EPTTo explain a little bit about my living arrangement, I live in "low cost housing" which means that I have two roommates, with another two suite-mates in a connecting room. Both of my roommates were as down for this game as I was, as well as one of our suite-mates. This brought the grand total up to 4 players, with the fifth and final slot filled by a friend of ours.
For those who don't know Risk Legacy, here is a quick rundown - it is based on the classic game Risk, but it is played by the same players over a period of 15 games, with a game board constantly being modified.
Each Player starts off as one of five factions, each with a different "special power" which you are able to choose from the 2 that are earmarked for your chosen faction. The factions chosen (which we decided to keep throughout the entirety of the 15 game run) were as follows:
Mr. A (yours truly): Imperial Balkania
Power: Round up instead of down when dividing your territories by 3 to determine how many reinforcements you receive at the beginning of your turn
Mr. T (Roommate 1): Khan Industries
Power: Each territory with an HQ (explained below) you control receive 1 extra troop at the beginning of your turn
Mr. V(Roommate 2): Saharan Republic
Power: Can make your 1 troop movement at any point in your turn, not just at the end
Mr. J (Suitemate): Enclave of the Bear
Power: the defender of the first territory you attack each turn subtracts 1 from their lowest defense die
Mr. Q (friend): Die Mechaniker
Power: if your defense role is a natural double 6, that territory cannot be attacked for the rest of the turn
The biggest changes in terms of gameplay were this:
1). Each player chooses which country will hold their HQ, then places 8 troops there. This is the end of troop placement prior to the beginning of the game. Other territories are taken by placing troops into them from adjacent territories that you control.
2). The game is not won only through world control, but rather from being the first to obtain 4 red stars (or world control). Each HQ counts as a red star, and each player who has not yet won a game begins with a red star.
We rolled to determine who would place first; Mr. V won, and placed his HQ at Peru. Mr. T chose Eastern US, Mr. J chose South Africa, Mr. Q chose Russia, and your truly decided that Indonesia would serve as our base of operations. After we had each placed our 8 troops on our respective HQ countries, the game began, with Mr. V taking the first turn.
For Your Reference:
+ Show Spoiler +
http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic365731_md.jpg
Since I am beginning the blog several days after this first game, my memory of the game's specifics are slightly fuzzy, so I'll content myself with outlining the broad strokes.
Mr. V expanded out into the rest of South America and immediately struck up an alliance with Mr. T on the American front, allowing him to concentrate his efforts towards Africa. Mr. T, in turn safe from South America, decided to occupy North America, then turn his attentions towards Europe, the domain of Mr. Q. Mr. J decided to expend his resources holding Africa, while I expanded up out of Australia along the eastern side of Asia.
From move one Mr. J was in a bad position; Mr. V was simply a better tactician than him. In desperation, he used his bunker modification on North Africa (meaning that +1 was now added to the highest die of the defenders in that territory). He still lost it though, meaning that Mr. V now held the bunker advantage. Mr. J was never able to recover and over the course of the next few moves ended up losing his HQ to Mr. V, though he was able to keep from being eliminated.
Mr. Q had a fight of his own going down in western Europe as Mr. T invaded. Mr. Q is not the most aggressive Risk player, however, and so decided to hold his section of Europe while expanding out into Asia. he wasn't in any kind of bad position, but he didn't have much of any kind of advantage either.
Meanwhile, I decided it was imperative to deny Mr. T the +5 troop North America bonus, and so invaded up through Kamchatka into Alaska. To help me in the battle against the well-fortified Alaska, I used my own modification, which was an Ammo Shortage (meaning that defenders in Alaska now subtracted 1 from their highest defense die. I won alaska, but not wanting to defend on a country with the Ammo Shortage, proceeded to split my troops and conquer Northwest Territory and Alberta. I had 4 troops in each territory, and so thought that I had a moderately well defended buffer zone. However, on his next turn Mr. T traded in a stack of resource cards gaining more troops than I had anticipated and then, with the addition of some very favorable dice rolls, proceeded to retake North America and wipe out anything that I had resembling a standing army.
But it turned out not to matter. Mr. V, realizing that he already possessed 3 red stars (the one he initially received at the start of the game, Mr. J's HQ, and Mr. V's own HQ), he pushed up from South America into the undefended North America, and took Mr. T's HQ, thereby winning the game.
As a bonus for winning the game, Mr. V placed a major city on Argentina (meaning that only he can choose Argentina as a starting territory from now on). The rest of us placed minor cities as a reward for not being eliminated (meaning that we still had troops on the board at the end of the game). Any territory with a minor city on it can't be chosen as the starting territory for anybody. Another effect of cities is that each minor city you control counts as 1 territory when you are deciding how many reinforcements to receive at the beginning of your move (each major city counts as 2 territories).
Part 2 (Game 2)
.
