Wargame Night 11-13

On Saturday, November 9th, Bob, Ross and myself gathered for the penultimate game night of the year. We decided to forgo Twilight Imperium and instead dive right into Risk: God Storm. We allowed Luke to set up for Tim who was scheduled to come over later. The following colors and their cultures were chosen as follows:

Ross - white - Norse
Bruce - green - Celts
Bob - purple - Greeks
Luke - tan - Babylonians

The territories were randomly passed to each person and fortunately for me I was well situated in Africa and in Atlantis. Bob had a decent sprinkling of troops in Europa and Ross was ensconced in Hyrkania and Mesopotamia respectively. Everyone was pretty much in Germania with no one in a real strong position.

Normally in this game, we start off with the War God at the beginning of the game which helps the attacker to break a tie, unlike the normal risk game in which the defender breaks a tie. However, we all decided to override this rule and pick one of the four gods to summon for free. Naturally, Chaos Monkey picked the God of Death to bring out first thing. Bob and I both still chose the War God to bring out first and place him with our troops on the board. Then the plague lands were randomly chosen and two out of four lands were picked for Africa - one in Egypt and one in Gaitulia. The other two were located in Atlantis and Anatolia respectively.

As the game got going I quickly consolidated Africa and decided to conquer Atlantis for good measure. I did summon the God of Death as well at the beginning of my turn. Amazingly, my very first Death Card was the notorious and infamous "Sink Atlantis" card which I now held firmly in my hand. Nothing could stop me now!

Bob decided to place all his troops in Spain on the Portuguese border and taunt my troops in Atlantis provocatively spanking their bottoms in our direction! Very disconcerting. But we prevailed on despite their juvenile gyrations. In the meantime, Bob waxed wondrously in Europa and was able to secure the continent for his own. Ross took Hyrkania and beefed up parts of Germania and Mesopotamia to his satisfaction. In the meantime, I was able to summon all my Gods and purchase quite a number of "works" cards for all my gods with the amount of faith tokens I was able to garner for having both Africa and Atlantis under my belt.

Then Chaos Monkey jumped right into the middle of everything! Ross played a card that allowed him to view an opponents deck and choose one card to remove and hold in his hand. Naturally, he chose my deck of cards and from this deck he stole my "Sink Atlantis" card. Blasphemy!!!! I tried in vain to either remove the card from his hand by banishing all "death" cards from the game or somehow prevent him from using the card because it takes 3 faith tokens to use it, but alas, I was unable to stop his evil intentions and in fact, he played the card and sunk Atlantis with all my troops lost at sea that was on the island! Once again, I am unable to play this card! I swear it's been years since I have last used this card and Ross' treachery will not be forgotten! Before this happened however, I did invade Germania from Atlantis and had fortunately brought the bulk of my troops from Atlantis into Britain and thus only lost 4 troops. But of course, it was the continent and territory points as well the faith tokens that was permanently lost.

Bob was able to capitalize on his European Utopia and received quite a few faith tokens as well as troops to bulk up against both Ross and I. However, I decided to invade Europa to ensure he didn't get too powerful and broke up his continent by investing my troops in Italy and seizing one of his temples, much to his chagrin, I assure you. He eventually beat me back after a bloody and long slog in the Italian countryside.
 
By now, the game was coming to a close and I was in first place, however it was a tenuous position at best. I went first on the last turn which left both Bob and Ross to pick me off at will and claim the first place position from me. Bob had a great plan on paper with two great armies to smash Ross who was heavily invested in Hykania and Mesopotamia. He invaded Hykania from Europe but eventually his army petered out by the time he got to within two territories of breaking the Mesopotamian continent that Ross held. Bob then tried another route through Anatolia by playing a card that removed the plague marker in Anatolia and allowing him to push through a large army unmolested by the plague. On paper, Bob's plan should have worked but again, the machinations of Chaos Monkey worked against Bob and somehow Ross was able to pull off a stunning defense of Mesopotamia which he now held as the game came to close. Bob's only way to achieve total victory was to dominate all of the Underworld which no one had yet achieved.

With most of his troops now in Elysium, paradise of the underworld for the Greeks, Bob decided to crush all before him, one by stinking one! I believe he used 4 elephants of troops (5 each) to invade the underworld and pretty much clubbed his opposition to death without mercy! Thus, by taking all of the underworld except one lonely outpost held by Ross, Bob was able to garner 6 additional victory points and take first place in Risk God Storm! Great job Bob!! Ross pulled off a great second place finish by holding onto Mesopotamia at all cost. I did well in spite of my loss of Atlantis but in the end was not enough to hold onto first place and received a 3rd place finish. Gosh, I'm getting so used to that number!

Great game nevertheless.