History

Origins of the game:

from: Jungle to L'attaque

The origins of Stratego can be traced back to traditional Chinese board game Jungle also known as Game of the Fighting Animals (Dou Shou Qi) or Animal Chess. The game Jungle also has pieces (but of animals rather than soldiers) with different ranks and pieces with higher rank capture the pieces with lower rank. The board, with two lakes in the middle is also remarkably similar to that in Stratego. The major difference between the two games is that in Jungle the pieces are not hidden from the opponent and initial setup is fixed.

from: L'attaque to Classic Stratego

In its present form Stratego appeared in Europe before World War I as a game called L'attaque. Thierry Depaulis writes on Ed's Stratego Site

"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 game board) 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 named "Au Jeu Retrouvé" was selling the game as L'Attaque as early as 1910... "

Depaulis further notes that the 1910 version divided the armies into red and blue colours. The rules of "L'attaque" were basically the same as the game we know as Stratego. It featured standing cardboard rectangular pieces, colour printed with soldiers who wore contemporary (to 1900), not Napoleonic uniforms.

The modern game, with its Napoleonic imagery, was originally published in the Netherlands by Jumbo, and was licensed by the Milton Bradley Company for American distribution, and first published in the United States in 1961 (although it was trademarked in 1960).

from: Classic Stratego to Ultimate Lightning

Ultimate Lightning is a hybrid version of Classic Stratego. It is played with only 20 pieces instead of the 40 pieces in Classic Stratego. It is played with virtually the exact same pieces which you will find in Classic Stratego. (the only exception is that there are no minors.....instead U.L. has corporals) The game board is the same. Most of the pieces have the same qualities as Classic Stratego. (Only 2 pieces have different qualities)

In the beginning: Hasbro Interactive and Winning Moves.

Ultimate Lightning was born out of the  "Winning Moves" Ultimate Stratego board game in 1997. The game has now been discontinued, but hopefully we can keep the interest within the game alive and keep allowing players to try the wonders of this great game.

The Hasbro Interactive version of "Ultimate Stratego" was released in 1998 and brought the game to our computer screens. The Hasbro version had the extra bonus of allowing players to also play "Classic" Stratego in addition to the 4 versions contained in the Ultimate Stratego version.

Online Stratego: The Next Step.

W.S.C. and the M.S.N. gaming zone:

With the great success of the Hasbro Interactive version of "Stratego" (which incorporated "Ultimate Lightning" within the game disk.) more and more players got the chance to play against other good players via the m.s.n. gaming zone.

Here players could play other players who had the game disk and thus online stratego was born.

Hopefully some of the old time U.L. players will be able to write a piece here, as I have limited knowledge about the early days of online "Stratego".

Metaforge and Gravon:

A brief history of both these sites and how they helped promote the game.........will appear here shortly.