Tuesday 17 April 2012

Paradise Lost

Machination is no more.

Those who are faint of constitution, or who wish to have certain mysteries remain inviolate are advised to turn back before it is too late.

You have been warned (Risk Legacy Spoilers).

Our proud chain of cities, glittering like jewels across this new world, has been severed, its heart ripped from the earth. Our hopes and dreams for a prosperous new future destroyed in a flash of nuclear fire. 

It had begun as it often had in the past, the barbarous Enclave of the Bear throwing themselves upon our adamant bastion of Hy-Brasil, that perfect utopia now lost forever. Though outnumbered two to one, we held faith in our superior armament and defenses.

All was going as our general had predicted. Slowly we ground down their malodorous offensive, and then it was over in the blink of an eye. The cowardly Khanate and insidious Saharans lent their strength to the Enclave of the Bear, and rained atomic death on us.

We will rise like a phoenix from the these bitter ashes, and have our five-fold revenge upon them all.


We played our eighth Risk Legacy game on Sunday, and it was blast.

First, we were graced by the presence fifth player, who will hopefully return again. The game plays quite different with five players compared to four, for the better in my opinion. It's much more difficult to spread around without immediate conflict, and our regular group dynamic was shaken up as well.

I had a bit of difficulty explaining the eccentricities of the game rules as they had developed over the previous seven games, unfortunately. Though they had occurred quite gradually for us, for a new player they appeared a bit overwhelming. Part of it may have been my own lack of instructional ability. Nothing to be done about it but jump in though, with reassurances that it wasn't really at the bad. This of course was completely blown away at the beginning of the first turn, along with my base.

The original four where playing their usual factions. I had placed the Boys in Brazil, while the Enclave of the Bear, whose player I shall call Killer Pig for the nonce, started up a few territories away in North America. Sadly, I had started only with six armies, while she started with ten plus three, and began the first turn by immediately bee lining straight for my base.

It was looking pretty grim for me, though it turned around after a couple of bad rolls for the Enclave, and then all hell broke lose. After another bad roll for the Enclave, the Khan Industrials played by James the Betrayer, used his missile on their behalf. I used one of my own in contempt. Then the Saharan Republic player, who shall be known as the Bringer of Fire, played one of her missiles, and I played a second of mine. We opened the appropriate pack for having played 3+ missiles in one combat.

The person who played the third missile, the Bringer of Fire, got to place a big old radioactive sticker down on either of the two territories involved in the battle, and she show chose Brazil, of course. Hy-Brasil was blasted to oblivion, the base destroyed.

A whole new faction was born as well, the Mutants. James celebrated the occasion by making up a little song about mutants and their garbage trucks. I wept.

Eventually, after we managed to figure out all the new rules, I agreed that mutants look pretty awesome.

On my turn I redeployed to my second capital  QQ in 'Noobia', our unofficial name for Africa. Africa and South America are now effectively cut off from one another, and South America is a useless wasteland due to the effects radiation.

The various factions sparred with one another for the rest of the game. Killer Pig briefly took Imperial Balkania's base in Iceland. James took the Bringer's base, and then  I took James base. Our new player who as yet to be given a nickname, won the game when she turned in four cards and took the Enclave base. She founded her own capital in Great Britain.

At the end I asked if we wanted to open the DO NOT OPEN package. The decisive vote fell to me, and in hopes of some bitter revenge I agreed to open the package. The results seemed rather appropriate.

The malefactors destroyed more than our dream that day. The science and technology of Hy-Brasil kept this world stable, and with it gone, they have wrought their own destruction as well. May they rot in this hell of their own creation.




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