Risk Legacy

Spoiler Alert; if you happen by this blog on a search for the words Risk Legacy, this post has spoilers from pretty deep into the game.

Harold, Bill, Shawn and I got together Friday night to play a bit of Risk Legacy, a game I dearly love. I have been fairly dominating on this board; Shawn has one I believe 1 or 2 times, Kevin has won once, I have won...8.

First game Shawn jumped on my favorite starting place, Australia. However, he made a couple mis-plays.There are major cities in two of the 4 lands, plus a Bio Hazard card. So his first turn he moved into both cities, leaving one guy in each...which meant he lost the continent when the bio-hazard removed his last guy.

On the far side of the board I took South America first turn and put a strong force in North Africa. Harold tried to fight out of Africa but my troop advantage kept him in check. Bill moved cautiously, trying to take half of Europe and half of Asia. I felt it was an obvious strategic mistake but I was firmly entrenched up as far as Eastern and Western United States and had a toe in Europe so he was not getting any continent bonus.

When Shawn took the last city in Australia the second time, there was an event...major cities...and he lost his troop there. So it was the 4th turn before he collected for that.  By then I had troop and Resource advantages and won super easily...for a 9th missile.

Game two, they saw how hard it was to hold Australia. Shawn picked first, so he went to South America...and I took Australia because I was able to start in a major city and go first...so I only lost 3 guys to take Australia instead of 5 and did not self-remove by forgetting the bio-hazard sticker.

 Then things got ridiculous. Flipped over next card...event. I gained 2 guys in each city. Next persons turn, they also caused an event, I added 3...next guys turn, even, 2 guys in each city...over the first 2 rounds I picked up an additional 16 guys besides the 3 guys per turn and the 3 for Australia (I named the continent). I had a massive numerical advantage and just expanded like mad, they could not muster enough power to stop me even with all three guys ganging up on me and it was an easy victory. 4 straight population events granting bonuses decided that game.

At this point we are only playing on that board to finish one off because I think I now have 10 missiles?  Just too much for them to get through.

We switched to the other board. Coming in there were 4 games played, 4 different winners and i was none of them. I had to choose starting position 4th. Shawn took South America, Harald took South Africa and I was left with...Europe. Impossible to win with. Every game played so far has been won coming out of one of the 3 southern continents on these two boards.

Shawn took all of S, America on turn 1. Harold took all of Africa. Bill took all of South America. I expanded into one territory, putting 3 guys in it.

Soon the game devolved into Shawn expanding strongly into North America, unable to take it all but only 1-2 countries short at any given time. 

 Harold and Bill battling over Africa with Bill keeping Harold from ever getting the continent bonus while I took my 3 guys and took one territory a turn, then taking out Harold once in battle to get a card with 2 resources.

Then I struck, turning in 6 resources (about 8 turns into the game) and taking all of Africa and finishing my conquest of Europe. I knew I could not hold them, but it was a distraction...with my red star, HQ, and now owning Harald's HQ I only needed one more star to win, but they were thinking about denying my continental bonuses. Harald was too crippled to do anything (he started again with 4 guys in Irkutsk, well away from the action).

Shawn lost a titanic battle and could not break into Europe. Bill, however, took out Egypt and Northern Europe. But he DIDN'T take Madagascar, so I still had 3 stars...and 3 resources. With 12 territories, I took a (wait for it) Risk, placed them all in Ukraine, went down and battled through his Siam and took Bill's headquarters out with 2 guys to spare, winning a game I was never a threat in...until neither he nor Shawn protected their bases. Had I not gone after Bill I would have had 14 guys to take out 6 countries, each with 1 guy in it, to win.

Everyone had a chance to win, and as Shawn proclaimed about 12 times (accurately), he would have won next turn. Easily. Bill also had a chance but made strategic errors. Harold was never in the last game but had the first one in hand for a while. He just played too cautiously.

I love Risk Legacy. So different from Risk, so much more strategy, still some wild swings...ooooohhhhhh yyyyeeeeaaaaahhh