Post: #1

One of the things that always distinguished the live board game I played when younger was the existence of what I like to call fake moves. It's not complicated but when I would play with my brother (both of us did it to the other) , we would often grab a piece, lift it and move it...but never take our hand off of that piece. Then we would always end with repacing the piece where it originally was, and move another piece. The point of this little exercise was, of course, to fool the opponent into thinking that piece wasn't a bomb or flag. It worked more than I recall, think. One thing, this is strictly a live game technique. Has anyone ever used this technique in a live game?

Post: #2

Doing these kind of things during tournament games are ill-advised.

Technically, as blue (2nd to move) you could pick up a bomb move it.... release it... then say "oh, you are red, you begin" take it back... and then see someone walk his general into it.

It's the kind of thing that will earn you a lifetime bad reputation.

Of course, in a friendly.. less of a problem

Post: #3

Interesting. I guess playing at home like that we didn't have to worry about our reputations back then. We operated by our own ISF rules. Since he was my kid brother, if he ticked me off there was Instant Smack in the Face.

Post: #4

I believe that in chess tournaments, once you touch a piece you have to move that piece assuming that it can make a legal move. Maybe Stratego could have a similar rule for live tournaments? So if you touch a piece and then can’t move it, you just gave away that it’s either a bomb or the flag.

Post: #5

(02-21-2021 03:53 PM)KnightofPepsi Wrote:  I believe that in chess tournaments, once you touch a piece you have to move that piece assuming that it can make a legal move. Maybe Stratego could have a similar rule for live tournaments? So if you touch a piece and then can’t move it, you just gave away that it’s either a bomb or the flag.

That´s correct. Not only that, but also if you touch one piece of your opponent, you are forced to capture it if you can do it.