Subject: Fw: Risk 2210 AD Report 

Greg J. Schloesser <gschloesser1@home.com> wrote in message 
<3B4CE239.4496BE08@home.com>...
I had the opportunity to play my first game of the new Risk 2210 AD,
which has just been released by Avalon Hill.  Although we managed to
misplay a few rules (no surprise there!), we all found the game
enjoyable and a big improvement on the classic Risk game.  

My report follows.  It will also appear on the next Westbank Gamers
webpage update.

***

RISK 2210

When I was a teen-ager, I played TONS of Risk.  Many weekends a group of
my buddies would descend upon my house and we'd battle away the
weekend.  I loved the game.  It truly was my springboard to better, more
sophisticated games.  Once I discovered these more 'advanced' games,
however, I really had no desire to revisit Risk.

So, when Avalon Hill announced they would be releasing Risk 2210, an
advanced version of the classic, I really had no interest and,
truth-be-told, was a bit disappointed.  I wished they would put their
efforts into something more fresh.  Still, I just knew I would have to
at least try the game.  I'm glad that I did.

First, let me comment on the outstanding production quality.  I've said
it before ... no matter what you may think of the actual games
themselves, Hasbro/AH has done an incredible job with the production of
this new line of games.  Risk 2210 is no exception.  The game is filled
with gobs of detailed miniatures.  The commander pieces even have a
silver 'dry brush' effect which is quite nice.  Now, if they'd just take
a bit of this cauldron of money and PROMOTE these games, they just might
have a big hit on their hands.

The game uses the same basic mechanics as Risk, but adds just enough
additional features and design twists to make it feel fresh and
interesting.  Here is an outline of the changes:

1) Map:  The actual layout of the main board is pretty much the same. 
However, since the game is set in the future, the names of the
territories have been changed.  Gone are such memorable names as
Kamchatka, Yakutsk and Irkutsk.  In their place we now have Pevek, Sakha
and Alden (perhaps named after Boardgame Geek guru Scott Alden!).  I
understand the reason for changing the names (future world) and I'm sure
I'll eventually get used to them, but I'm sure gonna miss those old,
familiar territorial titles.  I also found a bit of subtle humor in the
renaming of the Western United States as 'Continental Biospheres'!  Hey,
with some doomsayers predicting that the West Coast will slide into the
ocean in the future, at least they didn't do away with the territory all
together!

The other main change to the main map is the addition of sea
territories.  Now, it is possible to wage war at sea and to conquer sea
areas.  These sea areas are grouped into 'colonies' (identical in
practical terms to their land based 'continents') and earn bonuses for
the player who controls all of the territories in that colony.  Further,
they do provide additional paths or connections between territories
which were isolated from one another in the classic Risk.  For instance,
it is now possible to attack from Australia (Aboriginal League) to
Madagascar via two connected sea areas.  This does 'open up' the board a
bit, but it is still very difficult to assault Australia or South
America.  

Humanity just has to be disturbed that, according to the Hill, war will
spread from the Earth to the Moon in the not too distant future.  A
separate, round board has been added to the game to represent the moon. 
Like the earth, the moon is divided into 'colonies' and territories. 
Grabbing complete control of colonies also earns bonus troops and energy
for the controlling player.  Getting to the moon is a bit difficult,
however, and requires the presence of a Space Commander.  More on this
later.  Getting back from the moon, however, is apparently a bit
trickier
proposition for our 23rd century scientists.  The ultimate location
of attacks from the moon back to the earth are determined by randomly
drawing a card from the territory deck.  I'm not sure what the rationale
is behind this bit of randomness since, as far as I can tell, there is
no control over this whatsoever.

2) Components:  Gone are the little blocks, triangles, stars and every
other type of weird plastic or wood pieces which were used to represent
troops.  In their place are very, very nice plastic miniatures ... gobs
of 'em.  We may have big political issues with China, but we apparently
LOVE their miniatures!  In the future, battles will be fought by
machines (robots) called, disturbingly, "Machines of Destruction", or
"MODS" for short.  These MODS are represented by three different types
of really nice and detailed miniatures.  The only difference is the
number of basic troops these represent - 1, 3 or 5.  There are more
miniatures representing the five commanders (land, naval, diplomat,
space and nuclear) and space stations.  One cannot quibble with the
quality of the miniatures.  They look cool.  Plus, there are no color
contrast problems such as what is present in History of the World.  The
five (yes, five ... the game is now only for 2 - 5 players) colors are
mustard, black, green, red and blue.

