Board Games Like Stratego for Kids: Four Games With Something to Hide

It is easy to treat “games like Stratego” as any two-player strategy game. That misses what Stratego actually does. In Stratego, you know where the other player’s pieces are but not what they are. Every attack is a question, and you only get the answer by risking a piece. A child who likes Stratego likes keeping a secret and guessing someone else’s.

So this list keeps that one thing: in each game, something stays hidden from the other player. It is sorted by the age on the box, from four to eight, so you can start at the right step and know which one comes next.

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The Short Answer

• Four or five years old? Stratego Junior Dinos, rated 4+, with a memory game for the youngest players.
• Six or seven, and ready for pieces that fight? The second game in the same Junior Dinos box.
• Seven, and likes the hiding more than the fighting? Battleship with Planes, rated 7+.
• Eight or older? Stratego Original, rated 8+.
• Eight or older, and wants something shorter, played with cards? Schotten Totten, rated 8+ by IELLO.

All four are for two players.

What Stays Hidden in Stratego

Jumbo’s rule book for Stratego Original sets it out. Each player has 40 pieces, set up behind a screen on the four rows nearest them, with the rank facing their own side. You see where the enemy pieces stand, never what they are.

When one piece attacks another, both ranks are revealed and the lower one comes off the board. A few pieces break that rule, and they are where the game lives:

• The Flag cannot move. Capture it and you win.
• Bombs cannot move either, and they destroy any piece that attacks them, except a Miner.
• The Miner is the only piece that can defuse a Bomb.
• The Spy is the weakest piece, but if it attacks the Marshal, the highest rank, the Spy wins.
• The Scout can move any distance in a straight line, which also gives away what it is.

That is the skill the games below build toward: hiding the important piece, guessing where the other player hid theirs, and noticing what a move gives away.

Quick Comparison

Game	Publisher	Players	Age	Length	What stays hidden
Stratego Junior Dinos	Jumbo	2	4+	About 20 minutes	Which dinosaur is which, and which nest holds the egg
Battleship with Planes	Hasbro	2	7+	Not listed on the box	Where the fleet is
Stratego Original	Jumbo	2	8+	About 45 minutes	The rank of each piece
Schotten Totten	IELLO	2	8+	About 20 minutes	The cards in your hand

Ages, players and lengths come from the boxes and from the publishers, except one age noted in the Junior Dinos section. All four had an offer on Amazon for delivery in the US on October 21, 2026.

1. Stratego Junior Dinos

2 players | Ages 4+ | About 20 minutes | Jumbo

The box holds two games on the same board, and that is the reason to buy it for a young child. A retailer listing for the game puts the first at 4 and up and the second at 6 and up, so the box can stay on the shelf for a couple of years.

The story is the same in both. The other side has stolen your dinosaur egg and hidden it among three spots: one holds the egg, one is an empty nest, and one is a meteor. The first player to find their egg wins.

The first game is a memory game. You roll a die with a dinosaur on each face and try to find a matching dinosaur among the other player’s pieces, which are turned away from you. It asks a four-year-old to remember what was turned over, and nothing more.

The second game is Stratego, scaled down. Pieces move one space and attack, and the stronger dinosaur wins. The parts that carry over are easy to spot if you know the full game. The weakest piece, the Pterodactyl, can beat the strongest, the T-Rex, the way the Spy beats the Marshal. Rocks block the way and remove any piece that attacks them, except the Triceratops, which works like the Miner against a Bomb. And the hidden egg plays the part of the Flag.

Best if: your child is between four and seven, and you want one box that grows with them.

Worth knowing: on October 21, 2026, the Amazon offer was from a third-party seller, Galt Toys, shipped by Amazon. Stratego comes in more than one edition, so check that the title says Junior Dinos.

2. Battleship with Planes

2 players | Ages 7+ | Hasbro

Battleship keeps one half of Stratego and drops the other. Each player hides a fleet on their own grid, then the two take turns calling out a square, and the other player says whether it was a hit or a miss. You sink the whole fleet to win. Hasbro’s description of this edition lists 10 ships and 2 planes in two portable cases, so each side has five ships and a plane to hide.

