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From: daedulus@eskimo.com (Erik Hermansen)
Subject: Re: Thought question: Stratego
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References: <xJAE5-t.predictor@delphi.com> <1995Nov8.005725.27663@unislc.slc.unisys.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 09:05:24 GMT
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It is too bad that my favorite Stratego trick doesn't translate well to a 
computer game.  You hold your hand over a bomb and act like you're about 
to move it even though you can't, then change your mind and move a different 
piece.  And when your opponent attacks the bomb with his General or 
something it's funny as hell.

How much real strategy is there in Stratego really?  To me it seems like 
a shallow game.  Your success is based on only a handful of easily 
mastered skills.  

You have to setup the board.  I think this is something like a game of 
rock, paper, scissors.  If you happen to put your flag in the one corner 
and your opponent happens to mount his offensive on that corner then you 
are SOL.  If your opponent decides on the other corner then maybe you win 
the game.  Some factors make one board setup superior over another 
though: miners are placed away from the front for deployment later in the 
game, spy is placed in the middle, 7's (forget name) are placed behind 
bombs to destroy miners, flag is placed against the back.  (I know some 
people like to get random, but I think conservative games are more fun 
than random win/losses.)

You have to remember the ranks of the exposed pieces.  

You can deduce weaknesses of your opponent based on knowledge of exposed 
pieces.  

You can try to guess formations, but that is more of a psychological 
process than a logical one.  

You can bluff with weak pieces, but I think that against an opponent that 
assumes little, a bluff achieves not much at all.  Conversely, you have 
to deal with your opponent's bluffs, but it usually isn't hard to attack 
it with an expendable piece to expose its rank.
-- 
*****************************************************************************
Bill Gates called me today.  He wants me to port Windows 95 to the Macintosh.
It's going to be written in the Excel macro language.
-----------------------------------------Erik Hermansen (daedulus@eskimo.com)
