Obtained: New Version of Risk 2008 (Retail Version of Risk: Black Ops Ruleset)

Image courtesy Buffalo GameBuffs Blog

Earlier this year Hasbro released into the wild Risk: Black Ops, a limited-edition, droolworthy, ultra-sexy version of the new standard ruleset for the classic board game Risk. Hasbro sent out 1000 promotional copies to board game reviewers and press with the intention of drumming up support for the new release this summer. The game, as you can see from the pics at Boardgamegeek at the link above, is totally bad-ass. The box features dogtags and barbed wire, reminiscent of Cold War era Gulags. The board itself is black and white and very modern, reminiscent of Call of Duty 4. The tokens themselves are minimalist geometric shapes. Although I love the design sense, I can't see myself paying what these are fetching on Ebay ($117.50! Really?) At any rate, the goal of the Black Ops set was to get folks talking about the revamp of the standard ruleset. Unfortunately the revamp would not include the bleak Cold War component redesign.

All I've seen for the release date so far has been the ambiguous "Q2/Q3" or "late summer." Well, I went into Toys-R-Us today and I'll be damned if I didn't see one of the new sets in the wild. Naturally I picked it up (the last standard version I bought was the 40th Anniversary Edition with the die-cast figures). I haven't played it yet, but here's the scoop on the major changes:

1) Rule book is a folder filled with tabbed dossier components. Each tab references one of the rule headings: A) How to set up basic training (the beginner version of the rules), B) How to draft, C) How to attack, D) Objectives and rewards (more on this later), and E) ending your turn. The overall design here is militaristic and clearly explained.

2) The troops have been replaced with small arrows for 1 troop and larger arrows representing 3 troops. Clean and easy to read, I think these are an improvement from the Napoleonic Troop, Horse, and Cannon.

3) Instead of trading in a set of the aforementioned Troop, Horse, and Cannon, the cards in this game each have a star. Trade in at least 2 stars worth of cards for new troops, but the more stars the better. 2 stars nets 2 free armies, but 10 will score you 30.

4) Cities are randomly placed on the board at the start of the game. Controlling a city gives you the same troop resupply as a territory; in other words, troops plus cities divided by 3 is your base troop number.

5) Each player has a capital. You must control your capital to end the game. Controlling your capital nets you one additional army.

6) The goal of the game is not world domination (unless you optionally decide to play that way). At the beginning of the game, the team randomly places four major objectives and four minor objectives and the appropriate rewards for each. Win the game by taking into your possession 3 of the community objectives. They range from "Take over 10 territories in 1 turn" for a major objective to "Control North America" as a minor objective.

7) Troop maneuvers at the end of each turn occur along supply lines.

The idea behind the standard rule tweaks is to open this game up to the masses. A game should finish in about an hour. Unlike the sweaty 10-hour domination matches we used to play at Arkansas Governor's School.

Anywho. I haven't played yet and I don't have pics, but if you're interested in playing hit me up.

Watch this space for a gameplay review later this week.

Interview with Rob Daviau, one of the designers of the revamp on Gameshark. Link