Electronic Stratego Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Note to Stratego Board Game Players
• Introduction
• Game Set-up
  • Battery Insertion
  • Attachment of Rubber Feet
  • Label Application
  • Preparation of Bomb Pegs
  • Preparation of Playing Pieces
• Game Features
  • The Key Elements Explained and Illustrated
• Game Play
  • The Placement of Playing Pieces and Hidden Bombs
    • Placement of the Playing Pieces
  • Placement of the Hidden Bombs
    • Here's how you position your 6 bombs
  • Sample Set-up of Playing Pieces and Hidden Bombs
• Game Play
  • What You Can Do On A Turn!
  • Moving a Playing Piece - The How To's
    • Basic movement rules for all pieces including the Scout
  • Striking an Enemy Piece - The How To's
  • Results of a Strike
  • Pressing Your Probe Button - The How To's
• The Use of the Scout, Spy, Miner and Bomb
  • The Scout
  • The Spy - and Its Capturing Privilege
  • Miners and Hidden Bombs
    • The Miner
    • The Hidden Bombs
• Game Play: The Flag
• How To Win The Game

Note to Stratego Board Game Players

Electronic Stratego employs sophisticated electronics to delight you with realistic battle sounds, thrilling musical signals and much, much more. Its game play is sophisticated, too. And although it is similar to the Stratego board game in many ways, it differs from the non-electronic version by offering you Secret Command Centers with hidden bombs, the electronic Probe device and the expanded versatility of the Scout playing piece. Before playing, read the following instructions carefully noting the similarities and differences between the electronic and non-electronic versions.

Introduction

The battle is ready to start in this classic two-player strategy game. Cleverly place your troops, the coded playing pieces, on the electronically sensitive playing field. Program the location of your hidden bombs in your Secret Command Center and let the game begin. Only the computer knows the rank and position of every playing piece on the field... so each time you move, every time you strike an enemy piece, the suspense builds—Are you powerful enough to capture the piece? Or will you lose the attack and with it a key military figure? Only the computer knows for sure. Music, battle sounds and lights accompany almost every move. Play courageously. If you capture your opponent's flag before your opponent captures yours, you'll win the battle... and the game!

OBJECT OF THE GAME: Capture your opponent's flag to win the game.

CONTENTS:

• 1 game unit
• 48 playing pieces (24 red ones, 24 blue ones)
• 12 bomb pegs (6 red ones, 6 blue ones)
• 1 instruction booklet
• 1 label sheet
• 4 rubber feet

Game Set-up

Battery Insertion

Four "AA" size batteries (not included) are needed to power the game unit. Alkaline batteries are recommended for best performance. To insert the batteries in the unit, do the following. Refer to Figure 6., on page 8., for proper identification of ON/OFF switch and signal lights.

1. Make sure the ON/OFF switch is in the "OFF" position.
2. Carefully turn over the game unit so its bottom is facing you. Place your finger on the ribbed area of the battery compartment door, apply slight pressure there and slide the door open about 1/4" in the direction of the arrow, as seen in Figure 1. Then lift off door.

Figure 1: Battery Compartment and Rubber Feet in 4 Corners.

3. Insert four "AA" size batteries into the compartment, as shown in Figure 2., making sure the charge symbols on the batteries match the charge symbols molded into the inside of the compartment.

Figure 2.

4. Reattach battery compartment door by matching up the slots on the door with the tabs in the compartment and then sliding it to close.
5. Now test the batteries. Position game unit faceup again. Turn ON/OFF switch to "ON." You should see a quick flash of both signal lights and hear a musical fanfare and a drum roll signal.

Caution: if your unit does not emit the above signals, the batteries may be weak or inserted improperly. Always check the batteries and replace them or reposition them if the signal lights dim or if the musical overture fails to sound or signals incorrectly.

Attachment of Rubber Feet

Peel off the 4 feet from the rubber strip and stick them onto the unit within the 4 raised ring areas, as shown in Figure 1.

Label Application

On the label sheet are two military crests and two Troop Check Lists which display the military rank of all the playing pieces. To attach the labels, just peel them off the label sheet and carefully stick them onto designated areas. Here's how you do it...

