Apocalypse (board game)

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Apocalypse is a board game released by Games Workshop in 1980. The game is a re-release of the earlier Gibsons Games publication, Warlord.

The game is similar to Risk, played on a map of Western Europe, and, unlike Risk, allowing simulation of nuclear weapons.

The unique feature of this outstanding game is the combat system. The attacking player chooses a number on a hidden die. He is allowed to choose any number up to the number of counters attacking. The defender has to try and choose the same number on his hidden die. Thus, the more attackers, the better the odds. The clever bit is that the defender only loses one man per unsuccessful defence, but if the defender guesses right, the attacker loses the number on the die. Once the last defender is eliminated, the attacker must move exactly the number-on-the-die of attackers into the now-empty area. It is usually advantageous to move the largest number in, so it is an incentive to choose a large number on the last attack - but the defender knows this so it's rather like going "all-in" on a bluff when playing poker.

And for every turn in which you gain territory in combat you get to build a nuclear missile - which cause mayhem just as you might expect. Nuclear missiles can be captured, and cause chain reactions if hit by an enemy's strike - so use-em or lose-em !

The natural course of play tends to handicap anyone doing well as players gang-up on the main threat. Do badly, and you may well get ignored for long enough to recover. Play can go on for a very long time, though without ever becoming tedious since every turn is a desperate battle with plenty of interest for all the players.