On January 14th, Bob, Tim, Wayne, Ross and myself got together for a Risk:Godstorm game. After passing the territory cards out to everyone we slowly placed our armies down on the board three men at a time. As the army placement progressed, Tim ended up forming in Asia Minor with the bulk of his army. Bob ended up in Atlantis. Ross congealed in Europa. Wayne took up residence in Hykania north of Asia minor. I ended up in Africa. Germania lay open and virgin for either Bob, Ross or myself to take at will.
I went ahead and pretty much gobbled up all of Africa on epoch-1 hoping to be able to gain 3 additional faith tokens and armies at the beginning of the next epoch. However, Tim insisted on breaking my continent thus depriving me of my African hoplites. Tim, however, consolidated Asia minor and was poised to enter Hyperia to the north. Wayne took all of Hykania to himself although it was ringed with two plague territories that blocked invasion from Asia Minor and from Germania. Ross decided to invest in the much belabored Europa. It is the most difficult continent to conquer but certainly well worth the additional continental points and faith tokens totalling seven altogether. However, that would also depend on others
not breaking his continent. Of course, Ross was never quite able to consolidate Europe.
As noted earlier, Germania as a whole lay ripe for the picking however, Tim tried to give it a go by initially placing about 9 men on the continent so as to perhaps finagle in without the rest of us knowing. Bob, however, had other plans. He swept all before him and ended up owning the entire locale without so much as a whimper or whine from Tim, Ross or myself. I would have marched in from Africa like the great Hannibal of Carthage but unfortunately all of Spain was a plague land! As you know, invading a plague land casts your gods out of the game and automatically kills up to half of your invading army. Thus, the losses would have too great and as result Bob consolidated Germania to himself.
Ross in the meantime was trying to wrap up Europe. And nearly came close were it not for the stubborn resistance of Tim's Norsemen sitting in Anatolia and the haranguing Babylonians of Wayne raiding into Dacia and Thrace. Eventually, Ross was pushed back onto the Italian peninsula where he sat licking his wounds. Of course, he was just a hop, skip and jump away from Carthage in Africa and had the troops to invade at the right time. Naturally, Ross summoned the death god and played a rather nasty death card which when played would destroy any army left by itself in a territory and thus the territory would be lost by the player who owned them. The continent would be randomly chosen (by a throw of the dice) and fortunately for me and everyone else, Bob was the unlucky recipient of Ross's wrath. Germania thus was struck down and Bob nearly lost half his provinces hence leaving him widely exposed to another invader. This is where I come in!
Thus, the temptation was just too great to allow Bob to go unmolested. I used a War card to remove a plague land of my choice from the map and naturally, I would remove it from Spain. My troops poured through led by my valiant gods...and I got as far as France! Which is to say I only moved two spaces before I was spent. I tried to move into England but was so completely wiped out by lousy rolling all I could do is remain holed up in Gaul. Then Ross decided to join in the great crusade and follow my invasion with his own through Carthage and he too ended up in Spain and wanted to break Bob's continent in Atlantis which he was able to do but just barely. Overall, Bob sustained 3 separate attacks on Germania and was able somehow to fend them off pretty successfully.
Wayne came very close to being crushed completely as he ended up being sandwiched between a powerful army of Bob in Germania and Tim's forces in Hykania. But alas, neither Bob nor Tim moved against Wayne and thus he was able to survive on the remnant territories in Hykania and Europa. Tim was pretty much boxed in and ended up trading territories with me in Egypt and Nubia over and over again throughout the entire game. As a result, see-sawed between battling on the outer fringes of Africa and Hykania and gaining nothing. However, he was able to hold his continent.
By epoch-5, the end was in sight and Bob was able to secure 1st place by retaking Germania and Atlantis. Tim came in second, with Wayne in a distant third. Ross ended up fourth and sadly, I had nothing to show for and ended up fifth. Overall, I thought it was another great game with lots of twists and turns.
