What's Done Can Never Be Undone
WARNING: Risk Legacy is a game about exploration and discovery. Reading about the game's many secrets will ruin your own experience. If you ever plan on playing this game in person, I advise you stay away from this thread. Elements of this game will be spoiled. You have been warned.
In 2128, after years of global warfare, theoretical physicists joined together with astronomers, engineers, and particle physicists to announce a breathtaking breakthrough: the ability to create new Earths. Instead of warring over ever-scarcer resources and ever-diminishing supplies, factions and populations could transport to a verdant Earth, untouched by humans. With great fanfare, the colonists departed for the first earth clone created, ready to leave war behind. It took two months for the first battle to take place. It turns out that factions weren’t so ready to share, to give up past grudges, or to forgive trespasses. As future Earths were colonized, future wars followed. You have one of these Earths. It is waiting for your story, your wars. As of now there are no cities, no wars, even the continents are unnamed.
But all that will change.
The wars will come.
They always do.
What is Risk Legacy?
Risk Legacy is an exciting twist on the old and oft-maligned Risk series of board games. Unlike other board games, Legacy is about permanence. The decisions you make in the first game could have consequences in the seventh. While the core mechanics are very much classic Risk, a lot of tweaking has been done in Legacy to fix the flaws of its father. While turn-to-turn troop movement is important, you always have to consider what the results of this game will mean in the next. Should you take a chance and try to win? You could win, but failure means you let an opponent win that you'd rather not. By sacrificing your win this game, the board state could shift in a less detrimental way for you.
Either way, the game will shift. Six packets sit sealed, waiting for certain conditions to be satisfied before they open. Once they do, more than just the map will change. New rules will be introduced, and old rules will be altered. Sometimes, not always in your favor. So, do you rush and try to open the packets, or wait for them to open under more natural terms? It is, like every, a bit of a risk.
Because of the nature of this, I am looking for very specific players to play this game.
1. You could not otherwise play this game. Risk Legacy is an insane experience, and a play-by-post experience does not come even close to the physical one. However, an experience is better than none at all, so please only sign up if you think that you will never have the consistent group required to get the proper experience. The rest of you: support the developers and buy a copy of the game. It is fantastic, and you will thank me for not sullying the experience with an inferior PbP version.
2. You are ignorant of the game. Obviously you shouldn't have played before, but maybe you ran into spoilers? This is wildly unfair, and I reserve the right to kick you out if I suspect you know more about the game than you are letting on.
3. You're in it for the long-haul. Risk Legacy is best played with as consistent a group as possible over 15 games. I understand that this is quite a commitment, and do not expect to maintain the same five people for the whole ride. That said, when it comes to picking players, I will be favoring the consistent. If you drop out and a new guy then goes on to play four games to your two, then the new guy is getting picked over you. Them's the breaks.
"Warfare has its own brutal elegance. Regardless of nation, creed, or leader: each army dances to war's unique rhythm.
-Lt. Ericson, Imperial Balkania
Risk is still fundamentally easy to play, but the rules will change as we go along. Here are the base rules. Spoilers, along with the updated rules will always go in the second post so people don't accidentally stumble upon them.
Starting the Game
Turn order is chosen at random. The player that goes first selects his or her faction and then places his or her HQ and starting troops (8) into one territory. Proceed until all players have chosen a starting territory and faction.
Legal Starting Territory:
Any territory that is unoccupied and not marked in any way (scars, cities, etc.) An unoccupied major city is always a legal starting territory for the player that founded it, regardless of any marks present. You cannot place your HQ into a starting territory that is adjacent to an already-placed HQ, even if your would-be starting territory is a major city founded by yourself.
Players each receive one Scar card. If there are not enough Scar cards for each player, then Scar cards are not passed out. Reveal the first four resource cards.
Each player that has won receives a missile token for each win. Everyone else receives one red star token.
Object of the Game:
Players win by collecting four red stars. You can do this by trading in four resource CARDS or by controlling HQs (One HQ = One Red Star).
1. Start of Turn: You may trade in four resource cards for a red star token (only once per turn). Note that this is CARDS and not resources themselves (the coins on a resource card).
If the player has a Scar card that can be played at the start of a turn, then this is when you do so.
2. Join the War or Recruit: If you have been knocked out of the game (control no territories), you may rejoin the war by placing half of your starting troops into a legal starting territory. If there is no such territory, then you are eliminated from the game.
If you haven't been knocked out of the game, then count your total territories. Add to that number the total population of all cities you control. Divide that number by three, and round it down. That is how many troops you recruit this turn. If you control all the territories in a continent, then add its bonus to your total recruitment. If you have named any continent you control, then its bonus is increased by one. Finally, before recruiting, you may discard resource cards to increase your recruitment total further. Count up all the coins on the cards you are trading in, and then the corresponding troops to your recruitment total. Discard territory cards, and place coin cards on the top of the coin card deck.
