by nickismyname
Game 8 - Altruism and The Evil EmpireSPOILER ALERT: At this stage describing the game without spoilers from 9 Minor Cities and Player Eliminated is becoming too difficult, so spoilers from those two packs are included below!
SPOILER TWO: The World Capitol pack was opened during the last game as well. I will reference the World Capitol as it is spoiled in the 9 Minor Cities pack but any other spoilers for World Capitol will be hidden.
Our first game was over in 5 minutes, so we shuffled up, and started again. This game was one of the most epic games we played, and is really one of my favorites. Without further ado, the draft:
Jon- 2 coins (1), Fifth placement (10), Enclave of the Bear(11),4th Turn(20), 6 troops (21)
Nick- 10 troops (2), 1st Turn (9), Die Mechaniker(12), 2nd Placement (19), 0 coins(22)
Tom- 10 troops (2), First placement (8), 1 coin (13),Second Turn (18), Imperial Balkania(23)
Colin- 8 troops (4), Saharan Republic (7), 3rd placement (14), Fifth turn(17), 0 coins(24)
Garrick- 8 troops (5), Khan Industries (6), 1 coin (15), 4th placement (16), 3rd turn(25)
Mission - One of the World Capitol missions. No one was ever close to completing it. [o] Control all the mercenaries and bunkers in the world. Considering they are in Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Central America, Northern Europe, Venezuela, and North Africa, the odds of completing this mission were very low. [/o]
Tom blocked me from placing in Boboki by placing in Western United States. I placed in my Major City of Waswad, Egypt, knowing that no one would start in the World Capitol adjacent to it [o] since there was no leading faction[/o].
1st – Nick-Die Mechaniker – Waswad, Egypt
2nd – Tom - Imperial Balkania - Western U.S.
3rd – Garrick- Khan Industries– India
4th – Jon- Enclave of the Bear – Western Australia
5th – Colin- Saharan Republic – Russia
http://postimg.org/image/msglm8mv1/
Efficiency Report 1:
Our machines conquered Colony Four. Our base fortified Waswad to the North, the independent World Capitol provided a strong buffer from the east, and the mercenaries in Casablanca would bolster our troop count there. Tom’s Balkanians moved into Venezuela from North America for their mercenaries. Garricks’ Khan crept over parts of Asia. Jon’s Enclave used the World Chunnel to travel from Australia to South America. They declared a Fatwa upon our people and described the motivation as “pure altruism.” Colin’s Saharans attempted to assault us but were summarily rebuffed.
Efficiency Report 2:
Many machines were built thanks to our control of Colony Four. Our base was moved to Casablanca to defend against the threat of the Enclave. Satellite imagery:
http://postimg.org/image/v9g3x5rjx/
Tom’s Imperials evacuated South America and moved troops up through America into Greenland. Khan had lost a few troops in riots and basically reclaimed the lost cities. Jon’s Enclave spread out over most of South America and prepared for an assault. Colin’s Saharans attacked our forward armies in Southern Europe and were punished by the Risk Gods.
Efficiency Report 3:
We mobilized against the Saharan army. They were summarily crushed. We moved into Southern Europe to prevent a Saharan resurgence in the region. Satellite image:
http://postimg.org/image/oyawgqqbh/
The Imperials assaulted our Southern European holding and then retreated to Greenland. The boost in population from conquering Zeplins! paid off almost immediately, as the Control the People event card was flipped for 5 extra troops. Khan Industries placed everyone they could in their base. The Enclave came from Brazil and shouted “we’re burning the boats!” The Enclave was slaughtered by our fortified base, though several defensive missiles and units were required to stem the single-minded tide. The Saharans showed up in Yakutsk.
