Lucky Numbers

As a strategist, I swing back and forth on game mechanics that rely on dice rolls.  Certainly, luck plays a role in strategy.  Sometimes the name of the game is to increase your odds (or make your opponent think your odds are higher than they really are) and hope for the best.  I have heard and read that skill and luck are opposites.  Some even go as far as to say that to increase the amount of one decreases the other in game mechanics.  In extremes, there is validity to this belief, but there is also some skill involved in increasing your luck. 

I, personally, do not like games that require only luck--especially those which take longer than five minutes.  As a strategist, I hold on to the delusion that I have some skill.  Skill which I like to exercise when I play a game.  On the other end, however, I find myself mixed on games that require pure skill.  Chess, for instance, is not one of my favored games (I know, I have the chess background for the blog currently--I'm working on it) because against a skilled opponent, a single mistake can render a player's chances for recovery, much less victory, to near zero.  I have been on both sides of that equation.  I saw an early blunder by a novice player, and knew his fate was sealed unless I chose to throw the game.  I like to have fun and have close, fair, and fun games.  Effortlessly slaughtering a human opponent is not fun, and it is not fair.  I've also been on the other side of the table.  I could tell when I was doomed, and the game lost interest for the both of us.

A different game of pure skill that I find myself loving is Diplomacy.  There are no dice involved, and the only "luck" is in whether or not your French opponent buys your bluff about refraining from entering the English Channel.  To me that is more of a mind game--the purest form of strategy.

"So what about those classics, like Risk or Axis and Allies?"  One of my college buddies put it best.  "Pete, you have demon hands!  HOW? How can you have such luck!?"  I don't like Risk or Axis and Allies because while there is a decent amount of strategy involved in improving your odds, the games put too much emphasis on luck.  Watch 25 armies go down to 5 armies from India to Siam, and pretty soon you'll tire of beginner's luck.  Contrast this to a more complex game like Warhammer and you'll see that luck (in the form of dice) still has a role.  Luck cannot be discounted, but luck will not save you from a well executed flanking attack.

End Turn.