I Am Not Prepared To Share This Planet With The Dalek

For 2-5 players, aged 10+, Risk: The Dalek Invasion of Earth lets players fight as either black, bronze or silver Daleks of the classic design, or red or yellow New Paradigm Daleks. But watch out for the TARDIS, sweeping across the board, defending the Earth!

 

And when I play RISK, I play with a kind of ruthlessness that is not genuinely a part of my character. I will break all alliances, I will lie, cheat and steal and I will eventually make you cry at one point during the game. But that is the fun of RISK. I miss games night.

 

I taught at a school once where they had me sub in for the 'special ed' teacher on Tuesday afternoons. It was the time when they played board games to learn about how to co-operate but these are not the kind of kids who respond well to weakness. They prefer games where they can be predators and attack others weaker than themselves - just like happens in their world everyday.

 

I played RISK with that same kind of bloodthirsty enthusiasm with them. We would link two boards together like they were two planets with a portal through Greenland and Australia. That way ten kids plus myself could play at one time. It was always a panic but a really good lesson in learning how to deal with defeat because there can only be one winner in the end and I was not going to just throw the game so that some angry teen can feel better about themselves. Don't judge me. It's part of life. It's part of my teaching style. I love watching real life enemies being forced to make an alliance to defeat a strong opponent like me. I love it even more when I crush their pitiful dreams on conquest.

 

Sorry, got teaching on my mind these days and images online seem to find whatever I am thinking about when something like that happens.

 

21 more hours of instruction left before they exams are scheduled to be written. Sigh. I wish I knew at the beginning what I know now. I would do things differently for sure. I still don't know if I want another chance to get it right. I might just walk away on a high note and leave them wanting more...before they realize what a fraud I am.