Welcome to my Stratego page. I first wrote this for Java about 20 years ago and decided to try and make it better. It does not play a strong game yet but I am getting there. Please send any comments, good or bad, to me here.

This version of the game follows the standard rules of original Stratego, circa 1961. In general, a lowered-numbered piece captures a higher-numbered one. So, a 1 takes a 3, a 4 takes a 5, and so on. If two pieces of the same rank hit they both come off the board (called a "collateral"). Moves are made 1 square at a time and can go up, down, right, or left (no diagonals). A piece may not jump over any piece nor move into a square occupied by a piece of the same color.

There are a few special cases:

• An 8 removes a Bomb. Any other piece hitting a Bomb is destroyed (the Bomb stays).
• The Spy can take only the 1 and only if the Spy strikes first. Any piece can take the Spy (or the Flag).
• The 9 can move more than 1 square at a time, however, it cannot move more than 1 square ("slide") and attack in the same turn.
• The Bombs and the Flag are not movable pieces.

The game is over when either a Flag is captured or a player cannot move when it is his turn. The game can also end in a draw but this is rare in Stratego and the game will not be able to detect it. The computer may attempt to force a draw if it determines it cannot win.

How to install:

• A Java 1.8 environment is required to play this game on your computer. If you don't already have it search for it on the internet and follow the instructions, and be sure to put it on your PATH.
• Create a directory and download the zip file into it, and then unzip it.
• Run "java tego1" to see the Usage text.

How to play my game:

• The game will start up and the computer (Red) will make his move.
• Click once on the Blue piece you want to move and then once on the square you would like to move to.
• If you attempt to make an illegal move, the computer will tell you. Just try again.
• There are currently 20 different Red board setups, picked at random, and 22 Blue setups.
• Pressing F1 will show the keys available in the game.
• Before starting a new game move the .dat files to another directory if you want to save them. The game will handle this in a future version.

Download version 4/26/2026