\/\/007!!1! Risk!
Yes, this update is long overdue. Fortunately the only loss for the delay is reader satisfaction, not monetary. So, hopefully, I think somehow we will all move on past me not posting for a while! .. at least about my life ^_^
So where were we last? I believe it was roughly at my mothers arrival in Saskatchewan for her film tour. That went fairly well all 'round. She wasn't here for the entire time (Monday through Wednesday, then the next Sunday night through Thursday), and of the time she was here she spent about half of it with Marion one of her best friend from High School/University. They rarely see each other anymore (as in: less then once every couple years), so it was fairly understandable, though it does certainly raise the hypothetical question of who will I lose contact with over years? But, its hardly worth worrying about that until it happens eh? Anyway, the rest of the time that mom was here (it was fairly entertaining or at least I found it so) she spent nearly as much time with me as she did with Julia. Most of it was off the cuff decisions to hang out, but none-the-less I was a fair bit surprised at how well they got on - which wass awesome! ^_^ In terms of Mom's Tour, from what I gathered from the non-Regina stops they all went pretty well. The one here equally went very well, with a good turn out of roughly 15 - 25 people there to see her film. I was, on the one hand, a little disappointed that student turn out was extremely low ie only me and Julia, but on the other hand, it was that many less people who saw me as a kid. So in the end, maybe in 10 or 20 years, I'll be able to forgive anyone who didn't make it... maybe :P
In terms of school-life, I've finished all but one of my classes for this semester. I only need to finish half an essay and then write a final. Of course the final I have to get about a 60 or 70% or better on in order to pass the class (which would be quite the achievement given that I haven't passed a single exam this semester.. but y'know). It's also apparently impossible to take Indian (read Aborigina) Art History 100, because everytime its offered it gets cancelled (likely from lack of interest). Thanks a lot U of R bastards! *grumbles in a semi-annoyed tone*.. But also, eh..
Finally, and this is where some of you may get bored so leave whenever you wish (as opposed to before... where you had to stay until this point... for some unknown reason....), Dan and Blair came in for this past weekend, so we all got together and went to the bar, watch Borat and played Risk. Risk is the important thing to talk about here!
So, first, let us discuss the players - John, Blair, Kody, Myself and Sam. Early on in my Risk "career" with this group I showed I was extremely strategic and good at winning (apparently), so me winning is almost always an impossibility now. Equally Kody, sometime after I won, he took over the reign and has since suffered the same weakness I do - that is, everyone is always watching his standing armies to make sure he can almost never win. Finally Blair is almost always the first to fall in Risk. This is because he tends to lose interest quickly and kamikaze's John or Kody, whoever he thinks shouldn't win. Finally there is John (in terms of regulars) who is almost always the benefactor of our fighting, as of late, because he serves to be non-threatening but knows who to attack and when, usually me or Blair, and will come out on top as a result. Sam is the new addition (and likely only one-time addition) so her personality is unknown, though by the end of this game it was revealed to be very passive, accumulator. So! After all that intro, lets look at the board layout eh? The game can more or less be broken down into about 10 major conflicts/turns.
The first rounds basically set up the territory.. about a 5 to 10 turn (year?) armament build-up occurred and strategical fortresses were established
The first major conflict came to a head when, shortly after "the cold alliance" ended, John attacked Greenland. Blair was strategically destroyed leaving the core of N.A. for the taking.
As a result Blair funnelled his troops North to Kamchatka - having no chance to retake N.A. Sam used this advantage to slowly start expanding into North America from her South African stronghold. When the board look approximately like this is when I realized Sam, with the right back-up could win the game. (Ergo all future moves were made to get to this end)
Blair went on a Kamikaze run against John and Sam continued expanding North through N.A. Both moves were expected - Sam had the safe opportunity and Blair was pissed at John for taking away his continent.
Seeing a weakness in John's stronghold, a turn after he regained Europe I marched my troops in. Except he kicked me out right away (though it cost him some of his strength), Sam then moved into Europe and established a Stronghold, as well as taking over the rest of N.A.
Note that while I have a clear path to Alaska from my stronghold in Japan, I choose not to attack there. This is because a) Knowing I can't win on my own, I'm still quietly watch Sam's progression and b) as expected, John would do everything possible to regain Europe and beat Sam out of Greenland (thus losing a continent). Sam is now weak in the Middle East - Kody continues to stockpile. Since the cold-war ended roughly another 10 or 15 turns (years) have passed. Also, a background deal between myself and Blair to attack Kody when Blair has a strong enough force is made.
