Star Wars Risk (v1.1)

I had a very cool game night tonight. Zachary and I had a go at my version of Clone Wars Risk. Now, I know some of the uber geeken are shaking their heads about the Clone Wars, but you need to keep in mind two things:

1. My kids love the new Star Wars. Maybe more than I loved the old Star Wars.
2. I like the Clones and the Droids. (Yes, I hate the gungans. Sheesh. You're incorrigible.)

So I simplified it and changed it. I haven't liked old risk in a bit. Now Star Wars (Clone Wars ed.) Risk adds some new stuff, most of which would be way over a five year old's head. So junk all the cards and things. I cut it down to the four factions available (red and yellow clones, blue and grey droids). I made two distinctions between pieces. Guys (Phase 3 clones or Super Battle droids, regardless of color) are worth 1 point. Each faction starts with 20 of those. Guys roll 1 six sided die for combat. Tanks (Turbo Tanks for clones, AATs for droids) are worth 3 points, but get to roll an eight sided die. You didn't get any tanks at the start (but I think next time I'll give 3).

Each Faction gets 4 starting locations. Red goes on Coruscant, Duro, Biss and Alderan. Yellow starts on Ilum, Malastare, Toydaria and Bogden. Blue starts on Mustafar, Utapau, Geonosis and Polis Massa. Grey starts on Kashyyyk, Felucia, Mygeeto and Saleucami. You can distribute your starting guys how you see fit, but for this game I went 5 on each for all factions. Zachary was in a Republican mood, so he decided to play the clone factions, and I played the Separatists. Ignore everything else in the box for now. He's not really old enough for this, why bog him down with more choices.

The turn order goes red, blue, yellow, grey. The first thing you do is count the number of systems you control. You get this many points to buy new units this round. Guys are1, tanks are 3. Tanks roll a bigger die. Once you pick your new guys you place them. If you don't spend all your points you don't get to keep them, so you may as well. You place new guys on the systems you already control.

Now you move. All guys and tanks get one movement. They may move to any adjacent system or across a hyperspace line, but not both. If you want to get a point for a system, you need to leave a guy or tank in it. You don't get points for systems you don't have guys in. But you don't "have" to leave a guy behind.

After you moved all the pieces for you current faction (your only faction if you're not playing two) you fight any battles you created. A battle happens anytime your troops enter a system where there are troops from the other team (there are two factions for each team). This is like risk but not, move all your pieces you want to move, then fight the battles.

The attacker (it's your turn) uses the black die. He gets a maximum of 3 die. He chooses three of the units in the attack to fight this round. If he chooses a guy he rolls a d6, if he chooses a tank he rolls a d8. Any combination is valid to a maximum of three die. If you have 3 tanks and three guys, then you can have any combo of 3d6, 2d6 and 1d8, 1d6 and 2d8, or 3d8. If you have less than 3 pieces, you use less than 3 dice as appropriate.

The defender uses the same system, but only selects two pieces to defend from the units in the system under attack. She rolls the white die (d6 for guys, d8 for tanks).

Each player rolls their selected die and compares the results. Each player presents their highest number first. Of these two die, the higher result wins, and that person must remove one piece (their choice) from the battle location and place it back in the box. In the result of a tie, the defender (rolling the white die, whose turn it is not) wins and the attacker must choose a piece to remove.

Battle continues until one side or the other is eliminated or the attacker retreats. The attacker may retreat only if he came from an adjacent system (rather than using a hyper space jump). He must retreat units back to the system from which they came.

Repeat until one team or the other is eliminated.

We had a blast. And I seriously thought he was going to hand me my hat for the first hour. It was a combination of die rolling (good on him, bad on me) and a seemingly uncanny grasp of the concept of focused attack. I won in the end because I have a better grasp of supply and eventually seriously out numbered him.

But it was close for a while.