Stratego Waterloo

This is a wonderful treatment of a fascinating battle using the familiar mechanics of Stratego. A vast amount of historical love has been lavished on this game, from the illustrated game pieces to the rule book replete with quotes from the famous commanders, you'll come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of this significant battle.In basic Stratego your pieces move or attack with the goal of capturing your opponent's flag. In Waterloo your turn is comprised of 3 actions that can be distributed among your troops as you please with the goal of placing two units on your enemies lines of retreat (2 spaces on your baseline) or killing your opponent's commander. Move one unit twice and then attack, or move 3 separate pieces; the choice is yours. You're in command of light infantry, line infantry, light cavalry, heavy cavalry and artillery. The French and English/Allied forces are led by their commander in chief, Wellington or Napoleon, along with their commanders, Uxbridge and Ney. Depending on which version of the game you're playing (3 available) if you lose your commander you lose 1 action and if you lose your commander in chief you lose 2 actions, or possibly the game.Advanced rules add terrain like hills and buildings which offer offensive and defensive advantages consistent with the actual battlefield in Belgium.The rules are quite good, but have suffered a little in their translation to English. The cavalry presented me with the most challenge to understand. They are the only piece that can move orthogonally across the entire board until they confront another unit, and then may attack in the same action using their "charge" ability. Infantry move for one action, then may attack for a separate action.In traditional Stratego fashion, when two pieces fight the unit with the higher strength prevails. In Waterloo, however, if two units of the same strength fight, then a dice is rolled. The outcome of this roll can be instant victory, defeat or a frenzied slaughter that can decimate nearby friendly or enemy units as well. This is a wonderful mechanic that always makes confrontation fresh and unpredictable.Another improvement is the inclusion of maneuver cards. Each player receives 4 cards at the start of the game that for 1 action each can allow movement of multiple units, add offensive or defensive strength, synchronized artillery fire or peeking at enemy units. These are played once and discarded, so choose when to play them carefully!After 12 rounds the Prussians arrive to aide Wellington and attempt to swing the battle into the Allies favor. These units arrive in groups of 2 and also offer the Allies 1 additional action as long as their commander, Von Bulow, doesn't die in battle.Stratego Waterloo breathes new life into a old family favorite, offering deeper strategy and challenging decisions... and you'll probably learn a thing or two along the way about June 18, 1815.

A fun, historically accurate game based on the tried and true game of Stratego that lets two players refight the epic battle of Waterloo. Not a themed version of Stratego, but an entirely new rewrite that keeps the look and feel of the classic board game, but adds a lot of the excitement of a wargame without all the tedious complexity.

Overall this is a fun game. The components and artwork are nice, but the rules have some ambiguous parts that need clarification. Luckily I was able to find helpful files on boardgamegeek.com.As example of the poorly written rules, under the paragraph about game set up it says: "The Battle Die is taken out and put next to the board." Really? How obvious is that? What a totally useless piece of information. And in other sections were you actually need some further explanation of a rule, there is nothing. An example of a sentence that doesn't make any sense: "The Players must not place all their pieces on the board, they can keep a maximum of 10 pieces in reserve in order to place them on the board as reinforcements later on in the game." Is there a "minimum" of pieces I need to place in reserve. And there are a few other areas in the rules that use confusing language. The rules need to be rewritten so they are completely understandable.

Stratego has been a great strategy board game for decades. It deserves better recognition than the much more admired game-chess! Yes I am very biased. This version is a wonderful addition to the classic which requires more in depth strategy and commitment, which is well worth the effort for gamers. The original is an amazing true classic and please give it a chance first, but give this a chance too. Highly recommended!

Nice to play an old time favorite. Thank you

Easy to play. Lots of tactical ideas to try

I'm a board game junkie, but this game is WAY too complicated. I thought it was simply Stratego in more fancy packaging, but it is quite a different game with pieces that are hard to differentiate from one another.Moreover, a key piece (the red commander) was missing. The game ends when either commander is captured thus, missing this piece makes it quite difficult to play properly.

I would give 5 stars but I don't like the inserts they put in the pieces. Don't get me wrong it's a good quality but it's not necessary. Other than that, if you take the time to learn the game it's a very fun Stratego game. It's not traditional but it has the spirit and a lot of strategy. Everything else is well put together and it's perfect for Collectors, Stratego lovers, or people who like the strategy type of games. I am a Statego lover so expect a totally different game play and rules. The strategy alone is worth it.