The Historical Battles Club started playing Backstabbr, a conquest based strategy game similar to Risk, during their meetings in December. The game is played in Mr. Vucurevich’s room, Room 219, every Friday during Lunch.    

“The purpose of the activity is to analyze why rulers throughout history have done their particular actions instead of better ones,” said Vice President Richard Cheng (12). “You’re basically putting yourself in their shoes.”

In Backstabbr, each person is assigned to a country or region. Each country can have one or two people. All of the countries are located in Europe. The purpose of the game is to conquer as much land as possible. This is done by an attack, while also utilizing the terrain and making alliances to strengthen your attack. During the game, the player get 20 to 25 minutes to try and negotiate with other players. Then, they must fill out a turn sheet based on whether are attacking or defending. The turn sheet has commands for attack and construction. When attacking, your troops move onto an adjacent enemies’ territory. When defending, the player stays in their own territory. There are 4 seasons each year: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Winter is special because it is the only season in which you can construct troops, and each troop constructed is one indivisible unit.

“Combat is pretty simple.” said club president Edward Yi (12). “But utilizing the terrain is hard.”

In order to win a battle, you must make sure that you have enough troops, your own and your allies supporting armies. You must also try to surround the enemy so that they do not have access to their supporting armies.

“There’s a lot to consider when making an alliance.” said Yi. “You must consider whether you can trust them, or if you want to fight them or not.”

Your allies can supply you with troops during attack and defense. It will also help you increase your territory.

”It took about two meetings to get [the game] set up and explain the rules to everyone.” said Yi.

The game will continue until the end of the second semester. The map used for this game was made by the founders of the club four years ago.