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Risk is cool, and some of the variants are neat, but there are some doors that once you've walked through, you can never go back.
One of those, for me, is diceless combat resolution.
Diplomacy was my Risk-killer, and still a candidate for the greatest board game of all time. Strategy, tactics, negotiation, conspiracies, betrayal -- and no dice. There is no such thing as "bad luck" in Diplomacy, only weak negotiation and poor strategy.
Playing Diplomacy is the first time I've ever seen a grown person cry over a board game. And more than once.
If the idea of getting six other people and committing six hours of your life to a board game is daunting (it doesn't seem to be, but who knows) isn't your forté, or if you want something with a bit more luck in it (but still no dice,) A Game of Thrones is an impressive conquest game with a card-driven engine but a luck-free combat mechanic. Cards dictate when you get armies and when you get supplies, but the actual tactics are implemented through hidden orders revealed simultaneously and dice-free fighting. Apparently it's an even better game if you read the novels, but I haven't and I'm still really impressed with it.
There are still a lot of "dicey" games that I love (Marvel Heroes springs to mind, and Arkham Horror), but I can't go back to Axis & Allies or Risk now that I've tried systems that don't use a handful of dice to determine battle outcomes. |
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