The idea behind same-time gameplay is that RISK remains a turn-based game - the main difference being that all players take their turns at... wait for it... the same time.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the board game, each player takes complete control of the board for the duration of his or her turn, which is split into three phases: reinforcement, combat and manoeuvre. In RISK II these phases remain, but each player undertakes each phase simultaneously. For example, in the reinforcement phase, all players decide where to deploy their fresh troops (without revealing their plans to their opponents) and then, at a pre-arranged moment (either based on time or when a previously agreed number of players have completed their planning) all players 'reveal their hands' and the physical placing of troops takes place. Then it's on to the combat phase to repeat the process, and so on.

This idea was immediately presented to the group and we knew we were on to a winner. However, what we didn't know was that it would take a full six months of dedicated 'paper play' to make this seemingly simple idea begin to work as a balanced and playable game. Six months testing RISK... how did I ever find myself in this job?

What wasn't obvious from the beginning was how this change of procedure would completely redefine the dynamics of the game. For example, in the original game it was only possible for one player to attack a single territory at any given time. Under the same-time system, up to six players can find themselves attacking a single territory simultaneously, which, of course, meant that we had to devise a way of 'settling the score' once a number of players found themselves entering a newly-conquered territory.