“Junta” (the word not the game)came to use (and still pops up occassionaly) in my sphere of friends. The definition somewhat resembles manipulation, skulduggery, designed to deflect or using others to do your cock-blocking of someone in a game.

The problem is thinking back to we called it before we ever played Junta.

Junta-ing in a game is really what I think makes a game really interesting. It is with the art of Junta that someone may overcome a tactically superior opponent. I mean what makes a more beautiful coup feather in your war bonnet– Making a tactically beautiful move that helps your position or convincing someone to make a tactically horrible move… in the face of logic and the outcries of other players? For me its no contest.

I was drawn immeditatly to Diplomacy (one of only a few games I still play regularly) for some of these very reasons. It sort of take Junta-ing (although it predates it) to a professional level. I mean in the 3rd paragraph of the rule book one finds the following:
“The rules do not bind a player to anything he says; deciding whom to trust as situations arise is part of the game.” How F-ing cool is that??!!

Nuclear War and Settler’s of Catan are other Junta-ing worthy games. Also it works in real-time multi-player computer strategy games… Age of Empires, Command and Conquer etc…

Anyway…

“These are not the droids you’re looking for”

My juntaing technique in that particular game, though, relied more on beig clearly and openly loyal only to the highest bidder and making the other players believe that it was somehow worth more to keep me happy than to keep anyone else happy.

My friends won’t play Junta with me anymore. Although those particular friends aren’t really the right types for Junta anyway. One tends to take things personally. A bit like Hyrum was pretending to in your story there but for real. The other just dislikes games that are essentially about cheating, deceiving and backstabbing your friends.

Zack is the master juntaist and juntas in every winnable game he ever gets into. Well, maybe not Scrabble, but everything else. He used to keep winning in Advanced Civilization through juntaing or something similar enough at least: When another player had two or more courses of action available to him that would, really, be equally valid for said player, he always had a way of convincing him to select the one that would be most beneficial to him.

Man, now I’m all getting nostalgic about old boardgames.