Space Empires RISK® (Pictures added)

[geoschmo]

I also made a Risk Mod for SE4. Instead of making the board game like Se4, it makes Se4 like the board game.

[Kana]

The SEIV Risk mod was very fun and simple, adn not to mention quick...need to have a new game up...I assume the last one is over...

Kana

[TurinTurambar]

Alrighty, so after a lengthy and late game of RISK Saturday night (which my 12yr-old son won again ), Mike and I stayed up till about 3am designing the basics of how to play RISK with a SpaceEmpires flavor. The idea was basically that it should truely be a game of RISK and that the mechanics and layout should remain the same. Everyone who loves the game loves it for a certain reason, and preservation of these reasons is necessary to ensure universal appeal. (No pun intended)

ALPHA PHASE: MECHANICS AND LAYOUT
1. The continents are replaced with "Systems." There are 6 Systems; one replacing each continent. The point value for System Occupation mirrors that of the original game.

• a.)North America = Bizzet
• b.)South America = Obotron
• c.)Europe = Fwandrei
• d.)Africa = Ibsunk
• e.)Asia = Pantrissa
• f.)Australia = Hwansul

2. The territories are replaced with "Planets." The number of Planets in each System is determined by the number of territories that were in each original continent.

3. The crossing points and connecting borders denoted with dashed lines on the original board are replaced with "Warp Points." There are as many Warp Points connecting each System as there were crossing-lines originally. (Well... sort of... a few less actually, but it preserves the original positioning mostly.)

4. There is a card for each of the 42 planets. The card has the name and a picture of the planet, and one of three designs (yet to be determined). The original had Soldier/Cavalry/Cannon; we're thinking Satellite/Ship/Starbase. These are the cards you "turn in" for reinforcements. There are 3 Wildcards.

5. Space Empires Variations:

• a.) Movement. There is no "sweeping." Ships and fleets move one space per turn period. There are movement modifiers; see b.) and e.)-1.)
• b.) Asteroids. Each System has one Asteroid field. A maintained “Garrison” of 3 ships at this asteroid field provides one additional ship at the reinforcement phase. Additionally, the Pantrissa(Asia) and Fwandrei(Europe) Systems have an extra field each. Holding this position grants you +1 movement in that system.
• c.) Garrisons. At the beginning of the reinforcement phase, you have the option of foregoing one unit of reinforcement to “garrison” two Planets currently held. This places a marker on the Planet and allows you to move all ships away and still maintain possession of the Planet. Additionally, this gives the planet the ability to roll dice as if it were one Ship in the event of an attack. Also, a Planet is the only position where the classic “tie goes to the defender” rule applies; in space combat a tie is a tie.
• d.) Homeworlds. The first card you lay down to place your ships at the beginning of the game is your Homeworld. (You’re going to want to look at your cards carefully before you start laying them down.) It is automatically a “3-garrisoned” Planet. It counts as three Ships in a defensive situation. Losing your Homeworld has no bearing on the outcome of the game. (Yet. We could have done a lot more with this, but it was getting awfully complicated. Keep reading and you’ll see how Racial Traits are going to screw it up even more…)
• e.) Racial Traits (Optional). RISK in several variations had “mission cards.” We have created six “racial trait” cards. Keep in mind, this is the Alpha Phase; we hemmed and hawed over these for 2 hours and they’re not perfectly balanced yet.
  
  1.) Propulsion Expert. - +1 movement at all times in all systems. This player cannot use the modifying asteroid fields to get +2.
  2.) Defensive Tactician. - +1 to every die-roll when defending a planet. Wins tied die-rolls in space combat.
  3.) Berzerker – Re-rolls all offensive 1’s on the attack dice. Cannot roll a 1 period, and yes that 1 could become a 6. Does not win tied rolls when defending a planet. This guy is always on the attack.
  4.) Hardy Industrialist. – Instead of a divisor of 3 for base reinforcement according to planet total, this player’s divisor is 2. Additionally, this player turns in cards at one bracket higher than other players. This seems awfully powerful, but we did the math and it works…
  5.) Psychic. – Any 6 roll on attack or defense gives this player the chance to roll for Ship Capture. A 5or6-roll converts one Ship to his side of the battle. The 6 he rolled still counts in the combat too.
  6.) Homeworld. – All of this player’s Planets are garrisoned as Homeworlds and are worth 3 Ships in defense. The player does not have to spend reinforcements to “garrison” his planets.

