publicly - Joe, we should all be so lucky to have a spouse that plays chess and Stratego!

October, 2001

Hello,

Two cheats that used to occur when my brothers and I would play Stratego that still bring a wide smile to my face.

1) Inadvertently, I once asked my brother if his Flag said "standard" on it? I was talking about the board artwork but he quickly glanced toward the hidden location of his Flag on the board. In a split second we both realized what had occurred. From then on the question was asked as part of the initial setup as ritual with good humor!

2) During the course of play we developed a technique that is quite obvious a deception and possibly cheating. When a player nears one of your Bombs, lift the Bomb and act like you are going to attack the adjacent piece but very quickly reset it and declare a new move in some other part of the board. What has occurred is the Bomb is now considered a mobile piece by the other player, and yet you never actually moved it!

These and many other memories came flooding back after viewing your site. Thanks for the fun.

Kenneth Van Pelt

November, 2001

(from rec.games.board)

Ed,

Great website! Stratego was one of my childhood favorites (along with Cadaco's All-Star Baseball).

Everytime I walk down the aisles of a toy/game store and look upon stacks and stacks of "themed" Monopoly games I wonder why there were never any themed Stratego sets produced.

As a kid, I made my own themed Stratego games. I would draw tiny pictures on address labels and trim them to fit within the flat faces of the pieces. I made my own "Lord of the Rings", "Star Trek", and "Star Wars" sets.

Did anyone else ever do that? If so, what themes and what characters did you assign to the various pieces?

Tom Perconti

November, 2001

Hi,

In your History Section (part 2), you request information:

"And yet another change to the box artwork. My guess this
artwork and set is circa 1990s. (Can anyone confirm or deny this?)"

I can deny it. It came out a lot earlier.

This is the version that I grew up with. It was released in the UK. I know this because I had a brand new copy given to me somewhere between 1980 and 1983. I can't say any closer than that.

Hope this helps.

Andrew Walford

It does Andrew. Thanks. I've updated the text next to that image to reflect this.

November, 2001

Hi Ed,

I must say that I really like your "Change the Starting Position" rules variation. I think it might be better on this 12x12 board. There would be more symmetry. You'd place 20 pieces in each of the opposite 25 square corners leaving five of these squares empty.

Another new board I'd like to try was a commercial Chess variant known as Choiss. It had interlocking tiles to form a board. Players would alternate placing the tiles to construct the board. I remember reading a review in GAMES Magazine and thinking it would be great to play Stratego on. Never bought the game though (wish I had).

Mike Rowles

November, 2001

Hey, just a quick note... I really like your website - good history on the game since 1961. Have you ever looked into the history prior to 1961? I thought the game originally came from a German company and MB bought the rights to the game. I've even seen the original wooden pieces made prior to 1961 in Germany.

One thing I wanted to share with you was another version of Stratego I designed called Strategia. Very cool. It not only has the Stratego pieces, what they call infantry, but also an attached ocean grid with ships, tanks, artillery, planes, etc. It's unbelievable. When it's set up it really does look like one of those old WWII war-room tables. The strategy is still the same, ie: you have to capture your opponent's Flag... but the ocean grid adds a whole new level of difficulty with aircraft carriers launching and recovering planes, air-to-air dog fights, battle ships and submarines, lakes, islands, tank battles, infantry pieces hiding in tanks. Amazing stuff.

Regards,

Dave O'Brien

With Dave's permission, I've created a page devoted to Strategia here at my site. Click here to see what this interesting game is all about.

November, 2001

Hi Ed,

I saw Dave O'Brien's Strategia game on your site. While it looks impressive, it seems to me that an abstract game with Napoleonic pieces seems out of place when paired with modern ships, armor & aircraft.

But if you wanted to add a naval element to the game without too much complication, MB's Broadside might work. I don't know if your familiar with Broadside. It's one of MB's American Heritage series games based on the War of 1812. I typed up some rules and drew up a mapboard. It hasn't been playtested yet and I almost think the ocean area may have to be a little larger. If you have any ideas or input let me know. Rules are below.

Combined Broadside/Stratego game board - a 28x14 square sea with a standard 10x10 Stratego board as the main island, two 2x4, four 2x3 and four 1x2 islands.

Broadside Components:

Red and Blue Fleets - 10 Ships per side:

2 Ships of the Line
2 Frigates
3 Brigs
3 Cutters

4 Shore Batteries:

2 Hit
2 Miss

6 Buoys:

3 Sink
3 Pass

You¹ll either have to make extra jib sails, shore battery and buoy counters or obtain them from another game. Pretty pricey on eBay & good luck finding one at a garage sale.

Stratego Components:

Red and Blue armies - 40 piece standard Stratego set and 20 piece Marine set (start on islands) consisting of:

1 Marshal
1 General
2 Colonels
2 Majors
2 Captains
2 Lieutenants
2 Sergeants
2 Scouts
1 Spy
2 Miners
2 Bombs
1 Flag

The Marine set should be different from the Standard set. For example, use a 1962 MB plastic set for one and a 1975 MB plastic set for the other.

