Risk
One of our favorite pastimes when we get out to our beach house is to get a game of Risk together.
Last night and this morning, Jessica, Josh, Josh's friend Ben, and I played a long game of Risk.
I took the strategy of taking north america and heavily fortifying central america, greenland, and alaska. That worked pretty well and I just sat back and accumulated armies while the kids went after each other.
They finally woke up to my strategy, made a peace treaty among themselves and went after me.
Kind of reminds me of my Yahoo! eBay post from yesterday.
I first played this game in the early 70's - learning it from a hardcore family of military game players (their closet was filled with Avalon Hill games). However, by the time I first played, they had modified the rules.
Been a long time, but I think their mod was as simple as preventing someone from moving an *entire* army into a conquered spot. Instead, you could only move 10 units (whatever those blocks are called) in at a time.
When I finally played Risk using the published rules, I was disappointed and went back to the mod. Might give it a try. It forces some additional strategic thinking and makes certain chokepoints more valuable. The game also gets longer, btw.
Posted by: csven | May 27, 2006 at 11:47 AM
HAHA and what everyone wants is a LONGER game of risk... sometimes 12 hours of tension is enough ;).
Fred its funny you mention this analogy. I have been an avid risk player for years and recently watching the Goog/MS/Yahoo battle unfold I cannot help but think of it as nothing more than high stakes RISK.
If there is one lesson i have learnt its to conceal your dominance as best you can... something which i think Google does reasonably well altough it seems the enemy are starting to cotton on to the threat they present.
Posted by: Rob | May 27, 2006 at 12:04 PM
Wargames
http://www.strategypage.com/wargames/default.asp
War exercise, live or comupter-simulated military exersises
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_exercise
Wargaming, hobby games that simulate battle or conflict situations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargaming
Posted by: Dimitar Vesselinov | May 27, 2006 at 03:39 PM
Sounds like your kids are terrorists and your pacifist strategy wont work over time.
Maybe Bush and Cheney are right! LOL
Posted by: howard | May 27, 2006 at 05:27 PM
What i want to know is who's getting your defense contracts, and how I can get in on the action.
Posted by: Charlie Crystle | May 28, 2006 at 10:17 AM
We played countless hours of Risk growing up in the Berkshires. Great memories. When I got to high school I decided that I was annoyed by the element of chance and found a game called Diplomacy that had all of the elements of Risk I liked, but got rid of the dice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_%28game%29
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38110-2004Nov9.html
Posted by: Alexander Muse | May 28, 2006 at 11:54 AM
Our Risk game is ever present on our table in Sag Harbor. Funny thing is it is only played in SH, never in NYC. My 10 year old, who's a WWII expert/fanatic is sharping his skills that he hopes will help him get into West Point!
I however never get to play because someone has to cook and feed the players thru the duration of the game.
Posted by: Sandy Sabean | May 30, 2006 at 09:18 AM
Diplomacy is great, but Risk is more relaxing.
Posted by: jackson | May 30, 2006 at 12:03 PM