Warfish is, in a nutshell, a darn good implementation of an online Risk-style strategy game. The presentation is simplistic, which allows you to concentrate on conquering the planet and not get distracted by fancy graphics and sounds.
Play occurs by visiting a particular game’s webpage. You see, each game has a unique ID and (after logging into the site), you are able to access your current active games. Its turn-based, and after completion of a player’s turn, the next player is notified via email. Because of this, games can last anywhere from a day or two, to more than a week.
The game setup can be customized in various ways. If you are familiar with Risk, the rules are pretty similar. The first step in the game is for the players to colonize the territories of the six continents. This can be handled in several ways. Since it is turn-based over email, handling colonization the traditional way can be quite time consuming. So, Warfish offers a couple of alternatives to the traditional. Blind-at-once colonization involves all the players ranking all of the territories in order of preference, at the same time. Then, in order, the game assigns territories based upon preference order. The way in which I usually play is to allow the game randomly assign players to different territories. Sometimes, this leads to obvious advantages for particular players, but that just makes it more of a challenge for the other players.
The next step in game setup is to place your armies in the territories you colonize. Again, this can be handled in one of several different ways. The traditional way, where each turn involves a player placing a single unit in a territory that he/she colonizes. This, again, takes a long time. Also, once again, the game can assign the units for the players. This is obviously the quickest way to get started, but removes that part of the strategy. My personal favorite way to play is to choose blind-at-once placement. This involves all the players simultaneously placing all of their units without knowing where any other player is placing them. Not until all of the players have placed all of their units does the placement of each player become visible to all. It makes for a fun moment in the game when the concentration of force becomes apparent. Wheels certainly start spinning at this point.
One other part of the gameplay that can be customized is the card-scale. At the end of each turn, if a player has captured at least one territory he/she is awarded one card. Once a player has completed a set (3 of a kind, or 1 of each of 3 types), he/she can trade that set in for units. The card-scale comes into play, as it determines how many units a player gets for trading in a set of cards. The most common scale I have played in my games has started at 4 units, and incremented by 1 after each set has been traded the scale continues 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, [+5...]. This makes trading in cards later in the game extremely important. It also scales well to the total number of armies present in the later stages of the game, and also can provide some dramatic momentum swings.
In addition, the game has a mechanism whereby players can leave messages for all to read. This means that there will usually be plenty of smack-talk during a game. And, what is boardgame without smack-talk?
Unfortunately, at the moment, the only way to play Warfish is to be invited to join a game by a current player. I haven’t looked myself, since I have been playing for quite a while now, but I would imagine there are plenty of places on the ‘net where you can find games to join.
Current players can now recruit others!
I think we usually play with the standard Risk 4-6-8-10-12-15-20-25-… card progression, actually.
Gotta agree, though, this is a brilliant way to implement a strictly turn-based multiplayer board game. Trying to do Risk 2020 AD (or whatever the one Dan has is called) would be trickier, since you can play cards in reaction to things other players do. You could probably do it with Catan, but it might get bogged down when players try to do lots of trading. Hmm…Axis & Allies might be another good one to do this way, now that I think of it, especially since, like Risk, the main drawback to it is the ridiculous amount of time it can take to play.
I can’t remember the last time I played Axis and Allies. Actually, now that I think of it, I don’t think I have played the actual board game. Only the multiplayer, online PC game several years ago. I don’t remember the specifics, but a game based on competing dice rolls wouldn’t be that difficult to develop for the web (as was done with Warfish), as long as the play has a strict turn-based mechanic (and, out of turn play is not allowed).
Yup, which is why A&A is such a good fit.
So, when do you start construction of the online A&A?
Heh, right after I finish my Java Amun-Re, which I haven’t touched since I first started it. Sounds like a good project for a class, though, or maybe some directed study…
I thought it was a Java Zombies?
And, I have yet to play Amun-Re, New England… I am so far behind.
I’m probably stopping by J’s to pick Dan up anyway, want I should grab one of those while I’m there?
Well, there is Risk: Godstorm, and Carl has Doom: The Boardgame.
Hi guys,
If you like warfish, you should try my online multiplayer Risk game – Conquer Club. It has many differences. You don’t need to be invited, it’s more graphical (although 100% standard html), there’s a club forum. But it is also one of those turn-a-day type implementations.
Check it out at
Hope to see you there
While you’re at it, check out LandGrab:
http://landgrab.sodapopboy.com
I certainly will have to give each of Conquer Club and Land Grab a try. Nice to see there are options out there for people who haven’t received a Warfish invite!
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Conquer Club sucks. Their interface is TERRIBLE. Landgrab is no better. Warfish is King (Long Live the KING!). New enhancements are being made every day. Most easy-to-use and intuitive interface you’ve ever seen for an online risk-style game. Endless customizability. Productive and wildly creative community of board designers coming out with new twists on gameplay and graphics every day. Click the link to check it out!
Holy SMOKES!!! I went to that Warfish.net site a few years ago when it was starting, but I saw this and went back again today and WOW!!!! It’s AMAZING!!!
You have NO IDEA how much the Warfish user interface is better than anything else, including that weird Conquer Club or Landgrab. Warfish.net uses a fantastic array of fully customizable and clickable maps, direct attacking via a mouse click or keyboard shortcut, and there’s also a Flash based interface option which COMPLETELY BLOWS MY MIND!!!
Seriously, there is no question, anyone who read this and ever had any fun playing the board game Risk is going to LOVE this!!!
Ten stars across the board for me! My new favorite website! =D
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