RISK Legacy 7

As Tarek (double booking) and Hannes (water problem in his basement) were absent we (Leander, Kobe and I) played a nearly empty board to start with. Leander put himself (again) in Great Britain on his major city of Sir Price with the Die Mechaniker faction, Kobe put himself in New Guinea with the Imperial Balkania and I took the World Capitol Trumpistan with the lead faction Khan Industries.

 There's not a lot to say about the first few rounds we played : Kobe expanded in Australia and southern Asia (gaining resource cards even when not attacking, due to his faction). Leander expanded in Europe and made a 3-round pact with me for the Iceland/Greenland border. Me, I had a great head start with 10 armies (one of my drawcards) + 1 additional army in my HQ territory (Khan Industries advantage) +3 for lead faction and expanded rather quickly, holding after round three or four about 40 territories/population points (N-America, S-America, Australia and parts of Asia) after attacking Kobe in Australia.

Kobe retaliated of course and managed to take back his HQ. Leander (in a better position) even managed to take the World Capitol and the corresponding resource card that was available at that time. This set me back somewhat, but not very much, because I still received a lot of troops each round.

As it has been some time since we opened one of the closed pockets/envelopes in the game, this was my real aim for today. 30+ troops + missile was in my grasp, but Leander beat me to it (thanks to the Western US resource card). So we opened up the closed pocket and after a short time realized that the two remaining pockets had their contents switched (bummer, so we already know what's in the next one. Have to contact Hasbro about this).

 We put away the false pocket contents and opened up the other one and triggered an Alien Invasion. This changes everything (again) :

- Die Mechaniker faction are branded Alien Collaborators : +1 resource total when turning in cards, lose 2 extra troops when expanding into empty cities (some good, but mostly very bad)

- New faction Aliens : if they control every city on the board they earn 2 victory points (you need 4), they get 2 extra troops when recruiting if they control Alien Island and 1 extra troop for each ruin they control, they do not lose troops when expanding into empty cities (not bad at all)

- Leander had the right to place the Alien Island on the map and he put it in the Indian Ocean and connected it with Madagascar and Indonesia (ending the isolation of the Australian continent)

- Alien Island is the 8th island and not part of any continent

- New Scar Cards : can be placed on any faction card during the game (only 1 per faction card) which will have a massive influence on the choosing of the factions (almost everyone will want to have the Aliens)
1. Primitive : You do not add population when recruiting troops (auch)
2. Unpopular : You lose 1 extra troop when expanding into empty cities (not good)
3. Short Sighted : You can only maneuver into adjacent territories (pfff)
4. Purist : You cannot have more than 2 coin cards. You must keep coin cards face up in front of you, not in your hand (shit)
5. Cautious : When placing recruited troops, you can place them into no more than 2 territories (not to bad, considering the rest)

- New event cards (come into play when a resource card is turned with an even number of resources) :
1. 3x Die Humans : Ruin mark for minor cities, which are destroyed
2. 2x Beam Down : The Alien player may place 5 troops into any 1 unoccupied city territory
3. 2x Mysterious Island : Whomever controls Alien Island may take any one face up territory card. This may trigger a second event this turn

Leander with his 30+ armies received an extra 10 aliens to do his bidding for this game and he succeeded in completing the Explore the World mission (I selected it at the start of the game as lead faction) to conquer at least 7 islands. As reward he gained 2 red star tokens, which together with his own HQ and the one he took from Kobe was enough to win this game. As a result of completing this mission he was allowed to connect two ocean-bordering territories and (after debating) choose Eastern Australia with Western US, with the World Capitol Trumpistan (totally ending the isolation of the Australian continent (I think the term Outback can no longer apply to this region :-)) and making the World Capitol just a little bit less interesting.

There is no lead faction anymore, because Die Mechaniker and Khan Industries have won 2 times, so no one gets to take the World Capitol at the start of the next game
Well, I’m interested to know how the next game will go.