Dave has 10 territories and two minor cities (2 population), and controls South America. He then trades in four coins worth of resource cards. He would gain four troops from his holdings ([10 + 2] ÷ 3 = 4) plus two troops for controlling South America. Finally, he gains seven troops for his resource trade-in. Altogether, Dave would recruit 13 troops this turn (4 + 2 + 7).
You may place recruited troops into any territory you control.
3. Expand and Attack: Expanding is simple. Simply take troops from one territory and move them into an unoccupied adjacent territory. You must leave at least one troop in the origin territory (you cannot abandon a territory). Unoccupied cities, however, require you to sacrifice troops to take out local resistance. When expanding into an occupied city, lose troops equal to the city's population (you cannot expand into a city if no troops would survive). For example, if you expand three troops into an unoccupied city with a population of two, then two troops will be lost. You will control that territory with one troop.
Attacking is when you move into an occupied territory. Announce the origin of the attack and its target and how many troops will be attacking it (you must leave at least one troop behind in the origin territory). You roll one die for each attacking troop (maximum of three) and the defender chooses to roll one or two die (can only roll one die if there is a lone troop defending). Each side rolls and then compares their two highest rolls against each other. Lose one troop for each roll in which you lost, and the defender loses one troop for each roll in which he or she lost (defender wins ties). Continue until you feel like stopping or wipe out all defending troops. If the latter, then move as many troops as you like into the defending territory. The minimum you can move in is equal to the dice you rolled in the final battle, and the maximum you can move in is all your troops in the origin territory except for one. Two facilitate online play, the attacker will roll for both sides and the defender will always roll two dice if able. The defender will, however, roll in the event that there is a decision he or she can make (scar cards, etc.)
Example: Dave attacks with three troops against Sue. He rolls a 4, 5, and 1. Sue rolls a 5 and 3. They both tie with a 5, so Dave loses one troop (defender wins ties), and Dave's 4 is higher than Sue's three, so she loses one troop.
There is no limit to the number of attacks you can make in a turn if you have enough troops to do so. If you successfully conquer a territory with an HQ, then you gain that HQ (and thus one red star) so long as you hold that territory.
4. Maneuver: You may move all but one troop from one of your territories to another of your territories, so long as the two are connected by friendly territories. You may do this ONCE per turn.
Example: Dave has four troops in territory #5 and just one troop in territory #1. He wants to beef up his defenses in #1, so he takes two troops from #5 and places them in #1. Since he controls territory #2, this maneuver is legal.
5. End of Turn
Scars: Some scars have effects at the end of the turn. This is when they trigger.
Draw a card: If you conquer a territory (successfully attack a territory until you control it), then you are eligible for a resource card. Look at the four territories available. If you control any of them, you must pick one amongst those and take it. If you control none of those territories, then pick a coin card. If the coin card deck is empty, then you get nothing. When the coin card deck depletes for the first time, the player with the most territories gains a red star.
Your turn is now over.
"Generations will pass, but the world will never forget of our victory.
-Chief Tavof, Enclave of the Bear
When the game ends, the winner and un-eliminated players will pick their end-of-game rewards.
The winner gets to sign the game board. You may then choose amongst the following rewards. Rewards are finite, and cannot be chosen once they run out. Numbers in parentheses show how much of each reward is available.
Found a Major City(5): choose a territory without a city. From now on, you may choose this territory as a legal starting location.
Name a Continent(6): choose a continent without a name and name it. From now on, that continent's troop bonus is increased by one for you and only you.
Alter a Continent(One of Each): Apply a modifier to a continent without a modifier. From now on that continent's troop bonus is either increased of decreased by one for all players.
Fortify a City(5): Select any city (even if already fortified) and fortify it. Fortified cities receive +1 to all defense rolls so long as it has at least one pip left. Fortifications start with 10 pip and loses one each time it is attacked by three or more troops. If a fortified city gets a new fortification, then it has 10 pips and the older pips are lost.
Erase a Scar(4): Select a scarred territory. It's scar is considered gone, and future scars may not be placed here. The region is once again a legal starting territory so long as there is no city mark.
Destroy a Resource Card(∞): Select a territory card and destroy it. It is forever removed from the game. Mark the territory with an X to indicate that it has no corresponding resource card.
After the winner selects a reward, players that lost (but were not eliminated) may chose one of the two options. Rewards are finite, and cannot be chose once they run out. Numbers in parentheses show how much of each reward is available.
Found a Minor City(9): choose a territory without a city. This territory now has a minor city, and is no longer a legal starting territory (if was was previously)
Add a Coin(35): Select a resource card and add one coin to it. In future games, that resource card can be turned in for more troops.
"It is our hope that, at the end of all this, we can come to call this world 'Home.'
-Generäle Friedman, Die Mechaniker
After 15 games have been played, the player who has won the most may name the planet. In the event of a tie, roll to see who names the planet. Future games may be played, and changes to the world may occur. End-of-game rewards, however, are no longer distributed.