1. Apply the Check List labels to the inside of the Command Center doors. The doors must be removed to do so. To remove a door, open it up, press it gently to one side, lift it up and out of the Command Center. Apply the label, then reinsert the door by fitting its side tabs into the side holes of the Command Center compartment and snapping it into place. Apply the other label as above. See Figure 3., for a look at a properly applied Troop Check List label.

Important: when reattaching the doors, make sure the door with the red check list is reinserted on the red side of the unit and the door with the blue check list is reinserted on the blue side of the unit. Color sides are designated by the color of the Probe and Strike buttons on the unit!

2. Apply crest labels to the islands in the playing field. See Figure 3., for properly applied labels.

Figure 3: Blue Side, Blue Crest, Troop Check List Label, Red Crest, Red Side.

Preparation of Bomb Pegs

Carefully break off the 12 bomb pegs from the runners. Make sure no plastic remnants remain on them. See Figure 4., for what a clean bomb peg looks like.

Figure 4: Foot of a bomb peg.

Preparation of Playing Pieces

Carefully break off the playing pieces from the runners. Make sure no plastic remnants remain on them. See Figure 5., for a close-up look at one of the clean pieces. Each of the playing pieces is coded with a particular pattern of plastic nodes on its base. When such a pattern comes in contact with the electronically sensitized playing field, the identity or military rank of such a piece is registered with the computer... this is how the computer knows the rank and position of every playing piece on the field!

Figure 5: Playing Piece and Coded Base.

Figure 6: Electronic unit features: Island Barriers, Speaker, Electronically Sensitive Playing Field, Game Play Square, Blue Side Playing Pieces Here (First 3 Rows), Probe Button, Secret Command Center Here (6 Hidden Bombs), Light Signal, Strike Button, ON/OFF Switch, Red Side.

Game Features

The Key Elements Explained and Illustrated

Before playing the game, take a look at the unit in Figure 6., with its special features labeled and explained.

Electronically Sensitive Playing Field... every inch of the field is alive with electronic circuitry programmed to respond to and identify each playing piece.

Special warning... do not touch the playing field with anything other than the coded bases of the playing pieces. The field is highly sensitive and subject to deformation if handled roughly.

Probe Button... press this button when you want a clue to the military rank of any enemy playing piece on the field.

Command Center... secretly program the positions of your 6 bombs here. A bomb will explode only when an opponent's playing piece lands on a space that corresponds to a bomb location in your Command Center.

Special warning... Always remove bomb pegs from their positions in the Secret Command Centers after the game is over. Storing them in such positions could cause permanent deformation to the sensitive keyboard.

Strike Button... press this button when you wish to attack an opponent's playing piece. If you're victorious, you'll be rewarded with a winning musical signal and a light signal.

Light Signal... a red light signal indicates a successful attack or a deadlocked battle.

Speaker... musical signals and battle sounds emanate from here.

Red Side of the Unit... indentified by the red Probe and Strike buttons. Home side of the red playing pieces.

Blue Side of the Unit... identified by the blue Probe and Strike buttons. Home side of the blue playing pieces.

ON/OFF Switch... slide switch to "ON" for operating power.

Special warning... to avoid unnecessary battery drain, always slide switch to "OFF" when game is not in use. If you do leave the unit on, the computer will alert you with a two-tone beep at approximately one minute intervals to remind you that the power is "ON."

Game Play Square... playing pieces are moved on these squares on the field, one piece per square.

Island Barriers... two areas on the unit that playing pieces cannot move through or land on but must go around.

Game Play

The Placement of Playing Pieces and Hidden Bombs

1. You and your opponent decide who gets which color side of the game unit... either red or blue.
2. Place the game unit on a flat surface between you and your opponent with your color side facing you.
3. You and your opponent are given 24 playing pieces and 6 bomb pegs that match your chosen color side. These are your troops and weapons.

Important: if the color of the playing pieces do not match the color side of the unit in the initial placement of pieces, the electronics will not function properly.

