Beginner: Material for Info Trades

Drawn from player Enigma's post on the Stratego.com forum

One main principle of the game is the trade off between material and information. You sacrifice your own piece only for the purpose of gaining information that you can use to acquire a piece advantage later on in the game (think of it as an investment that should gain value over time).

As a general rule, you never want to sacrifice your own piece without using the information advantage to gain a material advantage later in the game (there are some exceptions to this).

For example, if you sacrificed a scout and learned the location of the captain, you do NOT want to exchange captains now, because if you do you have lost your scout AND your information advantage. So, you should either hit the piece next to it with your captain (choice A), or you should hit the captain with a major or colonel (choice B. ) Don't hit the piece next to the captain with your sergeant, because you will be unlikely to acquire any additional useful information.

Additional comment from here

The important concept to remember is that there is a trade off between gaining material and information. Most beginners make two mistakes. First, they trade too much information (ie. the location of their 10) without gaining enough material in exchange (either a 9 or 8). Then, they spend too many of their lower ranked pieces (ie. 3, 4, 5) scouting trying to find the opponent's high pieces.

If you want to acquire a material advantage, you need to be willing to sacrifice a higher ranked piece to get information on your enemy's setup (ie. where are his 8, 9, 10?). Then you use that information to counterattack your opponent and capture his smaller pieces.