I've been thinking about something ever since playing in the Fks tournament here in Chicago back in November 2018. In that tournament we used only the "Original" sets with the new jumbo artwork. That was fine as I enjoy those piece styles. However, even here in the USA this meant that the pieces were all numbered with European numbering, which in the live event was a problem for me, as I am, of course, used to the old Milton Bradley American numbering.
Regardless, I pressed on because it was simple enough to just call out "Captain" or "Sergeant", or whatever, during play. Unfortunately, unless I was playing Fks, Wogomite, or Diogenes Ghost (an experienced online .com player) my opponents were all fairly new and they were unfamiliar with the piece names. They always called out the numbers and it became more of a tense focusing issue for me.
The problem with this situation in my estimation was really the new gameboard. In this "Original" version there was a 10 x 10 board with two lakes in the middle, true. However, unlike my Milton Bradley version the pieces were not all listed at the edge of the board with their names and numbers. This is surely an essential aid for learning the piece names, no matter if one plays 1-10 or 10-1?
So my questions are:
1) in European tournament play do players call or numbers or do they call out names, or both/either?
2) is an identifying strip of paper with the piece images and their names/numbers ever provided to aid new players in the piece names? (a la Milton Bradley)
3) is using the piece names ever required?
Below are images of the Milton Bradley version of the game with the piece names clearly identified. Next is an image of the new "Original" Stratego game that Play Monster provided for the tournament I was in. Notice it has no piece name assistance like the old MB version did.
https://images.app.goo.gl/KSU58sk8A791gagf6
https://images.app.goo.gl/pntHYdoBikqFxS8NA
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