Nostalgic Games

Hello once more, friends and enemies! When most people think about board games, they’re likely to think about Monopoly, Guess Who, Life, Risk, and many other games by Hasbro, Parker Brothers, or Milton Bradley. Of course, those of us in the hobby know there are far more options out there that go far deeper than what you can find in the back of your family’s closet. That doesn’t mean that these games don’t have value or that they aren’t fun to play. I want to briefly talk about a couple of nostalgic games that I still love to play today, even if they aren’t the greatest or most complex games on the market.

The first game I’d like to talk about is Risk. I’m hoping to write another post on another game that holds a special place in my heart to follow up on this one and make a series out of it. This was my absolute favorite board game for years. As a lifelong fan of strategy games on the computer (My childhood was spent parked in front of Starcraft and Warcraft 2), I’ve always been drawn to war games and strategic board games. The first of many in this genre was, of course, Risk. I remember playing it at the after school programs I went to, always ready to break out the beat up copy that was kept in the game closet with anyone who was willing to play.

To the childhood version of myself, this was the be-all end-all of board games. Sure, I’d play Diplomacy once I got into high school and I went for a deep dive into Warhammer 40K. But for years, Risk reigned supreme. Even once I got into more complex games, Risk was always a fun way to dial down the amount of thinking needed while fulfilling that strategic urge, and it was a great gateway to bigger and better games.

When I got to college, I brought a few games with me. Risk was probably the second most played, after only the printer version of Cards Against Humanity that I spent hours cutting out. There were so many hours spent huddled around a common room table, battling out for just a couple more territories so we could bolster our position. We developed our own meta, and forged dynamic alliances and partnerships. This was a game that essentially boiled down to dice rolls and card draws, yet we had found a way to turn it into a geopolitical simulation as well. In the end, it would often come down to two of us left – one would have a stranglehold on “Fortress Europe,” while the other would be bolstering the Americas in a sort of board game Monroe doctrine. The remaining territories would be the endless battlegrounds, if any more than two players made it this far, they would be struggling to hold onto a few provinces as the two powerhouses battled for dominance and threw the occasional offer to the third party, trying to use them as vassal state.

Of course, all good things must come to an end and these games would end in spectacular fashion. It may take hours, but there would be titanic battles across the Atlantic Ocean as one of the super powers tried to assert their dominance and gain the upper hand. Oftentimes, an assault would be launched only to be called off after casualties mounted to an unacceptable level. In the end, though, one of us would always break the stalemate and then steamroll their way to victory in a matter of a few turns.

There was a lot about these games that was predictable, and the battles would prove to be anything but predictable, which would lead to elation or tragedy depending on how the dice rolled for you. While I’ve played Twilight Imperium, Diplomacy, and God only knows how much Warhammer, none of them exist in the same rose-tinted land of nostalgia that Risk does. For all its flaws, its absurdly long end game, and ability to prematurely end a player’s time on the board, it holds up remarkably well and has been the source of some incredible memories. So, if you’re ever having an itch for some strategy but don’t want to think too hard about it, why not give this old classic a try?