RISK

Despite having tons of work to do these days last night being Friday I decided to kick it back a little bit (especially since I'd had a really stressful day).

Some of the people here at Salmond asked if I wanted to play RISK not realizing who they were inviting in.

FLASHBACK: Circa Calgary the Last 2 Years

Now before that tale is told it should be disclaimed that I've played my fair share of RISK. As of me and Brett discovering Lord of the Rings RISK it was a rare thing back in the day for us to go a month without at least one or two RISK engagements.

In fact here is a picture from my fair well party in Calgary back in December where the main event was you guessed it "the last RISK game". Fittingly I departed with victory if I recall properly (if I recall improperly then Brett won, but I made him work for it :P ).

Point is I know my RISK (especially after playing some 2 player tactic practise runs the last 2 years). The poor Salmond people had no idea what they were invoking...

THE WAR BEGINS

The suffers of the wraith Rhonwyn, Stefan, and Andy. Now overall it was a very civil and enjoyable game. Minus one problem:

They didn't know the "proper" rules...

Now in their defense they were playing consistently which is key. However being a bit of a RISK junkie who takes the game a little religiously these days I had some opposition to these delving from the rules.

So in many a ways I was the bad guy, but at the same time I was proven right about how their rule alterations led to disadvantages for the players going last.

Brett and I had gotten to a point where we'd come up with our own modified advanced rule set that made the game nearly completely fair for everyone whether first or last in turn order. This however makes us dorks of the utmost.

These guys were simply playing a rule set simplified for ease. Making them less social freakish I'll grant, but ultimately still WRONG!

For a few minutes my pointing out the real rules in the rule book was leading to a heated argument with Andy till an accident defused the whole thing, and kept the peace (above board anyways :P )

Now I've seen games of RISK where arguments were so bad players would be thrown out of the house and banned due to the disagreement about the game. This was no where near that level. However it was getting heated. Andy was getting annoyed.

I jokingly compared this to the games of old "look if this argument had happened with some of my friends they'd pick up the board and throw all the pieces everywhere." However what amazed me was that to my surprise a moment after completing that sentence (and I do mean a moment) suddenly the sound of RISK pieces scattering on the floor filled the room...

In the midst of my dramatic motion of my arms I'd taken a step backwards inadvertently stepping on the corner of the game insert holding the spare pieces not in use, and thus sending them flying all over the place (note picture above).

This completely disarmed the argumentative stage of the game as both me and Andy collapsed on the floor laughing with everyone joining in once they realized I'd somehow carried out my prophecy.

With that out of the way and moderately corrected rules in place it was down to business. Now to be both boasting and modest I cleaned house, but I still lost. They had a version of RISK with mission cards. Not as complicated as Lord of the Rings RISK missions or cards, but they made traditional RISK a little more interesting.

Sadly Stefan was dealt a very easy set of them to pull off, and won in about 8 turns (Stefan himself even commented at how easy his were to accomplish together).

I still did rather well (have to get in my boast). I got 3 of my 4 mission completed, and was in striking range of my last one. Had it been a normal kill every other players game then I was scariest at the point of completion holding Africa and South America (I lost SA to Stefan on the last turn due to a strategic modification I had to do to complete a mission, but had it been normal I'd have been untouchable in my stronghold). As it was early in the game, and with Rhonwyn set for a comeback with possibly Andy cashing in I'm not claiming I'd have won. As Brett would say though I was "scary" all game.

So hopefully we can track down Lord of the Rings RISK, and I can convert these guys to the true game...