Bunker Hill Risk Game

In this game, we will try to approximate the way that the odds went at the Battle for Breed’s Hill.  That means each side has advantages AND disadvantages, as reflected in the rules.

The entire class, broken down into groups of 8

How to Play:         
Passing the British dice around the group, one by one the British soldiers throw their dice against the Patriot, until she dies.  Here’s how to decide who dies:    

1. Whichever number on the dice is higher, that person wins that roll.
2. If a British soldier loses, she “dies” a dramatic death and passes the dice to the next British soldier. 
3. If the Patriot loses once, she gets a second try.  (Because she has the wall to protect her.) 
4. If the Patriot wins the second toss, she continues to play the British soldiers around the circle until she “dies.”  However, she starts fresh with each soldier.  So, if she lost once with the first British soldier, she still has two chances to win against the second British soldier and the third if she beats the second, etc. 
5. If the Patriot loses a second time, she dies a dramatic death and passes the dice to someone else to be the Patriot soldier.  She now becomes a British soldier to fight against the next Patriot soldier.
6. However, those Patriots didn’t have much ammunition.  So, each Patriot can only “shoot” or throw the dice seven times before she must “die” and pass the dice to the next Patriot soldier.
7. Keep going until everyone has had at least one chance to be the Patriot. 

As you go through the game, someone should keep score of how many British die and how many Patriots die.  When the teacher calls out that the game is over, each group should tally its scores and report them to the teacher.  The teacher keeps makes a battlefield total to see whether or not the game approximated reality.  (In reality, the Patriots lost about 500 men, the British lost about 1,000.) 

This game typically gives at least two, good teaching opportunities.   First, it’s a good way to review probability and talk about what the probability of dying was for each side. What made the odds better or worse for each side?  Was it inevitable that this battle would end this way?  How could one side or the other have changed their odds in advance?