World War 5 is an Icehouse game for 2-4 players, published by Looney Labs. It was a promotional Holiday offering from the company, sent to the people on their mailing list in November 2008.

I was very pleased and surprised to receive the game in the mail. It came as a glossy, colour, legal-sized page folded into 4, the were taped shut to prevent damage. The game board was on one side, and the rules fit on the other.

I had the pyramids necessary to play, in the appropriate colours, and several Risk-obsessed students I wanted to convert, so I brought it out during lunch the very next day.

The rules are simple and elegant. Briefly, each player starts the game with three pyramids (one each of sizes small, medium, large) which he/she places on the three territories of his home continent. A supply of 6 additional pyramids, 2 each of the three sizes, is kept at hand. A player can take only one of four possible actions each turn:
(A) build a new pyramid on an unoccupied territory on his home continent;
(B) increase the size of a pyramid on a territory on his home continent;
(C) move one of his pyramids from one territory to an unoccupied, adjacent territory; or,
(D) attack an adjacent territory with one of his pyramids.

As the game text states, the game was inspired by Risk and Diplomacy. The conflict resolution rules borrow heavily from the latter game. Each player involved in the conflict rolls a number of dice corresponding to the size of her pyramid (small = 1, medium = 2, large = 3), with the highest sum determining the winner. A tie goes to the defender. If the attacker wins, the defender must surrender the territory by moving to an empty adjacent territory. If that is not possible, the defending pyramid goes down one size, with small pyramids being removed from the board.

A player who no longer has any pyramids on his home continent is eliminated from the game. This frequently occurs when a player's last remaining pyramid is displaced from his home territory after losing a battle. Victory comes when a player occupies all three territories of continent other than his/her home continent, while maintaining at least one pyramid on the home continent at all times.

As promised, the games are very short, and dynamic. Despite the simplicity of the rules, the strategy can be quite involved (with evenly matched players). Thanks to the rapidity of the games, weaker players can quickly learn from their strategic blunders, such as needlessly attacking an opponent's pyramid and thereby providing them with a free move (as the piece is displaced).

This is an ideal Icehouse game, making excellent use of the components to deliver a well-designed abstract war game. The game is available as a deluxe version printed on cardboard. Mine has shipped, and I am looking forward to getting it.

We got this, and thoroughly enjoy it. We have played several games now. To up the ante in a 2 player game, just to make it more challenging, we used our house rule that you must conquer 2 continents instead of 1... no extra Icehouse pieces though

I think it's kind of odd that you can displace somebody as soon as you win the attack. Not to mention, "displacing" them all the way from lower South America all the way to Western Australia. It feels...unfair almost. I mean, I feel like it's OK for them to be displaced, but if they're forced to leave their home continent, then I think they should have to downsize, or be destroyed.

[For example: It would be like if you were playing Diplomacy, and you had a surrounded army on, lets say Picardy, that was displaced, instead of having it be disbanded, the player could just be like, "Nope. Sorry. Sigh... I guess I've just got to move up to England then, man what a shame."]

Also - another thing I find odd is that when a player attacks another player, say, a 3 versus a 3 match, the one that loses, has to move, even if they were equal strength. (A 3 army isn't just going to run away from another 3 army!) I feel like there's a difference between wanting to fight somebody to diminish their numbers and destroy them, and wanting to actually move in and take their space.

So if your objective is the latter, Then I think the player whose trying to move in on his opponent, should have to bring his opponent down to zero, and eliminate him, before he can just walk right into his space after one measly fight/dice roll. That would also give the player who lost, "round one" a chance to decide whether he wanted to stay and fight it out, just in case the tables turned, or whether he wants to just get out of harms way to avoid losing strength or being destroyed. But neither of those happen. It's just Bam! - you lose one roll, and suddenly yer on a different continent.

With all this being said - I own this game - and I F**ING LOVE IT.
Don't think think I'm writing this in the Review section to deter anyone from trying this game out. It's Rad. It's fast paced, got an easy setup, has a high replay value, it's easy to learn, inexpensive, and it's the perfect little coffee shop game that you can take anywhere.

These were just aspects of the rules that I was a little confused about when I was first playing the game, and I didn't see anything online about these particular aspects, but as I figured out how to play the game correctly, I was just kind of like, "Oh. OK. That's weird. I thought it was like this. Hmph, whatever - Still cool though."

So - I guess that's that.