Obsession with Risk
The game of Risk is an interesting one. If I were ever to again play traditional Risk against my couterpart, Becca, I would most certainly loose very quickly. She has that game down, in the way someone has something down, and that thing will never rise again. She knows all the routes and dead-ends like the back of her hand. No matter if it’s one-on-one or a larger game I inevitable lose on the classic board. Now, Lord of the Rings risk is a different matter. By all rights Becca is still a better player than I, but she doesn’t know Middle Earth in the way that I do. My strategy is to hope that she makes sufficient mistakes that I can gain the advantage and hopefully crush her. It’s never happened before, especially not in a one-on-one game. And it still has not happened. I think we are in hour 9 of this game, which we started some time saturday. The board is evenly divided between us, north and south. I have a few territories advantage, and our number of battalions is pretty equal too. At this point I usually make the mistake of leading bold and daring raids deep into enemy territory. I cut large swaths out of her lands, and then pretty much leave my borders undefended and long strings of single battalion territories that she can use to hop right into my lands. I’m slowly learning to be patient and defend my resources where I have them. My wife is a stubborn opponent, but the scales are starting to shift in my favor. We shall see what the next several hours of game time bring. Surely one of us will be tasting the bitter medecine of defeat. Then we shall put away the board, patch up our wounds, and swear to never speak of Risk again. Then about 4 months later we get the itch to match swords in plastic miniature table-top battle, and the whole thing begins anew.