10 Games Like Stratego — Free Strategy Board Games Online
Stratego is a Dutch board game first published in the 1940s, based on the French game L’Attaque (patented 1908). 40 pieces per side, hidden ranks, capture the opponent’s flag. It’s the canonical hidden-information board war game — your pieces face you so you see their ranks, but your opponent only sees the backs. Here are 10 free browser games like Stratego with the same hidden-info + capture + plan-ahead DNA.
Key takeaways
- Battleship is the closest browser match: both sides hide their setup and you win by deduction.
- Mastermind and Minesweeper train the same habit of reasoning from partial information.
- Chess, Checkers, Hex and Reversi drop the hidden information but keep the capture-and-plan-ahead thinking.
- Every game here runs free in your browser, and most offer a CPU opponent with Easy, Medium and Hard settings.
What makes a game feel like Stratego?
Stratego mixes three things that rarely appear together. Hidden information: you know your own pieces, but you have to work out your opponent’s from how they move and what they reveal in combat. Capture: pieces attack each other, and the higher rank usually wins. Planning: your opening setup, chosen before the first move, shapes the whole game.
No single browser game copies all three, so the list below is ordered roughly by how much of that mix each one keeps. The first entries lean on hidden information; the later ones are perfect-information strategy games where everything is on the board.
1. Battleship
The other classic hidden-info game. Place 5 ships (carrier, battleship, cruiser, submarine and destroyer) on a 10×10 grid, then sink the CPU’s fleet through deduction. Like a Stratego setup, your ship placement is a bluff of its own, so try not to fall into the same pattern every game Play Battleship.
2. Chess
Different — perfect information, and you win by checkmate rather than capture — but the same piece-by-piece evaluation. Like Stratego, chess pieces have very different values, and trading well decides most games. Our version plays against a CPU at Easy, Medium or Hard, with Undo Play Chess.
3. Checkers
Capture by jumping. Force trades when ahead; avoid them when behind. Jumps are mandatory, which lets you bait your opponent into a capture that sets up a bigger one, a small taste of Stratego’s bluffing. Play the CPU or a friend on the same screen Play Checkers.
4. Connect Four
Drop pieces; line up 4. Different goal but same look-ahead requirement. Games are short, which makes it a good warm-up for practising threats and blocks Play Connect Four.
5. Gomoku
Five in a row on a 15×15 board. Rewards the same long-range planning as a Stratego endgame, where you build a threat in one area while your opponent is busy in another Play Gomoku.
6. Reversi
Flip discs by sandwiching. Long-range planning required: grabbing lots of discs early often counts for little at the end, so it rewards patience the way a slow Stratego advance does Play Reversi.
7. Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe
Nested 9×9 tic-tac-toe. Strategic depth in the meta-board: each move sends your opponent to a specific mini-board, so every move is also a decision about where they get to play next Play Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe.
8. Hex
Connect two sides with a chain of stones. Pure strategy, no luck. Our version offers boards from 7×7 to 13×13 against the CPU or a second player; start small and work up Play Hex.
9. Minesweeper
Hidden-info deduction game. Find safe cells from numerical hints. It’s the solo version of the question Stratego asks every turn: given what’s been revealed, where are the bombs Play Minesweeper.
10. Mastermind
Crack the colour code. Pure deduction over hidden information: each guess returns pegs for right colour in the right position and right colour in the wrong position. Easy gives you 6 colours and 10 tries; Hard has 8 colours and 8 tries Play Mastermind.
Quick comparison
| Game | Hidden information? | Captures? | Opponent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battleship | Yes, both fleets | Sinking ships | CPU |
| Chess | No | Yes | CPU |
| Checkers | No | Yes, by jumping | CPU or 2 players |
| Connect Four | No | No | CPU or 2 players |
| Gomoku | No | No | CPU or 2 players |
| Reversi | No | Discs flip sides | CPU or 2 players |
| Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe | No | No | CPU or 2 players |
| Hex | No | No | CPU or 2 players |
| Minesweeper | Yes, the mines | No | Solo |
| Mastermind | Yes, the code | No | Solo |
How Stratego works, in brief
The classic game is played on a 10×10 board with two impassable lakes in the middle. Each player secretly arranges 40 pieces in the four rows nearest them. Most pieces move one square at a time; Scouts can move any distance in a straight line, while Bombs and the Flag never move.
When a piece attacks, both ranks are revealed and the lower one is removed (equal ranks remove each other). A few special rules create the drama: the Spy defeats the Marshal, but only when the Spy attacks; Bombs defeat any attacker except a Miner; and you win by capturing the enemy Flag or leaving your opponent with no legal move. Rank numbering differs between editions, so check the rulebook of the set you own. For a fuller rules history, see the Wikipedia article on Stratego.
Why is Stratego underrated?
Because it requires deception. Stratego at high level is about misleading your opponent — moving low-rank pieces to make them think you’re moving high-rank ones. Most strategic games reward calculation. Stratego rewards poker face. That’s hard to convey in board-game reviews.
Also: Stratego is the rare hidden-information game where you control the hidden information. In Battleship, you only hide where your ships are. In Stratego, you also hide what each piece is, and the setup itself becomes a bluff. That depth doesn’t get appreciated until you’ve lost a few times.
How to pick your next strategy game
- You love the bluffing and guessing: start with Battleship, then Mastermind. Both are about narrowing down what you can’t see.
- You love the piece trades: Chess and Checkers keep the capture-based fighting, with every piece in plain view.
- You love the long-term plan: Hex, Gomoku and Reversi reward building a position over many moves.
- You want to play a friend on one screen: Checkers, Connect Four, Gomoku, Reversi, Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe and Hex all have a 2 Players mode.
For more games in this family, see our guide to abstract strategy games.
Is there a browser Stratego?
Not in our library because it requires a network-coordinated opponent (humans play it hidden-from-each-other; AI versions exist but the asymmetry of information is hard to fake). If you want Stratego itself, the official licensed apps are the standard. For strategy tips, see our guide to mastering Stratego. For browser-based hidden-info, Battleship is the closest equivalent we have.
Frequently asked questions
What game is most like Stratego?
Among classic board games, Battleship is the closest: both players hide their setup and play by deduction. L’Attaque, the French game Stratego is based on, is the closest in rules, but it’s a vintage board game rather than something you can play in a browser.
Can I play Stratego online for free?
We don’t host Stratego, and we don’t recommend unofficial copies. The official licensed apps are the standard way to play it digitally; for a free browser game in the same spirit, try Battleship or Mastermind.
Is Stratego a game of luck or skill?
Mostly skill. There are no dice or cards; the uncertainty comes only from not knowing your opponent’s pieces. Good setups, careful scouting and bluffing decide most games.
What is a hidden-information game?
One where some of the game state is concealed from at least one player, like Stratego’s piece ranks, Battleship’s fleet or Mastermind’s code. In perfect-information games like chess, both players see everything.
Which of these games can two people play on one device?
Checkers, Connect Four, Gomoku, Reversi, Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe and Hex all have a 2 Players mode for passing the device back and forth. Battleship, Chess, Minesweeper and Mastermind are played solo or against the CPU.
Final thoughts
The best games like Stratego keep at least one part of its mix: hidden information, capture, or long-term planning. Start with Battleship for the guessing, Chess for the trades and Hex for the plan. When you need a break from thinking, the Chrome Dino game is waiting on our homepage.
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