Placement of the Playing Pieces

To start the game, your playing pieces are placed in the first 3 rows of your side of the field with their identifying pictures and rank facing you and hidden from your opponent. Your opponent's pieces are set up in the same manner, facing him or her and hidden from you. Figure 10., on page 19, shows a sample set-up of pieces.

Before you place your pieces on the board, however, you must know something about them... if they can be moved... how powerful they are... and who they can capture. All of these factors determine where they should be strategically positioned on the field...

The 24 pieces... each player's force is made up of 23 movable playing pieces represented by a troop of military personnel and 1 non-movable piece called the Flag.

Your troops... Their names, Military rank, Class and how many of each (printed on the troop chart, pages 14-15):

• Commanding General — Rank: 1, Class: 1, Pieces: 1
• General — Rank: 2, Class: 1, Pieces: 1
• Colonel — Rank: 3, Class: 1, Pieces: 2
• Major — Rank: 4, Class: 1, Pieces: 2
• Captain — Rank: 5, Class: 2, Pieces: 2
• Lieutenant — Rank: 6, Class: 2, Pieces: 2
• Sergeant — Rank: 7, Class: 2, Pieces: 2
• Miner — Rank: 8, Class: 3, Pieces: 5
• Scout — Rank: 9, Class: 3, Pieces: 5
• Spy — Rank: "S", Class: 1, Pieces: 1
• Flag — Rank: None, Class: 1, Pieces: 1

Source note: booklet pages 12 and 13 are not present in the scanned source file (the scan jumps from page 11 to the troop chart on pages 14-15), so this transcription does not include them.

Placement of the Hidden Bombs

Now that your flag and military personnel are positioned on the field, you and your opponent must also position your hidden bombs on the field. You do this at a distance, from your Secret Command Center, so your opponent has no idea where your bombs are located... invisible to the eye, with no physical presence on the board, the bombs remain hidden until an unlucky enemy piece lands on one! The hidden bombs are powerful defensive weapons that will explode only when an enemy piece comes in contact with it... once detonated, the bomb remains active... the piece that landed on the bomb, however, is considered destroyed and removed from the game. The only way to remove an enemy bomb from the field is to defuse it with one of your miners (playing piece number 8). Miners are the only playing pieces that cannot be harmed when landing on a bomb. See "MINERS AND HIDDEN BOMBS" on pages 34-35 for more details.

Here's how you position your 6 bombs

1. Open up the door to your Secret Command Center. The 3 rows of 8 holes per row in your Command Center correspond to the first 3 rows on the field on your color side of the unit. For example, if you place a bomb peg in your Command Center into the 3rd row, 2nd hole from the left, you will have hidden a bomb in your field in the 3rd row, 2nd square from the left. You may place your 6 bomb pegs in any of the 24 holes in your Command Center with a few exceptions. See "Bomb Placement Limitations," below.

2. Bomb Placement Limitations: because of the strong, defensive nature of the hidden bombs, there are certain areas where you cannot place them. A hidden bomb cannot be placed adjacent to another hidden bomb or bombs unless these bombs are adjacent horizontally, vertically or diagonally to the flag.

See examples of legal and illegal bomb placement in Figure 8., below...

Figure 8: Key: Flag; Legally placed bombs; Illegally placed bombs. Four example grids of the field rows show legal and illegal bomb placements. In both cases below, just one of the illegally marked bombs must be repositioned.

In all cases above, the identified bombs are illegal because they are adjacent to another bomb, but are not adjacent to the flag.

3. To position a bomb, insert a bomb peg into a selected hole in your Command Center, as shown in Figure 9. The foot of the peg is inserted into the hole and then twisted clockwise a quarter turn to lock it in place. Position the remaining 5 pegs in the same manner.

Caution: once positioned and locked in, bomb pegs cannot be moved or removed during the game until they are defused (see "MINERS AND HIDDEN BOMBS" on pages 34-35 for more details).

Figure 9: Inserting a bomb peg into a hole in the Secret Command Center.

Your playing pieces and hidden bombs are now positioned. You are ready for the battle... the actual play of the game. Proceed to the following chapter to discover the how to's of playing piece movement!