BETA PHASE: CONSTRUCTION AND A TEST GAME

Stay tuned for pictures and details!

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Dagger.gif[/img] Turin [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon42.gif[/img]

[TurinTurambar]

BETA, PHASE-1: TESTING (The embedded hyperlinks are pictures)

So, on Sunday morning we started making a test board. We went over to the drugstore across the street and bought a piece of poster-board, and spent the better part of 3 hours meticulously drawing a 1-1/2” hex GRID on it. We used different colored RISK pieces to lay out the locations of planets, asteroids, suns, warp points and empty spaces. Then we removed them one at a time and DREW in the objects with colored pencils we stole from Mike’s 2-year old little girl. She got mad. Mike drew in the WARP LINES and when it was finished we had THIS .

We dealt out the cards for a 3-person GAME . At this juncture we decided to forego the Homeworld factor and the racial traits and just test the mechanics of the game and see how it played out on the test board.
(NOTE: The finished board is going to be 24x36 black-lacquered 3/16 masonite and be hand-painted with designs taken directly from SEIV.)

Right away there were some unusual results. Empty space was one of them. In RISK, you have to take a territory some time in your turn to be able to draw a new card. This is difficult when there are empty spaces and warp points between planets. You have to plan ahead quite a bit. Also, space combat is brutal for the defender. Defending with only 1 or 2 dice against 3 attack dice, and there’s no “tie goes to the defender” rule you get hammered fast. So if you’re going to camp on a wormhole, you’d better have a fleet twice the size of the one coming at you. It’s better to sit on the space next to the wormhole, and when he comes through you pounce on him when his move is used up. Defending Bizzet IV against an attack from space or a neighboring planet seemed no different than defending North Africa from Western Europe.

So yeah, “twice the size of the one coming at you” brings up the biggest difference: You can see stuff coming. Since movement is only one or two, you have time to react to stuff unlike in regular RISK. If you ever watched somebody turn in for 30+ armies and just come sweeping through you, while all you could do was watch, then you know what I’m talking about. There’s time to react in this game, which is a huge difference.

Anyway, as you can tell, I’m rather excitedly long-winded about this right now. I’ll stop here until we have some finalized designs and stuff to show.

[TurinTurambar]

Couldn't resist....

[Black_Knyght]

Very Clever !!!

[Atrocities]

Clever indeed.

[atari_eric]

TurinTurambar said: We went over to the drugstore across the street and bought a piece of poster-board, and spent the better part of 3 hours meticulously drawing a 1-1/2” hex GRID on it.

Wow - poor guy, he should have merely downloaded them...

Also, an idea:

Risk 2210 has "commanders" which allow a player to roll a d8 instead of one d6 for combat... I was thinking about different ship classes and came up with this:

Frigate: d6
Cruiser: d8
Dreadnaught: d12

...and maybe even...

Fighter squadron: 2d6

... which may be tricky, but would help against dreadnaughts, and really do well against smaller ships. To counter their average 7 roll, fighters would need...

Carrier: d4

in the sector, without which the fighters are destroyed. Of course, if there are larger ships, they must be destroyed first (I'm assuming dice will be chosen highest to lowest)

You could even have...

Space Station: d20

You can only support one station per "continent", and you only gain them after you conquer an entire "continent", and they must be placed inside their "continent" and stay in the sector they are placed. They are not *lost* if you lose full control of a continent, only if they are destroyed in combat, which would be with all 3 ships (all three dice) at once (it's a big station!)

Well, I thought it was an idea to put out there to review and refine...

[TurinTurambar]

Hmmm... not familiar with Risk® 2210. I'll google it and see if I can find a rule-set. Sounds like fun stuff to incorporate!

Thx,
T