Marc Q
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me...
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So, maybe it's just me, but I recall Risk being about the opposite of a nice, fast game. It tends to drag. It tends to drag HARD. Games have been known to last hours... days... weeks at a time.
This is one of the reasons I originally fell in love with Risk 2210... fixed game length! You could sit down and play over a matter of hours, not half a day!
But when I invited my buddy Alex over yesterday, we had a few hours before everyone else showed up and he was nice enough to let me pick a few games to play. We played Beowulf (I destroyed him), and Sorry Sliders (he destroyed me), and tried Kakerlaken Suppe (he was NOT a fan, I'm still undecided)... but I asked him to pick something, and he chose good, ol' Classic Risk.
Sure, thought I, we can play that for a few hours (or years) until everyone else shows up and then move on with a nice tie, as per usual.
Oh no, my friends... not this time.
We counted out our 40 armies (he in Red, I in black) and picked the Allied Armies as green. Country selection was pretty swift: I took Argentina, Brazil, and Venuzula as my starting 2-pointer, and predictably Alex took all of Australia except the one that leads to Siam (I forget the name). I'm a big fan of linking territories, so I took the remaining Australia and Siam (so if I lost that one territory, I could strike back quickly to deny him his extra armies), then India, Middle East, Egypt, North Africa, and all the southern Blue countries... as well as Mexico and the two southernmost States.
Basically, I had a well defended position from which to strike. What could possibly go wrong?!
Besides Australia, Alex had taken all the southern African nations and a fair chunk of Eastern Asia (China, Mongolia, Japan, Kamchatka, etc...). The Allied Armies got everything else, of course.
And then war was declared, and everything went straight downhill.
I placed my initial 4 armies all in Brazil, giving me a commanding 9 armies against Alex's defending 5. Almost 2-to-1 odds, thought I. An easy victory, thought I.
Wrong, thought the Universe. No, Peru refused to fall for 2 turns, despite not being reinforced. On the other side of the map, my 4 armies in Australia failed to inflict a SINGLE CASUALTY on Alex's 6 attackers, which then proceeded to steamroll me out of Siam with another flawless victory (at one point he rolled 2-2-2, and I, laughing, rolled 1-1).
Once he held Australia it was all over but the crying. I received a total of 12 Allied armies over 3 turns, all placed to strike through China (1 defending army) and hit Siam and stab into Austalia... but no. China's ONE DEFENDING ARMY destroyed all 12 attacking Allied forces. It was embarassing. I managed to turn in a set of cards for my 4 bonus armies, FINALLY allowing me to claim South America and a few African countries, but almost immediately afterwards Alex claimed his 6, plus his default 7 (2 for Australia, 5 for having 17 territories), and wiped me off the map.
All this... in 40 minutes. I have never, ever, set up, started, and finished a game in Risk so damn fast. It was incredible.
Lot of fun, though!
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Moshe Callen
Israel
Jerusalem
I like to exchange ideas but I have no interest in a pissing contest.
If you want me to review your game, just GM me and send me a copy. Abstracts, wargames and euros equally welcome. No party or dexterity games please.
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Actually for people who know the game ell and play it as aggressively as it is meant ot be played, that's pretty normal.
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Pieter
Netherlands
Maastricht
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Risk... consistently roll lower than your opponent and be defeated in 40 minutes -- fun because it does not last very long...
I don't get it.
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Marc Q
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me...
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Well, maybe it's usual for people who play consistently, but this is the first game of Risk I've played in years (Vanilla Risk, that is), and the first time I've ever played that it didn't last at least 3 hours.
But despite losing, I had a lot of fun... I mean, as long as you can laugh at the dice (and I can) and realize that strategy and good placement come as distant tertiary importance to said dice rolls... why not have a laugh over it? Besides, it's my fault for not fighting harder for Australia, I suppose!
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Peter Stubner
United States
Englewood
Colorado
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I don't get the reports of endless Risk games. I don't remember any Risk game lasting more than 3 hours, that includes games played with newbs and veterans, and these games are played to the conclusion.
Maybe those reports of the long games means the players are way too tentative in their play or memory doesn't match reality.
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Marc Q
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me...
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Maybe you just have very aggressive/lucky opponents?
Most of the games of Risk I've played seesaw back and forth... there will be several rounds of gaining one or two countries and then stopping, followed by either:
1. Somebody completing a continent and everyone attacking him/her to get rid of his "advantage", or
2. Somebody turning in a set of cards, gaining armies, and attempting to wipe somebody else off the map.
In the case of Number 2, this normally loses steam about 1/2 to 1/3 of the way through his opponent, at which point they tend to stop. The opponent normally reclaims all their lost territory, and the cycle repeats.
This normally continues for hours... nobody able to secure enough of an advantage that they can hold off everyone else for a complete turn. If you add in any degree of diplomacy ("Don't attack Mexico and I'll honour your claim on Iceland..."), and suddenly those 3 hours become 6 or 7...
Which can be fun, of a sort... but to be honest, if I'm going to play something for 6 hours straight, it's going to be Twilight Imperium or something at LEAST as good. Risk is fun, but it's a mindless sorta fun of probabilities and plastic pieces. I'm happy with this game I just played, but if it had been 2x as long... I'd probably have gotten bored.
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Harvester of Eyes.
United States
Louisville
Kentucky
My demeanor was meaner.
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I can see a game between two players being played to conclusion in an hour or so but all of the games I ever played as a youth had at least 4 players and sometimes 6. Those games tended to drag out.
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Moshe Callen
Israel
Jerusalem
I like to exchange ideas but I have no interest in a pissing contest.
If you want me to review your game, just GM me and send me a copy. Abstracts, wargames and euros equally welcome. No party or dexterity games please.
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scribidinus wrote: I can see a game between two players being played to conclusion in an hour or so but all of the games I ever played as a youth had at least 4 players and sometimes 6. Those games tended to drag out.
I had the advantage of learning the game from older sibling who knew what they were doing.
I an see various realistic reasons for not liking Risk as a game, although I love it; the game taking too long just isn't one of them.
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Kolja Geldmacher
Germany
Niedersachsen
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Fastes Game ever... not really. 1994 we set up a game on a school vacation. 10 Players in 5 teams on 2 boards with separate landcards drawn for both boards but with the same goal on boath boards to achieve. Took a looong time to set up. And one turn to settle. Yellow had to capture just one land on each board to manage the given goal on both!! boards in the same turn... man we others were p***ed
Fh
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United States
Norwood
Massachusetts
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Ah yes.
1994: Case Yellow!
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Philip Migas
United States
Akron
Ohio
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I have a group of experience players that usually played a 6 player game in 90 min. We were able to finish a 6 player game in high-school in 35 minutes.
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Marc Q
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me...
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Holy snakes that's fast.
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Moshe Callen
Israel
Jerusalem
I like to exchange ideas but I have no interest in a pissing contest.
If you want me to review your game, just GM me and send me a copy. Abstracts, wargames and euros equally welcome. No party or dexterity games please.
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Marx09 wrote: Holy snakes that's fast.
not really, not with experienced good players.
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Just curious, but how does the game play out with experienced players? The description in one of the previous posts is on par with games I've played.
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Moshe Callen
Israel
Jerusalem
I like to exchange ideas but I have no interest in a pissing contest.
If you want me to review your game, just GM me and send me a copy. Abstracts, wargames and euros equally welcome. No party or dexterity games please.
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bill01 wrote:
Just curious, but how does the game play out with experienced players? The description in one of the previous posts is on par with games I've played.
With experienced players, for six players five rounds at the outside is typical. The fewer the players, the faster the game.
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Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me...