Sample Set-up of Playing Pieces and Hidden Bombs

Figure 10: Here is a sample set-up of playing pieces and hidden bombs.

Row	Pieces (left to right)
Row 3	9, 8, 6, 9, 4, 9, 6, 9
Row 2	8, 3, S, 2, 1, 3, 4, 8
Row 1	7, 8, 9, 5, Flag, 5, 8, 7

Game Play

What You Can Do On A Turn!

1. Slide the ON/OFF switch to "ON." You will hear an overture... an auditory signal of a musical fanfare and a drum roll.

2. Now pick a Skill Level! There are 3 Skill Levels or basic ways to play Electronic Stratego, all are concerned with the disclosure of playing pieces' ranks after a strike or an attack. Here are the Levels...

Skill Level 1... the easiest level of play in which the ranks of both the captured (or losing) piece and the winning piece are announced aloud after a strike.

Skill Level 2... a more challenging level of play in which, after a strike, the captured piece's rank is announced but the winning piece's rank is not.

Skill Level 3... the most difficult level of play in which after a strike, neither the captured piece's rank nor the winning piece's rank is announced.

You and your opponent decide between yourselves which level you wish to play. Make sure you both understand exactly how much rank information will be revealed. There are no buttons to be pressed or switches to be pushed on the game unit to select a Skill Level!

Hint: it is recommended, that new Electronic Stratego players use Skill Level 1 to get familiar with the game and to develop a strategy of play.

3. You and your opponent alternate turns. The red player plays first, followed by the blue player.

4. Basic Turn: on your turn, you can do only one of the following...

• MOVE—Move one of your playing pieces to an open adjacent space.
• STRIKE—Or strike an enemy piece with one of your attacking playing pieces.
• PROBE—Or press your Probe Button to get a clue to the rank of an enemy playing piece.

Important: the Probe Button feature can only be used when playing Skill Levels 2 and 3.

Exception: when moving a Scout piece, you can both MOVE and STRIKE in the same turn. See "The Scout" on pages 28-33 for more details.

All of the above are explained in detail below...

Moving a Playing Piece - The How To's

All of your playing pieces can be moved except your Flag. Each of your playing pieces can be moved from one square to another open adjacent square on the field... one square per turn! A piece can be moved forward, backward or sideways one square but never diagonally.

Exception: the Scout piece is a special piece. It can be moved just like the other pieces above... but it also can be moved more than one square at a time and diagonally, too. For more details, see "The Scout" on pages 28-33.

Basic movement rules for all pieces including the Scout

1. Two or more playing pieces cannot occupy the same square at the same time.

2. The two islands with crest labels on the field are barriers. No playing piece may jump over or land on an island. All pieces must move around the islands.

3. A playing piece may not move through or jump over an occupied square. An occupied square is a square with a playing piece on it.

4. Only one playing piece may be moved in each turn.

5. Once you move a piece to a square and the drum roll sounds, (see "DRUM ROLL SIGNAL" below for details), the piece is considered positioned. It cannot be moved back or to a new position again in that turn.

6. A piece cannot be moved back and forth between the same two squares in three consecutive turns.

Now it's time to move a piece! Pick up one of your playing pieces and move it to an open adjacent square. Once it is positioned in a square, press it gently onto the sensitized playing field until you hear a DRUM ROLL SIGNAL. This signal indicates that you have made a legal move. Be sure to listen for this drum roll each time you move a piece and press it lightly into place.

Striking an Enemy Piece - The How To's

You'll discover that striking or attacking is an exciting feature of Electronic Stratego. You strike an enemy piece with one of your own pieces in hopes of capturing the opposing piece and removing it from the field. Capturing pieces and clearing your opponent's side of military personnel will make it easier for you to locate that sought-after Flag!

Striking is suspenseful. In most cases, when you attack an enemy piece, you will not know what rank it is. Only after the strike is over and the computer divulges the winner, will you know if your piece was more powerful than your enemy's!

