illitech

One player is the German guard, the others are POWs trying to escape. Colditz was the escape-proof castle and was the subject for a PBS NOVA special as well. There is a novel based on the book, along with memoirs.

Good game, but needs multiple decks. It is possible to have multiple games going on, but at $40/game, that can get pricey for a larger class. The game is a card came. The art is accurate and attractive. Cheap copies are available on ebay.

Good game, but needs multiple decks. It is possible to have multiple games going on, but at $30/game, that can get pricey for a larger class.

Not a normally covered area. Hard to get lots of students involved. “the Columbia block games" all use similar systems, so familiarity with one WILL make the others much easier as well.

Hard to bring a game to class with the name "Cheapass" on it. If used, whiteout the references and then play. Low quality components won't stand up to prolonged use.

This is a role-playing game and free-form. It explores the horror mythos of H.P. Lovecraft which inspired Stephen King and other writers. References to Cthulhu are quite frequent, including Arkham Asylum in the Batman cartoon series.

Great for religion class, goes from Joshua to David. This could be a touchy game for a public school class as the game is very Christian-oriented. Otherwise, this is Settlers of Catan.

The rules are ok while the supplements have good information on Japan's feudal system. The advantage is the rules are simple. The disadvantage is that it requires having little figurines (although using Risk pieces work).

This requires one of two things-->money to purchase ship miniatures -OR- time, which can be used to xerox/create ship silhouettes. For a classroom budget, silhouettes are probably more efficient, and students could even be assigned creating the silhouettes, researching ships, etc. before playing. For an added twist, anyone who has a ship sunk has to have their assignment torn up! This recreates hesitation at throwing ships in to battle willy-nilly and creates a very realistic hesitation.

First edition tends to be directly tied with the World in Flames boardgame (making it harder to implement). This gives a good overview of the buildup to war, but requires some tinkering for classroom use.