Stratego

Stratego: 2 players - Ages 8 plus - About 20 minutes

Game Play: This is a two-player game where you are pitted against your enemy trying to capture his flag. You have pawns ranging in ranks from 1 - 9, bombs (immoveable), and a spy. Each piece moves one square at a time except the Scout (9s) that can move in a straight line any number of spaces. When two pieces attack each other the higher number defeats the lower number and moves into the loser's space. each player also says out loud the number of the pieces involved int he attack. 8s can disarm bombs, and the spy can kill the General (1) if the spy attacks it. The first player to capture the opponents flag wins.

Review: My brother and I decided to raid my parent's game closet and we pulled this old game out. This is the 1970 version and there are much newer versions out there now. The game is a combination of chess and checkers. The pieces move like checkers but the strategy is much deeper as you never know if you're going to attack a bomb or if your opponent has figured out your General (1) and is getting his spy to it.

This game is a classic strategy game and takes more thinking and planning than I had originally expected when my brother pulled this game out. Just because it's old does not mean it is lame. I could play this again many times and not be bored. There are new iterations and themes out now which allows for varying tastes to try the game.

Overall: I recommend this game as a good middle ground between checkers and chess. It has decent replay value and is easy to teach and learn.