Here's how you strike... do the following, in order, when you wish to attack an enemy piece:

1. Strike position: if you wish to strike, at the beginning of your turn, a red playing piece and a blue playing piece must occupy adjoining squares either facing each other, back to back or side to side. This placement of pieces is called the strike position. Important: pieces must be in the Strike Position at the beginning of your turn. You cannot move a piece into a Strike Position and strike, all in the same turn. This would be illegal. Exception: the Scout can strike diagonally and can move and strike in the same turn.

Figure 11: Strike positions: Facing or back to back; Side to side.

Striking is always optional! If you're in a strike position at the beginning of your turn, you may decide not to strike... the choice is yours. Also, either player has the option of striking at the beginning of his or her turn... not just the player who set up the attack by moving a piece into the strike position.

2. Press down and release your color STRIKE BUTTON. You will hear a musical signal... a military charge!
3. Then gently press down your attacking playing piece in its square on the field. You will hear a drum roll signal. Caution: if you hold the piece down too long, you'll receive a double drum roll. The unit will then respond with a "tie signal" (see "YOU TIE" on page 25 for what this is). Ignore this signal and begin your strike again by pressing the Strike Button.

Figure 12: Press down your attacking piece.

4. Now gently press down the enemy piece you're attacking. Push it down in its square on the field until you hear a drum roll signal.

Figure 13: Then press down the enemy piece you're attacking.

Note: you must do all of the 4 steps above in sequence to strike legally.

Results of a Strike

After you strike an enemy piece, one of the following will happen...

You Win... if your red light flashes on and you hear a victorious trumpet sound, you win the strike which means your striking playing piece had a lower number and a higher rank than the piece it attacked. The attacked piece is considered captured and removed from the field. Move your winning piece into the now vacant captured piece's square and press it down into position.

You Lose... if your opponent's red light flashes on and you hear a mournful musical signal, you lose the strike which means your striking playing piece had a higher number and a lower rank than the piece it attacked. Your striking playing piece is considered captured and removed from the field. Your opponent's attacked piece is the winning piece... it does not, however, move into the square vacated by your captured piece but rather remains where it is.

You Tie... if both you and your opponent's red light flashes on and you hear a funeral dirge musical signal, a tie results which means your striking piece and your opponent's attacked piece both have exactly the same number and rank. You both lose the strike and both pieces are considered captured and removed from the field.

Please Note: after a strike, ranks of captured pieces and winning pieces are either divulged or kept secret depending upon which Skill Level you're playing. When playing Skill Level 3, captured pieces must be removed carefully from the field so their rank is not revealed. It is suggested that the captured piece be removed from the field by the "losing" player.

Negating a push of the Strike Button: if you press the Strike Button, and then decide not to strike, merely turn the ON/OFF switch to "OFF." Then turn the ON/OFF switch to "ON" and start your turn over again.

Pressing Your Probe Button - The How To's

Instead of moving a piece or striking a piece on your turn, you may choose to press your Probe Button to get a clue to the military rank of any enemy piece on the field.

Caution: the Probe Button can be used only when playing Skill Levels 2 and 3.

Class Distinction... the Probe Button will not tell you the exact number or letter of a playing piece but it will tell you what Class it belongs to. Knowing a piece's Class will give you a clue to its rank. All 24 of your playing pieces are divided into 3 Classes.

Class table (from the printed chart on page 26):

Class 1	Class 2	Class 3
The Commanding General, Rank 1	The Captains, Rank 5	The Miners, Rank 8
The General, Rank 2	The Lieutenants, Rank 6	The Scouts, Rank 9
The Colonels, Rank 3	The Sergeants, Rank 7
The Majors, Rank 4
The Spy, Rank "S"
The Flag

Important: for a handy Class Distinction Guide see the Troop Check List inside your Command Center Door. Pieces are identified by either one dot for Class 1, two dots for Class 2 or three dots for Class 3. See pages 14 and 15 for a graphic presentation of Troop identification by Class.

How to use your Probe Button... to discover which Class a piece belongs to, do the following in order, in your turn.

1. Announce aloud that you're going to probe instead of move or strike.
2. Press down and release your color Probe Button and you'll hear a musical signal... a few bars of "The William Tell Overture."
3. Then select the enemy piece you wish to "probe" and gently press it down in its square.