Combined Rules:

Each player in his turn moves one warship of his color, one piece on the main island, and one piece on any of the smaller islands.

How to win.

You must capture both Flags to win.

Changes to Broadside Rules

1) Movement - Ships of the Line can move up to 3 spaces per move. Frigates, Brigs and Cutters can move up to 4 spaces per move. Only Cutters can move on the lakes or river. Cutters cannot stop on the river. See Changes to Stratego Map below.

2) Naval Combat - When Ships of the Line fire a broadside at a Frigate or Brig remove two sails. Remove one sail when firing a broadside at another Ship of the Line. Remove jib sails last so they can be readily identified as Ships of the Line.

3) Naval Transport - Each ship can transport one officer. A ship must be adjacent to an island or a port to embark or disembark officers. A port is indicated by a 4-pointed white star. Players must expend a land move along with a naval move to embark or disembark. If a ship is sunk while transporting a officer, the officer is also lost.

Changes to Stratego Rules

1) Changes to the Stratego Map. There is a river that links both lakes and the larger ocean.

2) Marines may be setup on any island on the players half of the board. 20 Marines:

1 Marshal
1 General
2 Colonels
2 Majors
2 Captains
2 Lieutenants
2 Sergeants
2 Scouts
1 Spy
2 Miners
2 Bombs
1 Flag

Mike Rowles

November, 2001

Dear Ed:

Thank you for creating such a comprehensive and instructive Stratego website.

For devoted players interested in obtaining Stratego 4, I have discovered a place here in the United States (yes, I really did find it while searching for a cheap source, and no, it's not my own company). The website is

http://www.boardgameworld.com/.

The price I was quoted was $40.00, which is $20.00 less than the next cheapest site (albeit that price was in Canadian dollars at

http://www.jigsawjungle.com/code/games/stratego4.htm).

Also, is there any way I could get a full-size copy of the files containing your hex game boards?

Sincerely,

Eric K. Johnson

December, 2001

Thanks for the info.

My brothers and I had a lot of contentious fun with the game. We have an original 1961 wooden-piece game. Though we haven't played in years, we still have fond memories of the game. The board is cracking along the fold and the box cover has been taped up, but otherwise it is in great shape. The game pieces themselves look brand new.

I didn't know that the wooden pieces were replaced with plastic so soon. Your site answered a lot of my questions. Thanks again. Sorry, I don't have anything to add to your site. My interest is primarily nostalgic. I was surprised a wooden set would only be worth $150 or less.

Nels M. Rurey

January, 2002

Ed,

I'm not even sure why the Stratego board game came to my mind, or why I used it as a search word. I actually had forgotten about it, seeing it's probably been 35 years since I've had a game.

Wow, what memories your photos brought back! Although there is no one around to substantiate this claim, I was the neighborhood champ. We would walk all around the neighborhood with a Stratego set tucked under our arms till we found someone 'available' to play. I remember many a time winning a game from the neighborhood bully, who would (after losing) pick up the board and pieces and throw them all over the place. Thanks for bringing back the memories.

Bob O'

January, 2002

Hello Ed,

I was all excited when I saw my nephew's new Stratego game... until I noticed the different numerical rankings. It was indeed a bummer. Also, if I am not mistaken, in the older versions you couldn't advance multiple spaces and attack with a Scout on the same move. Now you can? Is that right?

This prompted me to dig in the attic for my board (judging by the picture on your site, it is 1975 era). Much to my daughter's horror I am missing a blue Miner. I blacked out a blue Scout and made that a Miner. This arrangement will never do.

Would you mind telling me the best way to get two pieces to replace mine. Do I have to buy a whole set on eBay?

Thanks for your website.

Mark B.

January, 2002

Dear Ed,

Great site!

I've just been discussing the game of Stratego with our youngest boy (15), who is, in his own realm, a skillful game player. Most of the games he plays are either online or on a "gamebox' as I call it. We were actually discussing role-player games which lead to strategy games which lead to RISK and then I finally popped the question, "Have you ever heard to the game Stratego?" to which his reply (predictably) was, "Nope."

Now I must rush over to Grandma's house and search the attic for our old board from the late '60s.

I had no idea a software version of the game even existed, before now. Having perused your history section, I found myself rather surprised by how many of the boxes I actually recognized! Whew, am I really that dated? (Hint - subtract 6 from your birth year.)

BTW, I haven't tried all of the larger view links, since the first one I hit,

http://www.edcollins.com/stratego-accolade-screen.gif

turns up 404. I was in kind of a rush to get through your site (not that it's boring, extremely to the contrary, I love it). This view is of the screenshot for the Accolade version in section 2 of the History of Stratego. Just thought I'd let you know this.

We're going to see if we can't 'mine' some more entertaining hours out of this game. I haven't played myself since the early '80s when my board 'mysteriously' found a new home. Oh, there were suspects, but heck, why spoil the fun.

