Army Themed Party Games

What’s a party without a few games? I came up with these ideas for my brother-in-law’s Adiós, Army party, but decided to do a separate post because these would be great for a child’s army themed birthday party, too!

Sargeant Darts 
My sister stumbled across this toilet tattoo at the party store. (What, you’ve never tattooed your toilet????) It looked like the perfect target for darts! The family loved it. And, it can easily be recreated by printing out a sergeant cartoon. Or, have the kiddos draw one.

Discharge/Stop-Loss
When I was a kid, one of my favorite games was something my mom called “Cockroaches.” It involved tieing corks to strings, rolling dice, and catching the corks with a handled strainer. (Doesn’t that sound like fun??? No, really. It is. I promise!) This game is a twist on that one.

Supplies:

• Poker chips
• Toy army men tied to equal length strings (enough for each player to have one)
• 2 dice
• “Catcher”- either a long-handled strainer or a funnel or something else that will do the trick

1. Each player gets a toy soldier attached to a long string and 10 poker chips.
2. Determine who gets to be the “General” by having each player roll the dice. Highest roll wins.
3. Everyone except the General puts their soldier in the middle of the table.
4. The General rolls the dice. If he rolls a 7, 11, or doubles, the soldiers are discharged and players should pull their soldier out from the center of the table using the string. But the army is under a stop-loss, so the General tries to catch as many soldiers as he can to keep them in the army.
5. If the General catches a soldier, the soldier has to pay him a poker chip. If soldiers go MIA (by pulling out of the center when the General didn’t roll a 7, 11, or doubles), they have to pay the general a poker chip. If the general mistakenly catches soldiers (without rolling a 7, 11, or doubles,) he has to pay each caught soldier a poker chip.
6. After five turns being the General, the duty rotates to the next player.
7. When a soldier runs out of chips, they’re out. The final soldier left wins.

APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test)
Set up a small obstacle course and go to town. If you’re throwing an Adiós Army party, this could turn into a parade with some noisemakers and/or silly string. (My family LOVES parades. And anything that gets weird looks from the neighbors…)

If you’re doing an army birthday party you MUST check out the awesome course that Kim over at Seven Thirty Three made for her son.