In retaliation for regaining a continent, I send my troops in Japan West, cutting decisively through Europe and into Iceland. This isolates John's units in Greenland and forces him to end his N.American campaign or risk early defeat from Kody. Blair get a standing army powerful enough to attack Kody.
John exhausts his troops fighting me in Iceland but is successful in retaking it. This results in a sacrifice of Greenland to Sam and John still without a continent. WIthout further resources at hand, John will have to refocus on getting Europe back. Meanwhile Blair sends his troops out to beat down Kody. He succeeds in weakening Kody, but fails to get into Africa - My troops are prepared to march in...
John retakes the Nordic countries and Sam sits still, building a stronghold in Greenland. Kody seeing the inevitable, launches a pre-emptive strike on Siam and tries to fight his way into Australia. While he succeeds at reducing numbers, my troops remained strong and launched a counterattack cutting into Africa and reducing one of his Strongholds to Ashes. I tried to reduce a second stronghold but my troops, too exhausted, were only able to mildly dent his North African stronghold.
Kody is able to regains his continent, but opts to go defensive. Sam's troops moves into John's Iceland and occupy it. John realizes, for the most part, he'll never be able to rehold Europe. A few turns (years) pass and Sam uses her hardened Brazilian troops (no one knows why they're hardened, mind) to destroy the Stronghold of Kody's in North Africa.
I rebuild my stronghold in Siam. Kody and John by this point have realized my strategy a use the remainder of their troops to batter away at Sam's new stronghold in North Africa. They succeed at severely reducing her numbers, but not enough to do anything permanent. John also, as a form of retaliation for Blair starting the ball rolling on taking Ukraine, kills Blair off.
John and Kody, seem them at their cumulative strike against Sam, I use a stockpile of troops to push John out of Asia and reduce Kody to one Territory. Sam then, after re-establishing a stronghold in North Africa, killed Kody and spread out a little into Asia. John's European empire has long been in ashes.
John is wiped out by Sam and its generally agreed upon the Sam will win, but she doesn't kill me mainly because of the crucial help I gave her, especially after my crucial move on the 7th Map.
So I didn't win, but I did help decide who would win and I was more or less 2nd place, I'll live with that. It was about a 100 year war (6 or 7 hour game) and definetely a good game. So here's the summarization of that 100 year, or 7 hour game, in 13 seconds (on loop)
Cheers!
So where were we last? I believe it was roughly at my mothers arrival in Saskatchewan for her film tour. That went fairly well all 'round. She wasn't here for the entire time (Monday through Wednesday, then the next Sunday night through Thursday), and of the time she was here she spent about half of it with Marion one of her best friend from High School/University. They rarely see each other anymore (as in: less then once every couple years), so it was fairly understandable, though it does certainly raise the hypothetical question of who will I lose contact with over years? But, its hardly worth worrying about that until it happens eh? Anyway, the rest of the time that mom was here (it was fairly entertaining or at least I found it so) she spent nearly as much time with me as she did with Julia. Most of it was off the cuff decisions to hang out, but none-the-less I was a fair bit surprised at how well they got on - which wass awesome! ^_^ In terms of Mom's Tour, from what I gathered from the non-Regina stops they all went pretty well. The one here equally went very well, with a good turn out of roughly 15 - 25 people there to see her film. I was, on the one hand, a little disappointed that student turn out was extremely low ie only me and Julia, but on the other hand, it was that many less people who saw me as a kid. So in the end, maybe in 10 or 20 years, I'll be able to forgive anyone who didn't make it... maybe :P
In terms of school-life, I've finished all but one of my classes for this semester. I only need to finish half an essay and then write a final. Of course the final I have to get about a 60 or 70% or better on in order to pass the class (which would be quite the achievement given that I haven't passed a single exam this semester.. but y'know). It's also apparently impossible to take Indian (read Aborigina) Art History 100, because everytime its offered it gets cancelled (likely from lack of interest). Thanks a lot U of R bastards! *grumbles in a semi-annoyed tone*.. But also, eh..
Finally, and this is where some of you may get bored so leave whenever you wish (as opposed to before... where you had to stay until this point... for some unknown reason....), Dan and Blair came in for this past weekend, so we all got together and went to the bar, watch Borat and played Risk. Risk is the important thing to talk about here!