Efficiency Report 4:
In a moment of Die Mechaniker insanity, we made some very aggressive plays. Technocrat Nick posited that if we kicked the Enclave out of South America, we would no longer be concerned with them. Additionally, the Imperials would have to turn their attention on us in the South instead of assaulting through Europe. Our mission, in this regard, was successful. At the expense of our remaining missiles and many men, the Enclave was kicked out of South America and we pushed through North America to conquer the Imperial base. Unfortunately, we had no method of securing the final victory point required, as the Enclave’s base was too far away from our force holding the Saharan base and the Khan HQ was too well defended. Satellite imagery:
http://postimg.org/image/48xpuudvh/
Tom’s Imperials did not do as we expected (and in fact made a much stronger play I should have noticed), they placed all of their armies in Zeplins! and then conquered Glauko in Northern Europe and made a beeline for our HQ. With our troops count diminished, they conquered our fortified base, and proceeded to sweep through South America and North America, coming just short of retaking their own base. Khan Industries took the opportunity to mobilize their entire army and assault the Saharan base we held in Russia. The Risk Gods did not look favorably upon Die Mechaniker in either of these advances, and our once magnificent empire was severely reduced. The Enclave and the Saharans bided their time, with forces so badly pummeled there was little else to do.
Efficiency Report 5:
We turned in all of our coins and placed 16 troops, intent on reclaiming our base and then reclaiming the Saharan base. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. 19 troops assaulted 7 in Casablanca, and only 5 survived. The Risk Gods were surely showing their great wrath upon our peoples, but there was little else we could do. Satellite imagery:
http://postimg.org/image/6wrrixwal/
The Imperials had so many territories that they placed 7 troops. They assaulted us in Waswad again and retook their base in Boboki. I considered sending them a missive warning against Khan Industries’ imminent victory, but we saw the writing on the wall for ourselves and decided to extend the courtesy of silence to Khan Industries (In a sense, Garrick had extended me a similar courtesy in the game where he saw I would control all 7 islands - he attempted to stop me but hadn’t told anyone else to do so, so I viewed it as a quid pro quo situation). Tom’s Imperials were certainly the largest force on earth. Khan, however, had been building its armies in Asia. Garrick tossed in all of his coins and made a surprise attack against the Enclave in Australia. The Enclave was wiped off the face of the earth, and Khan Industries conquered their third HQ - which, along with the starting red star, gave Garrick his first win.
http://postimg.org/image/9vu2sbge5/
Game 8 Result: Garrick was the victor as Khan Industries. He founded a major city in Irkutsk called Arestea, which means a moment of of pure excellence in battle in Greek. Coins were placed on South Africa, Ontario, and Siberia (or Yakutsk, I don’t entirely remember).
Game 8 Changes: Aside from the major city, there were no other changes. [o] There is a lead faction as the victories are Khan - 3, Enclave - 2, Saharans - 2, Die Mechaniker - 1. [/o]
Lesson 18:Board modifications can make for some crazy defensive positions! Having Die Mechaniker AND having the World Capitol buffer city AND having the mercenaries in Northern Africa makes Colony Four one of the hardest continents on the planet to interact with. In essence, it is the new South America.
Lesson 19:You need to band together to destroy evil empires. Every single player was invested in making me lose this game, and rightfully so! I started in an incredibly strong position and never really relinquished it until everyone had taken their shots at me. My raw troop production doubled everyone else’s, but my coin production definitely did not. Jon and Colin paid dearly for being the first two people to try to take me down, but Garrick and Tom would not have been able to win if they also hadn’t of had that single goal of taking me down. Part of my advantage is certainly having 6 missiles, but in this game, my advantage mostly came from a very strong starting position comboed with Die Mechanikers along with the incremental bonus of having named Colony Four.
Lesson 20:You probably can’t take on the world, and if you can’t win, consider defense. I think if I had played defense in Africa for a couple of turns I might have been able to maneuver in such a way that I wasn’t fighting what essentially amounted to a three front war. My choice to push out into South America was ambitious, and I think I should have just left my base in Casablanca and not worried too much about Jon. Instead, I should have made a full on assault of Tom’s forces, so they couldn’t counterattack me as hard. That way, I would only have to contend with Tom’s coins and with Garricks army. Conversely, Garrick spent plenty of rounds just building up, and he made it very clear that he wasn’t going to make greedy plays - for instance, not conquering the Enclave’s base in Australia on an earlier turn.