The main board is sufficiently large and bears a futuristic appearance. 
It's still a bit bright for my tastes, but no where near offensive.  The
round lunar board is a bit small and is not mounted, being printed on a
thicker cardboard stock.  Still, it is functional.  Finally, there is a
nice sized score track wherein players keep a tally of the current
number of territories they control, as well as the current turn.

3) Commanders:  These MODS still need human commanders to lead them. 
Thus, there are five different types of commanders (mentioned above),
each with special powers and attributes.  Each player begins the game
with a diplomat and land commander.  New commanders must be purchased
using energy, which is earned in amounts equal to the number of MODS
earned each turn.

Certain commanders are needed in order to initiate combat in certain
areas.  Naval commanders are required in order to invade into or out of
sea areas, while space commanders are needed to invade the moon.  These
commanders need not be in the invasion territory, but the player must
have them present somewhere on the board.

Aside from giving some added dice bonuses if involved in combat (rolling
an '8' sided die as opposed to the standard '6' sided die), the main
benefit of a commander is the ability to utilize command cards.  If a
player has a particular commander in play, he may use some of his energy
tokens to purchase command cards of the corresponding type, but only
four per turn (a rule we overlooked in our first game).  These command
cards grant a variety of special powers (adding extra MODS to
territories, killing opponent's MODS, retreating, etc.), some of which
can dramatically alter a battle or even the entire board.  A few of the
cards do require the expenditure of energy tokens in order to be
utilized.  

For better or worse, the acquisition and use of these cards is a MAJOR
part of this
new version of Risk.  I can already see that some Risk purists will
object to the introduction of these cards.  They can shake-up the game
quite a bit and do add some randomness to the proceedings.  Of course,
the tons of dice rolling is still present, so who can seriously argue
about randomness in the game?  Still, I rather enjoyed the presence of
the cards as they gave you much more to plan and think about.  Clever
use of these cards will likely be rewarded and you derive a much greater
sense of accomplishment from clever pay than what is derived from simply
using the traditional 'human wave' method of attacking which dominated
the classic game.  

4) Energy:  As mentioned, players now earn energy tokens in addition to
new troops (MODS).  These are earned in amount equal to the number of
MODS you receive each turn, which is identical to the traditional method
(number of territories divided by 3).  Any bonuses for controlling
continents and/or colonies earns extra MODS as well as energy.  

As described above, energy tokens are used to purchase commanders (3
tokens) and Command cards (1 token each). They can also be used to
purchase new space stations (5 energy tokens), which are needed in order
to launch expeditions to the moon.  Further, space stations also aid in
the defense of a territory, allowing ALL troops located there to roll
'8' sided dice.  A player can only possess four space stations at any
time during the game.

Finally, energy tokens are used to bid for turn order.  I REALLY like
this addition to the game.  At the beginning of each new turn, players
participate in a 'closed-fist' bid by placing a number of energy tokens
into their hand and revealing them simultaneously.  In order of most
energy tokens bid to the least bid, players choose which position they
wish to move during that turn.  I felt that moving first was a big
advantage early in the game as it allowed you to conquer new territory. 
Your opponents then had to fight to re-conquer lost territory.  Thus,
even if you lost some of your newly acquired territory, you likely would
still have more territory than you began with.  Your opponents, however,
had to fight just to get back to the number of territories with which
they began the turn.  

Managing your energy tokens is extremely important early in the game
when energy tokens were scarce, but decreases somewhat in importance as
the game progresses.  Why?  Well, if you are successful in increasing
your territorial possessions, then you are acquiring more and more
energy
tokens each turn.  Soon, you will have an abundance of them, so you can
pretty much purchase just about everything you want on a turn.  If you
are not doing so well territorial-wise, then energy can, indeed, be
scarce, making the management of these tokens more important.  I see
this as a potential 'rich get richer' problem which did surface in our
game, but since we misplayed the critical rule on Command cards (we
mistakenly allowed players to purchase as many as they desired on a
turn), I will reserve judgment until I've played further.

5) Devastation markers:  Four territories begin the game 'devastated'
from previous wars.  These territories are determined randomly and are
completely impassable.  This can really shake-up the board layout and
force players to alter attack strategies.  There are command cards which
allow for the placement of even more markers.