Yours,

Roy Pierce
Wainwright, Alberta, Canada

Roy,

Thanks for noticing the invalid link. As I mentioned to you, 'images' should be replaced with 'stratego'. It's been corrected. And thanks for your warm comments.

January, 2002

Great site!

I am finding the history fascinating. One detail - I have the 1975 box version without the board change described. My board matches the previous early '70s board. I played with my friend a lot who had the early '70s version and eventually bought my own. I believe the box had just changed when I bought it - I preferred the look on the older box, that's why I remember. So, the board must have changed at some point after that, so there were two boards sold with the same box design.

I am enjoying the game once again as I am teaching my 7 and 10 year old. And I am teaching the kids the old "number" rules - that change of numbers does not appear to have any benefit.

Steve

February, 2002

Hey, great site!

After not playing Stratego for almost 12 years, I've begun playing again!

My friends and I have developed our own board, painted with Stratego emblems, from a 3/4" piece of plywood.

Our variation includes new pieces, similar to the normal figures, which I've printed on paper and glued to the regular pieces.

We have Cannons which can shoot in a straight line and can only be taken out by Miners or other Cannons.

We have a Kamikaze Bomber which is a colored Bomb that is capable of movement and can blow up everything in all surrounding squares.

We have a President who improves the rank, by one level, of anyone fighting next to him. (Fighting to impress the President.)

We use the new, larger, modern pieces with no stickers as Walls which only Cannons, Miners, and Kamikaze's can take out. Note: Captains are capable of jumping these walls.

We have Scout Masters who, when attacking regular Scouts, defeat them in battle.

We each have a Black Flag which is just a useless, unmovable piece but is fun to say, "Flag" when it is touched by opponent and then watch their face lighten up only to then yell, "Black Flag" and see the disappointment.

We also have pieces with Civil War characters and pieces with weapons on them.

Our custom board is large enough to use three sets of pieces but we usually play with just two sets. I am currently working on a new board which includes a bridge with sections that can be blown up. We also have plans for a two-level board with the top level being transparent for air assault units.

Your site has inspired many new ideas for me.

What a great game!

Anonymous

February, 2002

What a great site.

I recently introduced my seven-year-old son to the joys of Stratego; he is in love with the game and a terrific player. However, in order to introduce him to the game I had to first purchase a new set. Imagine my dismay at the piece of junk that today passes for Stratego. Not only have they modified the rules (Scouts can now move multiple squares and attack in one move) but they changed the ranking order. I am totally confused as I myself played for decades when a Marshal was a "1" not a "10". Any idea why they made this change?

Secondly, I want to warn everyone - the new red pieces are "see through." Thus, there is no element of surprise if you have a bright light shining behind you.

What a disappointment. Hasbro really needs to fix this. Obviously, the game is not suitable for the purpose for which it is intended if you can see through the pieces.

The Fluffy Bunny

February, 2002

Hello Ed.

Thank you for your website.

Just in case you haven't heard, Milton Bradley (under Hasbro) is planning the release of Star Wars Stratego later this year. The game will use a few of the new powers from Stratego Legends, but preserve more from the original game - non-random set up, original strength distributions, non-customizable armies, and the original game board (at least in the abstract).

This may not come as welcome news, but your site is wonderfully thorough, and I am sure you will eventually want to add this datum to your history section.

Also, I just thought you should have a link to the fan site for Stratego Legends on your page. The site is called Thunder Point, and is very informative with regards to Stratego Legends. It has downloads for online play. The URL is:

http://www.strategolegends.com

I believe you may not be a fan of this version (it entails the adherence of lots of stickers, for one thing), but it's part of Stratego history and culture now, and the link would fit well. The game also plays very well, despite being quite dissimilar to the parent game. Anyway, Stratego Legends is also on the very fringe of popularity, so there is no danger of the demographic infecting your domain.

Happy Gaming.

Luke

February, 2002

I grew up playing Stratego and back home I have the 1986 version. I am currently attending school and while reminiscing about my youth I got the urge to go out and buy a Stratego board. (I did not want my mom to send me my other one and risk having it damaged.)

You can imagine my disappointment when I returned from the store and opened the box and saw how cheap the construction of the game has become. The board folds into a square and one of the fold lines was ripped, the pieces have to be assembled, the numbering system has been changed, the red pieces are see through if they are backlit...

I felt so disappointed I did not even feel like playing anymore.

The new numbering system is just annoying but thanks to your site I am going to print out the old graphics on label paper and make my own classic pieces.

Shame on MB. I feel bad for the kids who are going to grow up associating this latest version with Stratego. I don't understand how Stratego costs $16.00 and the quality has gone way down while Monopoly is only $10.00, has many more pieces, and has at least maintained some degree of quality.

My disgust over the new Stratego was worth writing this four times.

James

(For unknown reasons, James initially had some problems in sending me this note, which is the reason for his final sentence.)