Risk Summary
Sorry it has been so long since I have posted a Risk summary. The Risk nights had been dying down to a certain degree for a while, but have been picking up considerable steam lately. Last night we finally had enough people to have two games of four going. One beginner table with standard Risk and one more advanced table playing Godstorm
I don't think that the beginner table worked out as well as it could have. We need to have somebody at the table dedicated to sorting out the rules I think. That would mean having a more advanced player at the table, but I think it would work out better. As it went they discovered that they weren't doing the troop bonuses right about an hour into the game. The resulting frustration caused them to just call the game off.
At the Godstorm table we had one of the fastest and most decided victories ever. I chose to go a new route and go for a god assassination strat. The other players at the table were Stephen, CeCe, and Justin. I pooled every troop I had on one territory in Africa. Justin put most of his troops in Atlantis. CeCe was mostly in Asia Minor. Stephen made his placement bid for Hykania. Justin was the closest to me, but also had the greatest concentration ot troops. Fortunately he also played first.
First turn Justin buys the goddess of magic and sweeps Atlantis. He gets his war card for taking three territories and then sits on the northern territory outside of Atlantis with his main army. I play second and buy the god of sky. I aim straight for Justin's main army so that I can reach it with the greatest number of troops for the god's war. I reach him with around 20 troops to his 15 and easily take out the gods winning me a sky card. Then I wipe his main army and take all of Atlantis including the temple placed on it. I then fortify back to my main Africa territory with all of my troops and my gods to make sure nobody can take my gods out. (extra die, troop concentration, and re-roll ones with the temple)
Stephen goes on to hold Hyjania, but leaves most of his troops on the Germania border rather than fortifying all the way back to dissuade CeCe from invading. CeCe takes advantage and takes all of Asia Minor with a DMX agreement between the two of us on the Asia Minor / Africa border. CeCe had bought the godess of war and managed to roll several triples securing many good relics including one that gave her a 3 bonus to turn bidding. This ensured her a first turn choice next epoch. CeCe ends in such a strong position that she decides to push on Stephen, breaking his Continent hold and also taking his temple and destroying his gods.
The second epoch opens with CeCe going first and I going last. Justin and Stephen are both nearly out of the game already. CeCe gets a good troop deploy and faith, but loses many troops on a western push out of Asia Minor. She uses the rest to tighten her hold on her two continents and passes with 8! relics in play for her. I hold a couple war card that will let me take one of her relics and one of her cards though.
I start my turn by taking her relic that gives her the 3 turn bonus ensuring myself two turns in a row and then take her death card from her that lets her wipe one army per territory from a random continent. Then I take Africa and push my troops up to her border. I end with all four temples under my control plus an 8 troop and faith continent bonus.
Starting my next turn (first turn of the 3rd epoch, I use a war card to switch her main army with her gods with an army she has on a plague land, banishing her gods and ensuring that she will lose half her army next turn. Then I push through and take every territory that she holds other than the plague land so that she can't summon any gods or use any cards next turn. The game is given to me at the end of the third epoch although technically it would have taken me one turn into the fourth epoch to take the entire map.
I think that we are getting comfortable enough with Godstorm to actually start changing the rules up considerably. The power of the god of war is crazy and partnered with the god of sky it allowed me to eliminate with almost complete certainty a player from the board. Also, I think everyone has felt since the beginning that temples are way too expensive to justify in most circumstances.