What it teaches is the guessing: using every hit and miss to narrow down where the rest of the fleet must be. What it does not teach is the bluff. Nothing moves once the game starts, and nothing you do can mislead the other player, so it is closer to a deduction puzzle than to Stratego.

Best if: your child is around seven, likes the “where is it hiding” part, and is not yet ready for 40 pieces.

Worth knowing: the box says it needs adult assembly before the first game. Do it the night before, not when it is opened.

3. Stratego Original

2 players | Ages 8+ | About 45 minutes | Jumbo

The real thing, and the step the first two lead to. The rules are the ones described above: 40 pieces each, ranks hidden, the Flag and the Bombs that never move, and the Spy that can take down the Marshal.

Because the setup happens behind a screen, it is the first decision the other player cannot see: where the Flag goes, and which Bombs sit around it. The rules leave room for bluffing after that too: a low piece that charges forward as if it were strong, or a Bomb left alone in a corner so it looks like it is guarding something.

Best if: your child is eight or older, can sit through a longer game, and already likes Junior Dinos or Battleship.

Worth knowing: on October 21, 2026, this offer was from Galt Toys too, shipped by Amazon. Check that the title says “Original” if that is the edition you want.

4. Schotten Totten

2 players | Ages 8+ | About 20 minutes | IELLO | Reiner Knizia

A card game, and the furthest from Stratego on this list in how it looks. In how it feels, it is close. Nine stones sit in a line between the two players. On your turn you play one card from your hand face up next to a stone on your side, and each stone takes up to three cards a side. The clan cards run from 1 to 9 in six colors, and three cards make a formation, ranked in the rule book from a run of the same color down to a plain sum.

The cards on the table are open. Your six-card hand is not, and neither is the deck. The interesting rule is the claim: you can take a stone before both sides have finished it, if you can show that nothing the other player could still play there would beat you. You can only prove that with cards already on the table, not the ones in your hand. So the game rewards reading what is left, and deciding when to commit before the other player can.

You win with five stones, or with three stones next to each other.

Best if: your child is eight or older and likes Stratego’s tension, but you want a game that fits in a small box and a short evening.

Worth knowing: on October 21, 2026, the Amazon offer was from Blue Orange USA, shipped by Amazon.

What We Left Out, and Why

Chess and checkers often come up in lists like this one. They are good games, but nothing in them is hidden: both players see the whole board, and that is the opposite of what makes Stratego different. The same goes for most two-player abstract games. If your child likes Stratego for the planning rather than the secrets, our list of board games for 8 year olds has more of those.

Frequently Asked Questions

What age is Stratego for?

Jumbo rates Stratego Original 8 and up. Stratego Junior Dinos is rated 4 and up on the box, and a retailer listing puts the second of its two games at 6 and up.

What is a good game like Stratego for a 5 year old?

Stratego Junior Dinos. Its memory game works from four, and when your child is ready, the battle game in the same box teaches the Stratego rules in a smaller form.

Is Battleship like Stratego?

Partly. Both hide your pieces from the other player, and both are about guessing where theirs are. But in Battleship nothing moves, so there is no bluffing, and in Stratego there is.

Which of these is the quickest?

Stratego Junior Dinos and Schotten Totten both list about 20 minutes. Stratego Original lists about 45. The Battleship box does not give a length.

Are all of these two-player games?

Yes. All four on this list are for two players. If you need a game for a whole family, see our guide to board games by age.

Where This Leaves You

If your child is four or five, buy Stratego Junior Dinos and start with the memory game.

If they are six or seven, move on to the battle game in the same box.

If they are seven and like the hiding more than the fighting, buy Battleship with Planes.

If they are eight or older, buy Stratego Original.

If they are eight or older and you want something shorter, buy Schotten Totten.

If your child is six and Stratego is not the draw, our list of board games for 6 year olds covers other kinds of games.

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