PLAYBOOKS: FOR THE INTERNET

Risk

Divide up your troops and work towards world domination in this intense classic strategy/puzzle game.

Game play alone results in modest improvements in real-world executive skills. Please refer to our Playbook Tutorial, general coaching and comprehensive guides to transfer game skills to sustainable real-life behaviors.

QUICK FACTS

Game Type: Puzzle/Strategy
Platform/Console: Internet
How to Find It: Risk
Other Requirements: Adobe Flash Player
LWK Recommended Age: 7+

 

This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• Long and short term planning (planning)
• Monitoring their emotions (metacognition)

What You Need to Know About the Game:

In this online version of the classic board game "Risk", the player competes against two computers for a maximum of 10 rounds. A full version is available, none of its features are covered in this guide.

No reading ability is required unless the player does not already understand the rules. Each phase of the turn is explained as the game goes on, but it is very helpful to have a basic understanding of the game before playing.

How to find it:
http://www.addictinggames.com/risk.html

Controls, game basics, and instructions:
The game is played entirely with the mouse.

Solutions:

No web-based walkthroughs exist for this game. There are too many strategies to be covered in an online guide. However, after clicking the link to the game, the player can scroll down and view comments by other players. Some of these comments offer tips.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Metacognition:

This game is good for kids who need help with monitoring their condition and relating it to the feelings and condition of others, because they must:

• Manage their troops and controlled territories. Players must also take in the entire game board, relate the opponents’ positions to their own and manage their troops based on the opponents' positions. Careful analysis of all positions will lead to achieving successful self-management. In the screenshot, you can see that troop and territory management begins as soon as the game starts.

Talking Points:

• When were you able to conquer an entire continent?
• How did effectively managing your troops help you to conquer the continent?
• How is managing your troops and territories effectively in “Risk”, like managing your feelings in a group of friends?

Making it Real:

• Encourage estimation and prediction skills. Ask children how they might do on a test at school, how long it might take them to complete a task at home, or how they might perform in a game or sport. Have them record their estimates and later step back and determine the accuracy of their predictions.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Planning:

This game is good for kids who need help with long and short term planning, because they must:

• Begin planning the minute the game begins. As players lay down their initial reinforcements, they must decide which territories they want to conquer and place extra reinforcements in territories adjacent to their target (short term planning). After a few turns, the players begin to plan on which continent to conquer (long term planning). At this stage, players begin to take countries bordering their target continent and put extra reinforcements into territories in the target continent and the countries bordering it. In the screenshot above, you can see that the blue player planned to conquer Africa because they put 11 troops in their African territory.

Talking Points:

• When were you able to conquer a territory without sustaining heavy losses to your troops?
• How did you use effective planning skills to conquer the territory, while maintaining a good level of defense in your other territories?
• How is planning in “Risk” like managing your short and long term goals during the school year?

Making it Real:

• Anticipate the future. Model how one needs to plan ahead based upon the passage of time or future events. For example, if the lawn needs to be cut, discuss how one needs to start it at a particular time in order to finish it before it is dark or to plan to do it before it rains. Help children to see parallel situations such as getting their homework done before their cousins visit or planning to go to the store before it closes in order to get supplies to complete a project. Use large, visual calendars for planning. This is particularly helpful for younger children when they can place the calendars in their rooms and decorate them on their own. Use visual cut-outs to represent activities. Children may wish to use digital cameras to take pictures of a baseball game to remind them of practices or of a violin or another instrument to remind them of music lessons.