Riskier Business - Spoiler free zone

10. Risk: Legacy

by Rob Daviau and Chris Dupuis

Players: 3 - 5
Ages: 13+
Time: 60+ minutes
Type of game: Family / War

Reccomended?: Yeh

Risk: Legacy is somewhat controversial.

After all, here is a game that you destroy over time. You will rip up cards, not remove them and put them in the box. You will write on your board with a regular pen not with a wipe clean pen. You will stick stickers on your board and onto cards that will change the way the game plays. Forever.

Except... This is actually a game that you build over time. Eventually, after 15 games or so, you will have a unique game that provides you with a visual reminder of the skirmishes that have come before. It may not be the most balanced game in the world but you'll take that into account when playing. After all, standard Risk isn't balanced because the world isn't balanced and neither will your new world be.

Playing regular Risk gives you an idea of what to expect here.
The board and the starting rules remain pretty much the same. There's a variance in claiming a card if you successfully conquer a country that adds a little more strategy and should get the game moving faster but, aside from that, so far so similar.
Beyond that base the game very quickly shows some new aspects.

The box

Hidden between the (slightly nerdy) future war cover is a carefully thought out thing of beauty.

The box is sealed with a sticker you must break in order to open it. Not only guaranteeing that nobody has "built" your world before but also reminding you of the permanence of what you are about to start.

Opening like a briefcase, you're greeted by some sealed packages and a sealed board that, again, reminds you that this game is a war. A war that you will fight and, win or lose, you will accept the consequences of your actions.

Sign and be damned!

Beneath the board lie the 5 armies and 2 extra sealed compartments ready to spread fresh havoc in the future.

Hidden beneath the components tray lies the sneakiest component I've ever seen. Do I want to open it? Yes! Will I open it? Maybe...

Armies

Gone are the cubes and beads of old school Risk. Here we have 5 different armies. Not only do they look different (which shall I have? The ones riding the bears or the ED209 knock-offs?) but they also play differently. Again, how they play comes down to you.



At the beginning of the 1st game you select an army. You also get a card with 2 distinct power stickers on it. You choose one, stick it to your armies card and throw the other one away. That's it. Gone from the game. Forever. As the game progresses more powers may become available to you making your army pretty unique.

Although you choose an army in that 1st game it doesn't mean you have to use them forever. You can chop and change depending on what's available and how tasty the powers on offer are.

Resources

Instead of receiving a random resource card upon conquering a country you can get one if you conquer a country whose card is showing on the resource board. These cards can range in value from 1 to 6 and, providing you have enough, be turned in at the beginning of your turn for more troops. If none of the countries you conquered are on the resource board you get a measly little 1 resource card.

Throughout the game you can add resource stickers to your favourite country cards to make them even more valuable. Beware! If you make it too valuable somebody may decide to destroy it at the end of the game because of the unfair advantage it gives you.



Scars



At the beginning of each game, each player gets a random scar that they can stick to a country on the board should they wish to. At the beginning of the game you will have either a bunker, for better defence, or an ammo shortage to weaken defence. These can sway they tide of battle but, as you only get one each game, need to placed carefully to ensure maximum impact.

The board holds handy reminders of what the scars do and has places for future scars that, presumably, are included in the extra packages.

Rules



Event the rule booklet doesn't escape customisation. As you progress through the game you will find stickers to place in the rule booklet that change or add to the established rules.

Win (or live through) a game and you get the chance to add or remove something in the game. This could be as simple as adding a resource sticker to your favourite country...

...or as founding and naming your very own city in your favourite country.

Envelopes

We've opened one envelope so far due to my Risk rubbishness. I'm not telling you what was inside but at least it gave me something to read while the game finished.

I'm 1 game in so far with Risk Legacy with (at least) 6 hidden elements yet to come into play. The shape of the game is yet to be decided and I can't wait to see what it will finally be.

The Resistance

My wife, Kate, and I went to spend the last day of this holiday with our friends Luke & Louisa. As Luke had asked, I brought along a bag of games to play. Knowing that he had also invited a few other people I brought games that would be quick to learn and fun. The first game we played and, by extension, the first of my 100 games I played in 2012 was...


1. The Resistance
Players: 5 - 10
Ages: 13+
Time: Approx 30 mins
Type of game: Co-operative, Team play, traitor element
Recommended?: Highly

Nervously, you look around. You know there are traitors amongst you. Who can you trust? Who is out to betray you and your mission?
Finally, you decide who is going to accompany you on your final mission to overthrow the corruption that is all around you. Next, comes the voting. Everyone gets their chance to cast their vote even if, secretly, they're a sneaky conniving spy.
The votes stand at 4 in favour, 2 against so the mission will go ahead! Euphorically you hand out the tools your little team will need to complete the task safe in the knowledge that the 2 treacherous spies must have been the ones voting against you.
One last step left. Your mission strike team now select the equipment they will use on the mission. If they select a blue card they are doing their bit to make the mission succeed. A red card means they're a spy, they've sabotaged the mission enough to ensure it fails and you have doomed everyone by making a poor decision.
Slowly you gather up the cards your team have selected and, one by one, you flip them over for all to see.
Blue, blue - you start to breathe a sigh of relief - another blue - relaxed now, you mentally give yourself a pat on the back - Red!
How could this have happened? You were so careful! You look up at your team with eyes filled with distrust and regret. One of them betrayed you. Your best friend? Your wife? Or the new girl?
There's no way back now. The mission failed and you've run out of chances so the spies have nothing to lose by revealing themselves. Everyone reveals their true allegiances and suddenly you're reeling. You've been living a lie for the last 10 years. Your wife, your sweet innocent wife, shows her true colours and you can never, EVER, trust her again.

The Resistance, at its heart, is a game played not with counters or a board or cards (although they all feature to some degree) but with your head.
The premise is simple. It's the future and you are part of a resistance cell. You're dealt a card that shows which team you belong to. Your group will consist of mostly Resistance, but there will be some Spies.
The Resistance have to pass 3 missions to succeed, the spies have to make 3 missions fail. Simple enough?
The twist is that the spies know the identity of the other spies. They can work together to spread dissent and bring the missions down.
The resistance are left to guess, use logic to eliminate options and mistrust. But mostly mistrust.

Once learnt the game can fly past or go slowly and tensely depending on who you are playing with. While the selection of mission teams and the playing of cards drives the game forward, the discussions in between rounds are where it really gets interesting. As accusations fly around you can find yourself talking other people out of trusting you by protesting too much.

It's Werewolf or Mafia with more going on or Battlestar Galactica Lite. Neither of which are bad things.

Its rare that this will be played just once. This is the kind of game which will have someone asking "Can we play again?" as you collect up the cards. With such a short running time and so much involvement for all players it's hard to say no to just one more game. You never know, as you deal out those cards, you might just find yourself able to trust your wife again.


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