Bombs

Bombs are unmovable pieces in Stratego that blow up any attacking piece except for miners. The only way that a bomb can be removed from the board is if one of the opponent's miners attack it. Each player gets 6 bombs, and at least 2 or 3 of them are usually used to defend the flag. There are no good or bad strategies regarding bombs unless they hinder movement of movable pieces, as bombs placed in unexpected places are more likely to blow up unsuspecting high-ranked pieces.

Strategies
See also List of Bomb Setups.

Flag protection strategies
Bombs are often placed to protect the flag like , but this makes the location of your flag somewhat obvious. You can also use this bomb setup for decoys though, making it not quite so obvious. (See decoy strategies below)

Other ways to defend your flag with bombs without making the location of your flag so obvious include , and many more.

Decoy strategies
Decoy strategies are bomb placement strategies to try to get your opponent to think that your flag is somewhere where it is not. This can be useful for getting your opponent to waste their miners, or just to send them in the wrong direction so you have more time to find their flag. Common bomb setups such as make for good decoys, the only disadvantage being that they require you to trap movable pieces, in this example, sergeants. You can avoid this by either using another bomb instead of a moveable piece, or removing one of the bombs in back, such as

Other protection
You may want to use bombs for other types of protection too, like, for instance protecting your spy from other sides as in this example , or just separating high ranking pieces with a bomb as to prevent blind charging.

Stalling
Bombs can be used for stalling by randomly placing a group of bombs in the middle or the front, and usually placing a low ranked piece such as a sergeant or a lieutenants adjacent to each bomb.

Surprise bombing strategies
Surprise bombing is the strategic placement of bombs in unexpected places in the hope to blow up unsuspecting high-ranked pieces. An example of unexpected bomb placement below: