You might think Syrians scarred by war would pick relatively peaceful board games, such as Settlers of Catan or Monopoly, to pass the time and escape their brutal reality. If so, you’d be wrong.
Apparently Risk, the self-described “Game of Global Domination,” is a favorite board game of Syrians.
Wall Street Journal Reporter Raja Abdulrahim has an article on Syrian Risk fanatics. The piece follows a game of Risk played by a group of Syrians in Gaziantep, Turkey.
The Syrians even went out of their way to make the game reflect the Syrian conflict, with each color representing a different side in the real-life war. The blue pieces represented the United Nations, black pieces were the Islamic State, red pieces were the Syrian regime. The many rebel factions, falling under the Free Syrian Army, were represented by green pieces.
“Everyone wants to be green,” one player said.
Even inside Syria, Risk is popular. As one person fled Aleppo, Syria, they packed “clothes and Risk, that’s it.” One doctor fled Aleppo for elsewhere in Syria and took Risk with him.
There’s only one thing keeping Risk from more closely mirroring the Syrian conflict. “With only five colors,” Abdulrahim writes, “Risk can’t entirely capture the complexity of the actual war.”
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
