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Likewise, I used to love Risk growing up but have seen the dice destroy players who were playing smartly but the randomness of battles doomed them and there wasn't anything they did wrong except get poor dice rolls.
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This happened to me before. My 16 armies vs opponents 2, for what would be a massive on-board advantage and put me in very strong position to win the game. I lost the battle, as we both had 1 army standing at the end; my lines were broken and I never recovered.
C'est la vie! (But that was the last time I volunteered to join a game of vanilla Risk.)
My all-time favorite board game is Diplomacy though. ...
At the risk of causing problems... what about a NWR game of
Diplomacy? I'd be in.
There is really no other game like Diplomacy. No luck, all negotiation, tenuous cooperation to achieve goals until somebody inevitably betrays their partner. It's something that everyone should experience at least once.
The reason I hesitate to ask is because the game can lead to hurt feelings is people take the betrayal too seriously. You need to accept that it
will happen before starting, and that it's part of the game. As a bunch of Werewolf players, that kind of deception shouldn't be hard to understand though.
... Star Wars Epic Duels. ...
Epic Duels is one of the best Star Wars fan games ever made. They tend to be expensive now, but I grabbed a couple of copies when it was marked down for clearance back in the day as gifts. My brother and cousin both got a copy, and played them like mad. Even made up their own maps and stuff to expand the game. Great fun!
They made some other versions of the Epic Duels system, I think. Transformers definitely got one, but that game wasn't as well received because each deck of cards was for a single character instead of a team of two. Seemed to be less strategy involved, if I recall correctly... although it's such a light game anyway maybe that's not a big deal.
If you like Star Wars, you should try to track down the currently available
Star Wars Risk. It's got "Risk" on the box, but plays nothing at all like that classic game - instead it's a slimmed down remake of a game called "Queen's Gambit" that came out years ago. (Queen's Gambit is a fantastic Star Wars game based on Episode I, but it's incredibly expensive now and not really worth the asking price IMHO.)
Star Wars Risk only supports two players, always finishes in under an hour, and recreates the final three battles during Return of the Jedi. It's a light game but very fun! You can often find them on sale for around $20 if you keep your eyes open. (Available right now in Canada at Toys R Us for CDN $25; in the US Amazon has the basic version for USD $25 or you can grab the "black series edition" with nicer components for USD $28.)
If you do play it, there are some rules clarifications here that help make the game more balanced, otherwise the Imperials will have a hard time winning:
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1447610/some-rules-clarificationsDon't read the whole thread - it devolves into people making up a bunch of house rules (often because they fancy themselves as amateur designers who "know better" rather than learning to play well with the rules as published). The first post has all the info you need.
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