4) Time Limit:  Unlike classic Risk, which can go on for hours and
hours, days and days, Risk 2210 has a 5-turn limit.  That's it.  You
have 5 turns to acquire as much territory and continents/colonies as you
can.  At the end of five turns, points are tallied to determine the
victor.  Points are earned in the following manners:

* Territories you control: 1 point apiece
* Continents and Colonies you control:  Bonus points per the chart (2 -
7)
* Command Cards: Certain cards give victory point bonuses if their
criteria are met

Thus, the game discourages a conservative approach.  With this severe
time limit, you MUST be aggressive and attack.  Sure, defend your
borders and properly manage your Command cards, but ATTACK, ATTACK,
ATTACK!  

I really enjoy this 'turn limit' as it reduces the game to a much more
acceptable 3 - 4 hour time duration.  Many of our college Risk games
would drag on all night.  I'm just not eager to put that much time into
a game of classic Risk as it is primarily a dice fest.  This new
version, however, adds enough twists and strategy options in a much
shorter time frame.  That means it will likely be a regular visitor to
our gaming table for the foreseeable future.

The world conquerors in our game were Spouey, Joey, Darren and myself. 
On our initial placement, Joey concentrated on creating a stronghold in
Australia, while I went for South America.  Spouey chose Africa, while
Darren went for the potentially lucrative, but hard to defend continent
of Asia.  Our initial placements allowed me to gain complete control of
South America and much of North America.  Spouey and Joey had to fight
to eliminate a few opponents before grabbing control of their
continent.  Darren was never able to grab complete control of Asia, so
he suffered greatly in bonus MODS and energy.

I figured moving first was a wise choice (for the reasons outlined
above), so I gambled and bid all three of my initial energy tokens to go
first.  My opponents chose to bid 1 or zero, so I was rewarded with
going first.  This allowed me to take complete control of North America
and set up some defensive perimeters.  Plus, I used my three energy
tokens to purchase a Space Commander and launched an invasion of the
moon.  I felt fairly secure in my position, but was worried that I
didn't have any Command cards.

Joey and Spouey both succeeded in conquering their continents, but they
stalled in a naval battle off the coast of Africa.  Darren moved last
and was so battered that he made little headway in Asia.  Incredibly, I
was left completely alone, mainly due to my strong defensive perimeters.

On turn 2 I again went first and purchased a naval commander and several
Command cards.  I failed in my effort to conquer the naval areas off the
coast of South America (thanks to incredible dice rolling by Spouey),
but did succeed in completely capturing the two North American /
European sea colonies.  Further, I expanded my presence on the moon,
conquering two complete colonies.  I also made strong incursions into
Europe, which was ill-defended due to protracted wars between Spouey,
Joey and Darren.  I didn't conquer the entire continent, but did conquer
enough territory to provide a strong buffer for my North American
continent.

Joey was stalled in his efforts to make incursions into Africa, so he
opted to attempt to threaten me via the sea.  The Australian and North
American sea areas connect at one location.  I had strengthened this
area and on turn 3 thwarted any hope Joey had of conquering the area by
playing a nuclear Command card (I purchased a Nuclear commander that
turn) which killed his Nuclear commander.  After my turn on Turn 3, the
others felt there was no way they could reign in my huge lead, so they
surrendered, giving me the victory.

We all enjoyed the game, but had a sense that it was too difficult to
catch the leader.  Disturbed by this, I re-read the rules the next day
and, sure enough, we misplayed a few rules, one of which was critical. 
As mentioned, we were allowing players to purchase as many Command cards
as they could afford.  This proved overwhelming once someone grabbed a
territorial and continent lead.  I later discovered that the rules limit
purchases to four cards per turn.  That makes MUCH more sense and evens
things up a bit.  Oops.

Still, in spite of this omission, the game was fun.  Better than the
classic Risk, at least to me and my opponents.  If marketed properly,
this could be a cross-over game for teen-agers and those in their early
20's to German style board gaming and wargames.  I sure hope Avalon
Hill/Hasbro puts some advertising dollars behind this one and we see
some print ads or even television commercials.  It could be BIG!

Initial Ratings:  Joey 7, Greg 6.5, Darren 6, Spouey 6
-- 
Greg J. Schloesser
The Westbank Gamers:  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/~westbankgamers 
Strategy Gaming Society: http://pages.about.com/strategygames/