Risk 2210 A.D.
Last night one of the players in our D&D campaign couldn't show at the last minute, so we played Risk 2210 A.D. instead. And even though I had my ass handed to me in the eleventh hour and finished behind even the completely hosed player who had been impersonating the French all game, it was awesome.
Plain-vanilla Risk, you may recall, is not a very good game. Everyone has played it, and many remember having a good time, but the fact is this: It's not a very good game. Risk 2210 A.D. fixes almost all of the gameplay problems that afflicted the original and adds boatloads of new elements that are both awesome and good for gameplay. And hundreds of little plastic robots. Array them before you in rank and file like the mighty sci-fi Patton that you are. Did I mention that it includes hundreds of little plastic robots? MODs, they call them. "Machines of Destruction." Be still my geeking heart.
The awesome thing is this: You have options out the wazoo. Battle is waged on so many different fronts that every decision is painful. If you attack the moon, you leave your earth-based forces exposed. If you buy too many cards, you risk not being able to activate them when the time comes. If you antagonize too many of your fellow players, they gang up and destroy you. And (preserving perfectly the flavor of the original) if you over-extend, you are hosed. This is the game I would have designed if I knew how badly I wanted to play it๓and I probably would not have designed it half as well.
I guess all I'm saying is this: someone needs to get me this game for Christmas. Perhaps, with Christmas coming and all, it bears noting that my Amazon wish list is stocked and ready for action.
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