I have it, but haven't yet played it.
It's a two player game. The general concepts of original Stratego apply, but have been greatly expanded, as follows:
While a unit's identity and true capability/value is concealed, the general troop class is not— you can see where the opponent has infantry, cavalry (which are also command units) and artillery, but not what specific troops these are.
The units may have special abilities beyond just their combat value. For example, cavalry can move further, light infantry can attack artillery from the front (other units will be destroyed if they do this, but can attack artillery from the side or rear), and heavy cavalry can take damage and then retreat to have their damage restored.
Play is not "move one unit on your turn," but a series of actions (typically 3), which could involve moving multiple units, or some combination.
The objective of the game is not to capture a flag (there are no "flag" units in the game), but to achieve different victory conditions that depend on the level of complexity one chooses to play. In the basic game, each side has a series of numbered squares on their rear-most side. These are divided into that sides' Left, Center, and Right. Before play begins, each side secretly determined which of these areas constitutes it's "line of supply." If a player manages to occupy the numbered squares of his opponent's "line of supply" the battle ends and the occupier wins. A win can also be achieved by capturing the opponent's general— either Wellington or Napoleon, who are each units on the field, and capable of movement and attacking.
Certain units act as "commanders," which merely means they represent the command capability of their respective side— they are officers, as for example Marshal Ney. If these units are captured, then the number of actions the captured commander's side can use on its turn goes down.
The game also includes a "clock," which advances each time both players have taken a turn. When the clock reaches a certain point, the British player is allowed to introduce randomly drawn Prussian forces as allies, signaling the arrival of Blucher and his troops.
The game is divided into a basic, advanced, and scenario based version of the battle, which affect the above in different ways, and add other considerations.
Features of the advanced game:
Command cards: Allow a side to take additional or special actions when played as an action by that side. The number of cards is limited, so the player has to think carefully as to when he wants to use one of his cards for optimal effectiveness.
Dice: If a unit attacks an enemy of identical strength, the dice are rolled to see whether a side eliminates the enemy, or retreats, or eliminates the enemy AND attacks an adjacent unit (which, in the fog of battle, could even be a unit of its own side).
Terrain squares: These are tiles places on the board to represent specific significant terrain objectives (as Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte). The battle capabilities of units which occupy, attack, or defend the terrain are altered, and certain victory conditions may apply based on the terrain as well.
So there's a lot of potentially interesting detail added to the game. The component quality is excellent, too. Content-wise, I'd say the price is right for what you get.
As yet, as I said, I haven't played it— I'm seldom in a situation where I only have one gaming buddy present to play a two-player game. But I'm eager to try it out, and I'm not disappointed with the purchase.
(I got mine from Target's online store using a discount they had running at the time, so I didn't pay full price— I don't recall what I did pay, but it was a significant discount off retail.
begins to think about terrain for Team Yankee.