So, first, let us discuss the players - John, Blair, Kody, Myself and Sam. Early on in my Risk "career" with this group I showed I was extremely strategic and good at winning (apparently), so me winning is almost always an impossibility now. Equally Kody, sometime after I won, he took over the reign and has since suffered the same weakness I do - that is, everyone is always watching his standing armies to make sure he can almost never win. Finally Blair is almost always the first to fall in Risk. This is because he tends to lose interest quickly and kamikaze's John or Kody, whoever he thinks shouldn't win. Finally there is John (in terms of regulars) who is almost always the benefactor of our fighting, as of late, because he serves to be non-threatening but knows who to attack and when, usually me or Blair, and will come out on top as a result. Sam is the new addition (and likely only one-time addition) so her personality is unknown, though by the end of this game it was revealed to be very passive, accumulator. So! After all that intro, lets look at the board layout eh? The game can more or less be broken down into about 10 major conflicts/turns.
The first rounds basically set up the territory.. about a 5 to 10 turn (year?) armament build-up occurred and strategical fortresses were established
The first major conflict came to a head when, shortly after "the cold alliance" ended, John attacked Greenland. Blair was strategically destroyed leaving the core of N.A. for the taking.
As a result Blair funnelled his troops North to Kamchatka - having no chance to retake N.A. Sam used this advantage to slowly start expanding into North America from her South African stronghold. When the board look approximately like this is when I realized Sam, with the right back-up could win the game. (Ergo all future moves were made to get to this end)
Blair went on a Kamikaze run against John and Sam continued expanding North through N.A. Both moves were expected - Sam had the safe opportunity and Blair was pissed at John for taking away his continent.
Seeing a weakness in John's stronghold, a turn after he regained Europe I marched my troops in. Except he kicked me out right away (though it cost him some of his strength), Sam then moved into Europe and established a Stronghold, as well as taking over the rest of N.A.
Note that while I have a clear path to Alaska from my stronghold in Japan, I choose not to attack there. This is because a) Knowing I can't win on my own, I'm still quietly watch Sam's progression and b) as expected, John would do everything possible to regain Europe and beat Sam out of Greenland (thus losing a continent). Sam is now weak in the Middle East - Kody continues to stockpile. Since the cold-war ended roughly another 10 or 15 turns (years) have passed. Also, a background deal between myself and Blair to attack Kody when Blair has a strong enough force is made.
In retaliation for regaining a continent, I send my troops in Japan West, cutting decisively through Europe and into Iceland. This isolates John's units in Greenland and forces him to end his N.American campaign or risk early defeat from Kody. Blair get a standing army powerful enough to attack Kody.
John exhausts his troops fighting me in Iceland but is successful in retaking it. This results in a sacrifice of Greenland to Sam and John still without a continent. WIthout further resources at hand, John will have to refocus on getting Europe back. Meanwhile Blair sends his troops out to beat down Kody. He succeeds in weakening Kody, but fails to get into Africa - My troops are prepared to march in...
John retakes the Nordic countries and Sam sits still, building a stronghold in Greenland. Kody seeing the inevitable, launches a pre-emptive strike on Siam and tries to fight his way into Australia. While he succeeds at reducing numbers, my troops remained strong and launched a counterattack cutting into Africa and reducing one of his Strongholds to Ashes. I tried to reduce a second stronghold but my troops, too exhausted, were only able to mildly dent his North African stronghold.
Kody is able to regains his continent, but opts to go defensive. Sam's troops moves into John's Iceland and occupy it. John realizes, for the most part, he'll never be able to rehold Europe. A few turns (years) pass and Sam uses her hardened Brazilian troops (no one knows why they're hardened, mind) to destroy the Stronghold of Kody's in North Africa.
I rebuild my stronghold in Siam. Kody and John by this point have realized my strategy a use the remainder of their troops to batter away at Sam's new stronghold in North Africa. They succeed at severely reducing her numbers, but not enough to do anything permanent. John also, as a form of retaliation for Blair starting the ball rolling on taking Ukraine, kills Blair off.
John and Kody, seem them at their cumulative strike against Sam, I use a stockpile of troops to push John out of Asia and reduce Kody to one Territory. Sam then, after re-establishing a stronghold in North Africa, killed Kody and spread out a little into Asia. John's European empire has long been in ashes.
John is wiped out by Sam and its generally agreed upon the Sam will win, but she doesn't kill me mainly because of the crucial help I gave her, especially after my crucial move on the 7th Map.
So I didn't win, but I did help decide who would win and I was more or less 2nd place, I'll live with that. It was about a 100 year war (6 or 7 hour game) and definetely a good game. So here's the summarization of that 100 year, or 7 hour game, in 13 seconds (on loop)
Cheers!