When comparing Food Chain Magnate vs Stratego, the Slant community recommends Stratego for most people. In the question“What are the best board games?” Stratego is ranked 23rd while Food Chain Magnate is ranked 45th. The most important reason people chose Stratego is:
Stratego's rules are pretty easy to learn but the beauty is there is so much strategy involved that each game can have wildly different outcomes. Being that there is so much choice in how to strategize every game there is truly a limitless amount of fun to be had.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Incredibly tense gameplay
Each round in Food Chain Magnate players have the opportunity to compete for various milestones such as first to market a burger, first to hire 3 employees in one turn, or first to cook a pizza. These milestones are only available until the first turn a player completes them, after which point they are removed from the game. However, they provide very powerful bonuses to the players that reach them, leading to very tense rounds as players try to be the only one to unlock their preferred milestones while also completing the milestones that opponents unlock that round.
Pro Food Chain Magnate provides an excellent gaming experience focused around short term tactics and long term startegy
Food Chain Magnate has no randomness from things like dice or random card draws, instead, all of the information in the game is clearly presented on the table at all times for all players to see. This means that players win or lose based on how well they are able to play the game, not based on chance. To succeed, each player will need to find the right mix of tactics and strategy to build their empire.
Pro Simple to learn but utilizes much strategy
Stratego's rules are pretty easy to learn but the beauty is there is so much strategy involved that each game can have wildly different outcomes. Being that there is so much choice in how to strategize every game there is truly a limitless amount of fun to be had.
Pro Creative thinking and playing the other player take a large role
Players can arrange their troops however they like which begins a game of strategy but also a game of playing your opponent. By trying to trick or manipulate the other player the game becomes more in depth as a match of will.
Cons
Con In Food Chain Magnate mistakes tend to compound over time
Because of the heavy strategy emphasis in FCM there aren't many opportunities for players to recover from particularly bad mistakes, leaving them far behind the other players as the game progresses.
Con Character pictures have to be manually placed
The character pictures have to be manually placed on each individual plastic board piece, which is time consuming and really should have just been done at the factory.