Something somewhat unusual has happened to me over the last year and a half plus some. I have become a Board Game Geek.

Not that it's especially unusual for me to be geeky about something; most of you know of my affinity for geeky TV shows (these need not be named, let it merely be said that I can identify most internal components of a Type-40 TARDIS console and am well aware of the registry number of an Intrepid-class starship of some renown), geeky books, geeky fields of graduate study, and the like. But board games were not a staple of my childhood or early development. From an early age I've had numerous, dubious flirtations with chess, and I've been known to indulge in the occasional game of Scrabble, although I usually do quite badly. I suppose the board game I played most often was the famous Trivial Pursuit, but the actual dynamics of the game bored me (no pun intended). For the most part I just wanted to show off all the useless crap I knew.

But now I must confess to being a Board Game Geek for strategy games. So much so that I can name quite a few games I enjoy playing, some of which you may or may not have heard of.

Risk
Oh, everyone's heard of this one. Risk's reputation is that it takes forever and gets extraordinarily dull once it passes its fourth hour. The first half of that is quite true. I have participated in Risk tournaments that have exceeded three days, with at least 8 and as many as 12 hours of continuous play per day. My favorite thing about Risk is the distribution of power across the entire globe, necessitating a complex alliance structure when one plays with four to six really experienced players. Of course, alliances in Risk are utterly informal, which gets very interesting once players begin to get eliminated and everyone cops to the idea that there's only one winner. My big beef with Risk? All that messing around with dice. I know strategy game fans who absolutely refuse to play Risk because of all the dice - sheer randomness that can radically unbalance the game. My answer? There's a reason the game isn't called Certainty.

Risk: 2210 AD
We haven't actually played this one yet, but I can't wait to; it's Risk set in the early 23rd century. Now you can acquire territory underwater and on the moon, and you can also use nuclear weapons and "commanders" who re-balance the luck equations a little by letting you roll 8-sided dice for some maneuvers. The geopolitics of the future are also really funny: Lesotho rules the entire southern end of Africa. North America is divided between the remnants of Quebec, the Exiled States of America (in Iceland!), Mexico, and Alaska's Northwestern Oil Emirate. All of Central Asia is Afghanistan. And New York is an underwater colony. The best variation, besides the commanders, is the dynamic turn order (players bid game currency to decide who goes first, second, etc., on each of five turns).

Politika (aka Tom Clancy's Politika)
This is a fun little game that's often ignored, I think mainly because of the poor board design. You play one of eight factions vying for power and influence in post-Soviet Russia after the unexpected death of the Russian president. Once you pick your faction (Mafia, KGB, Church, Communists, Nationalists, Military, Separatists, or Reformers), you move representatives around a board of Russia (great for learning Russian geography, by the by) and attempt to wield influence over the largest number of territories. This game really brings home the sacrifice of warfare, as "attacks" may only be made after you purchase dice for them (to the inflationary tune of $20,000 per die!). Alliances are much more formal and certain combinations can be quite deadly; the game's only real flaw is that the cardboard influence tokens measure 1/2" by 1/4" and fly across the room at the slighest breeze. That and once you run out of money, you're F-ed, comrade.

Diplomacy
This may be the ultimate strategy game. It's apparently been around forever, although I never heard of it until last semester. To all appearances, Diplomacy completely eliminates luck from the process: there are no dice, all orders are presented and occur simultaneously, and all movements are determined by the simple numerics of supported alliance. The setting is Europe pre-World War I; England, France, Germany, Turkey, Austria, Russia, and Italy vie for control over 18 "supply centers" through careful movement of armies and fleets across the map. There is no combat; units can only move into territories left vacant by the withdrawal of other units, and nearly everything requires the support of one (or two, or three, or six...) other nations. Temporarily. Like most games, this one has only one winner. Once you get used to the notation (which is actually no more complicated than algebraic chess notation), the fun begins. A 10-year old could learn the basics of this game in half an hour, but I still struggle with the mechanics of how to win it or even advance very far. You can read all about it here.

There you have it, gang. I am a Board Game Geek.