Besides reissued G.I. Joe action figures, there was one other revived '80s plaything that found my kids and me bonding in geekdom over the recent holidays. The latest incarnation of Battleground: Crossbows and Catapults ($40 for the starter War Chest) turns your living-room floor into a Lord Of The Rings-style battlefield, and unlike the flimsier version many of us played as kids, it also packs stronger plastic armaments and better-detailed figures.
Choose to play as either knights or orcs; set up your castle, soldiers, flags and walls; and load your rubber-band-powered crossbows, catapults and cannons with battle discs. There's actually a good bit of strategy involved, and in my family, our 7-year-old had little trouble grasping the basic rules (although, being 7, he delights more in breaking them). His brother, 4, has also enjoyed getting into the action (as has Mom), and no matter what your tolerance for rules or geekiness, the game offers a ton of leeway in making things up as you go along.
The War Chest (pictured) includes 80 pieces, and a variety of additional sets let you add bigger and badder weapons to your arsenal. For those parents who are concerned about violence, the game's core principles -- taking turns; strategizing; and understanding basics of physics, force and aim -- are designed more to teach patience and improve fine-motor skills than to encourage fighting. I mean, I played the thing endlessly as a kid, and I turned out OK...
