war (wôr) --n. 1.
a major armed conflict between nations or between organized parties
within a
state. 2. the science, art, or
profession of military operations.
game (gam) --n.
1. an amusement or pastime 2. a competitive activity involving skill,
chance and/or
endurance on the part of two or more persons . . . usually for their own
enjoyment.
For many centuries people have used games to
entertain themselves. Over the
years many
popular formats have evolved. One of the
most popular frameworks involves
the taking over
of something. Be it an economy (as in
Monopoly) or the world, taking
control is the
major goal of many games produced today.
Two of these games are Risk
from Parker
Brothers and Diplomacy from Avolon Hill.
Both Risk and Diplomacy are concerned with
building an empire of the territories
on the game
board. In Risk one is attempting to
conquer the entire world, while in
Diplomacy one
wants to control Europe.
The play of the former entails strategy and
dice rolls to simulate battles. A player
begins his turn
with a certain number of armies which he places in the territories he already
controls. How many he receives is decided by the number
of territories he controls. He
then proceeds to
attack neighboring countries and move his armies into those countries if
his attack is
successful. A battle is simulated by the
attacker rolling up to three dice
(depending on how
large his army is) and the defender rolling up to two. The dice are
paired up
(attackers highest with defenders highest, etc.) and the higher die of each
pair
wins; ties are
counted as a defending victory. The
loser(s) then removes one unit for each
loss from his
army. At the end of a turn, the player
may choose to make a strategic move
in which he takes
units from one army and transports them to an adjoining territory that he
controls. Plays are taken in turn. Although not covered in the rules of play,
alliances and
enemies are
usually made and broken frequently throughout the game.
The action of Diplomacy, however, revolves
around the forming and breaking of
alliances and
adversaries. All players take their
turns at the same time instead of in a
sequence. Between turns, the players are allotted ten
to fifteen minutes to converse
privately with
other players to make deals concerning the movement and plays, and to
notate their
moves. After the allotted time is up,
the players meet back in the game room
and pass the
sheet of paper with the moves of their armies to the person to the right and
that player reads
the moves aloud and moves the pieces to their destinations. After all the
moves have been
made, conflicts are resolved. Conflicts
are resolved by counting the
armies in the
square, counting how many armies are supporting each army and then
adjusting the
pieces.
Although Risk and Diplomacy both have the same
premise, the play of each results
in two very
different games. Risk becomes a game of
luck with a little bit of strategy, and
Diplomacy becomes
a game of cooperation and backstabbing.
Both games can be fun and
entertaining,
depending on your mood and the people playing.
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