The Art of War

I'm playing a new game called Subterfuge. Is a variation of the classic board game called Diplomacy in which you have a map and real-human opponents and basically you need to take over everything or get most resources. But because everyone is surrounded, you need to create alliances to survive..and break them to win. So there's a very important manipulating element at play. Now that's how I discovered I'm a scoundrel!

Also, I suck at it cause I like to double cross my partners for funsies! Not a good strategy with no end-game in sight but it's just more fun to see how angry people get at this. Basically that's the emotional part of the game that makes it interesting to play. Given that the games plays over a week or two, you get to talk with these people pretty much and build some history.

But as an interesting social experiment, which is the part that actually makes me tick, I am not yet sold on its valability. It can be only one mindset is bad for alliances as we all know this won't last and breaking your word sigh unseen is too easy and too low cost not to happen too often to make any game meangingful. You can't really high five your friend or laugh in someone's face with any degree of satisfaction. It's just another text.

The game plays over multiple days and while you make moves rarely, you tend to open the game wayy too often and takes over your life a little maybe.
The strategy part is interesting and a lto of things can happen in very unexpected ways..however, the stakes are low and seems useless.

I guess is fun for a game or two but I am not sure if I'll keep playing long term.

The only benefit is that it got me interested in military strategy and I'm looking for books on that, starting with Sun Tzu the classic "The Art of War". Silver linings everywhere!

PS: you can find the game on iOS if you want to give it a shot. very easy to learn and get into.