The Result: look at the signal lights. They will beep and flash the Class Number to you...

• One beep and one flash indicates Class 1
• Two beeps and two flashes indicate Class 2
• Three beeps and three flashes indicate Class 3

As you can see, from "probing," you will get a clue to just how powerful an enemy piece is!

Important: the Probe Button cannot be pressed in two consecutive turns by the same player.

Negating a push of the Probe Button: if you press the Probe Button and then decide not to probe, merely turn the ON/OFF switch to "OFF" and then to "ON" again and start your turn over again.

Now you know what 3 things you can do on your turn... either move one of your pieces to an empty, adjacent square... or strike an enemy piece... or press your Probe Button.

Turn to the next chapter to see details on special pieces like the Scout, the Spy and the Miner and explosive events like landing on a bomb!

The Use of the Scout, Spy, Miner and Bomb

The Scout

You and your opponent each have 5 Scouts in your force. The Scout is a very special playing piece because it has great versatility in moving and striking. This versatility overcomes its obvious disadvantage in having a weak numeral rank of "9."

Here are the Scout's features...

1. The Scout can move more than one square in a turn to any open square. It cannot, however, jump over or move through occupied squares. See Figure 14., for examples of legal and illegal moves of this sort.

Figure 14: Scout movement examples.

• Legal move: Blue Scout moves vertically 5 squares to an unoccupied square.
• Legal move: Blue Scout moves horizontally 2 squares to an unoccupied square.
• Illegal move: Blue Scout cannot move vertically 3 squares to the indicated square because it would have to jump over the other blue piece.

Key: Blue Scout; Red Piece.

2. The Scout can move in any direction in a straight line—horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The Scout is the only piece that can move diagonally. When a Scout moves diagonally, it may pass between two occupied squares. This is a legal move. See Figure 15., for an illustration of such a maneuver.

Important: moving your Scout more than one square at a time will reveal its identity to your opponent and increase its chances for capture. Of course, the Scout's ability to move quickly over many squares and to both move and strike in the same turn overcomes this obvious disadvantage of revealing its rank.

Figure 15: Legal move: Blue Scout moves diagonally 3 squares between 2 occupied squares to the indicated unoccupied square.

3. The Scout can also move just like other pieces in your force—one square at a time—if you wish!
4. The Scout can never move through or land on either of the two island barriers.
5. A Scout can move and strike in the same turn. This means you can move a Scout into a Strike Position and press the Strike Button for an attack all in the same turn. For an example of this, see Figure 16.

Please Note: after moving a Scout into a Strike Position, be sure to gently press it in place to hear the drum roll before you press the Strike Button.

Figure 16: Moving and striking: Move Blue Scout to indicated unoccupied square and then press Strike Button to attack red piece... all in the same turn.

6. Striking At A Distance... a very special Scout maneuver. A Scout can strike from any direction—horizontally, vertically or diagonally. In addition to moving and striking in the same turn, a Scout can attack a piece from afar without being moved into a Strike Position. This is called Striking At A Distance! Striking At A Distance is a clever maneuver for it allows you to attack a piece from afar thus avoiding treacherous, hidden bombs.

Here's how you Strike At A Distance... Striking At A Distance means just what it says. A Scout is never physically moved from its square when striking in this manner.

A. At the beginning of your turn, your Scout must be able to be moved legally into an unoccupied square for a Strike Position. Do not, however, move your Scout to that Strike Position square.

B. Announce aloud that you're Striking At A Distance.

C. Press your color Strike Button down and listen for a musical "Charge" signal.

D. Press down your Scout piece in its present square and listen for a drum roll signal.

E. Then press down the enemy piece that you're attacking and listen for a drum roll.

F. The results of the strike will be signaled by a musical sound and a flashing light.

Remember: if your strike and win, you must move your piece into the vacant square left by the captured piece. When you move into such a square, press your piece down to hear a drum roll.

Figure 17: Striking At A Distance. Key: Legal strike position (star).

