My Favorite Board Game Ever!

This is a review of a wonderful game. But first a note.

It has been an interesting three years as I've gotten into board games.

About a year ago I started helping out at the Solid Board Gamers (SBG). This opened up a whole world to me, as I suddenly had access to a myriad of games. Some of these games:
Terra Mystica, Seasons, Castle Panic, Lords of Waterdeep, Alhambra, Neuroshima Hex, Yggdrasil, and so on.

These are vastly different from the games of my childhood, as clued by their names.

As you already know, being a gamer yourself, The Settler's of Catan was the game to de-virginize me. Countless hours of collecting wheat and bartering for wood showed me the light. Board games didn't have to be collecting rent from unintentional tenants, world domination by dice rolls, or creating words on a grid. While all classics, I found little pleasure in the games just described. The irony is that this new world of games, made those classics better for me.

Now, as an associate of SBG I have access to their horde of boards. I usually have one or two of their games in my house at a time. This has led to me learning LOTS of different games, and I was beginning to become a little bit bored. I was beginning to feel like all games were just similar to other games I had played.

Today I write about a game that, in the crux of my dilemna, stood out above the rest.

In fact, it's a variation on one of the boring classics that I mentioned earlier.

RISK:Legacy is my favorite board game of all time. "What?! You can't just make a statement like that! This guy just lost ten notches in my book. How can I trust his opinion of games if the first game he ever writes about is his 'favorite game ever'?!"

I know, I know. Too bold a statement. Too naive a thing to say. But there you have it. As a budding physicist I am very, very hesitant to make any encompassing statements. But I make that claim with full confidence.

Risk: Legacy has revolutionized the board game world. They have taken something that is typically static, and made it dynamic. What I mean is: most games start out the exact same everytime, reducing replayability. Some games have a bit of randomization at the start to add a little flavour to each game, but retains the same starting mechanisms and startegies (eg. Settlers hex placement). This has better replayability. Risk: Legacy evolves during, and at the conclusion of, every game. The box comes with a sheet of stickers, cards with stickers, and blank spaces for permanent changes to be made to the board.

Truly, each game is different.

Additionally, there are envelopes and packages inside the box that are only to be opened when certain gameplay conditions are met. This brings in new rules, new stickers to place on the board, new victory conditions.

There are different factions in the game that have empty ability slots on their cards. New abilities appear in these secret envelopes to be used to advance each team.
The game evolves and your copy will become truly unique.

Now obviously there is a limited number of empty spaces, stickers, envelopes, abilities, etc. So eventually the evolution of your board will come to an end. But then you have your own version of Risk that no one else has.

Needless to say, this game gets me really excited. I converted my Risk-hating wife to the ways of World Domination through this edition of Risk (and I own three others).

During your next tour through your favorite game store pick up that white box of Risk that you saw last time and at least read the box. It is well worth it's retail price of $59.99 (SBG sells most games for less than retail).
When you open your brand new box of Risk:Legacy, be sure to do one thing: lift up the black plastic tray.
You'll be most intrigued by what you find.