Risk: Battlefield Rogue – First Look!
Yes, Risk. It’s a skirmish game, not a conquer-the-world game. Truth be told, it’s a videogame on your tabletop, which is what you’d expect from a cross-branded game that is using the Risk name to sell a tabletop adaptation of the Battlefield series.
The thick box belies the contents. If there were expansions coming, the size of the box would be appropriate.
The contents are shrink-wrapped into their own bags, along with one large empty zip-lock bag to hold all the bits once you bust them out.
Why they couldn’t have made the figure bags zip-lock, no one knows.
Dice are just blank cubes, and you’re expected to sticker them yourself before play.
There are 4 colors of figures, each in their own poly-bags.
Big deck of cards in there.
They give you a variety of powers and tools for your squads in the game.
The scenarios are also on cards that give you a map layout victory conditions.
Map tiles are big cards to be punched out, with admin markers are around the edges.
There’s a sheet of stickers, and the rulebook.
Map card detail. There are several different locations, and it’s area-based maps / movement.
There are admin markers that are color-coded to the teams.
Some of the admin markers are larger cards with detailed info.
There are 4 sculpts, corresponding the character types imported from the Battlefield videogames.
How does it play? Keine ahnung. There are some underwhelming reviews online, but I picked it up at about 70% off at Target to give me a combat game I can play with my son. It might not have been worth the original retail price, but is it worth $7.50? I hope so.
The game could be bettered if:
1) The cardboard tiles representing the helicopters and tanks were replaced with plastic miniatures in the relevant team colours.
2) The dice were less chunky and crafted properly with a smooth, glossy coating.
3) The makers sold expansion kits with more map tiles and scenario cards.
4) Most annoyingly of all, the game was sold with a proper storage tray.
Us UK board gamers have to go that little bit further in order to get our hands on games commonly sold in North America. Games such as Risk Battlefield Rogue, Memoir ’44, etc. are only available through Amazon or eBay sellers who export to Europe and the UK. This often means a cheap price for the game is often counter-acted with large shipping charges and I’m sure this puts off many potential buyers.
I managed to buy Monopoly U.S. Army Edition for a very reasonable price from a U.S. seller. As I didn’t open any of the packets I was able to more than recover my money when I eventually went to sell it to a British collector.
U.S. makers/distributors should be advised there is a world outside America and a bigger market for their games.
Post Script:
Memoir ’44 is more readily available in the UK than I first suggested. However there are many more very good board games that aren’t making it over here. It’s a travesty.