• Legal strike: Blue Scout remains where it is and strikes red piece vertically from 5 squares away.
• Legal strike: Blue Scout remains where it is and strikes red piece horizontally from 4 squares away.
• Legal strike: Blue Scout remains where it is and strikes red piece diagonally from 3 squares away.
• Illegal strike: Blue Scout cannot strike the red piece at a distance from this position... it could, however, legally strike such a piece by moving up to either of the two Strike Positions indicated by the stars and then pressing the Strike Button—this would be "Moving and Striking" in the same turn!

The Spy - and Its Capturing Privilege

You and your opponent each have one Spy in your force. The Spy is identified by the "S" letter rank and is the weakest piece on the field. The Spy does, however, possess a very special privilege... it can capture the most powerful enemy piece on the field (the Commanding General, a Number 1), if it strikes first! Of course, if the Commanding General strikes the Spy first, the Spy is captured. The Spy's ability to capture the Commanding General is called the Capturing Privilege.

Using the Capturing Privilege successfully... if your Spy is successful in using its Capturing Privilege by striking and capturing the Commanding General, you will receive a special victory signal instead of the usual musical trumpet sound. You will hear a very sneaky, villainous musical signal and see your signal light flash indicating that you won the strike. Be sure to remove the enemy Commanding General from the field and move your Spy into its now vacant square.

Other important features about the Spy...

• the Spy is the weakest piece on the field yet if it strikes the Flag, it will capture it and win the game.
• all pieces on the field (except the Commanding General) can capture the Spy regardless of which piece strikes first.

Miners and Hidden Bombs

The Miner

You and your opponent each have 5 Miners in your force. Miners are special pieces identified by the numeral rank "8." Miners are the only pieces that are not destroyed and removed from play when landing on a hidden bomb. When a Miner lands on an enemy's hidden bomb, the bomb is considered defused and must be removed from the field!

Here's what happens when your Miner lands on an enemy's hidden bomb...

• first, you'll hear the sound of a descending whistle and the sound of an interrupted explosion (a short spurt). Then you'll hear a musical trumpet sound and see your signal light flash on. The bomb has been successfully defused!
• then your opponent opens up his or her Command Center and removes the bomb peg that corresponds to the defused bomb from its hole.
• Your Miner is not destroyed. It remains in its square on the field.

Caution: to remove the bomb peg, turn it counterclockwise a quarter turn and pull out straight.

The Hidden Bombs

The hidden bombs are powerful defensive weapons that may destroy many enemy pieces during the game. If any piece, other than a Miner, lands on an enemy's hidden bomb, it will be "blown up" and removed from the field.

Here's what happens when an enemy piece lands on one of your bombs...

When an enemy piece (other than a Miner) lands on one of your hidden bombs, you'll hear the following... the sound of a descending whistle and a long explosion. Then you'll hear a mournful musical signal and see your signal light flash on indicating a victory for you. The enemy piece is considered "blown up" and removed from the field.

Hint: if you are unlucky enough to land on an enemy bomb, try to remember its location so you can send one of your Miners in to defuse it!

For more information about the bombs, see pages 16-19 under "Placement of Hidden Bombs."

Game Play: The Flag

The Flag is an immovable piece. When a Flag is attacked by an enemy piece, the Flag is considered captured and the game is over.

Here are some important features about the Flag...

• the Flag, once placed, can never be moved
• the Flag cannot strike an enemy piece

Caution: if a player picks up his or her Flag by mistake and moves it to another square, the game unit will respond with a two-tone signal indicating that an illegal move has taken place.

How To Win The Game

If you locate and strike your opponent's Flag with one of your playing pieces before your opponent locates and strikes your Flag, you'll win the game.

When you strike your opponent's Flag, you'll hear a very special victory signal... a few bars of "The 1812 Overture," hear an explosion, and see your signal light flash on.

ANOTHER WIN SITUATION: Before either Flag is captured, it is possible that a player will have no pieces to move. If this occurs, the game is considered over and the opposing player is announced the winner!

Caution: to start another game after the special victory signal has sounded, you must turn the ON/OFF switch to "OFF" then flip it back to "ON."