CFB Risk Day 14 – EPISODE XIV: THE AGGIE MENACE

Note: Today's recap written by a guest-speaker, filling in for our friend EastCoast Esq. Get well soon – that's an order, soldier.

“Never tell me the odds.” – some guy

The war continues on as we come to the completion of the second week of action.   Battles now rage all about with mixed results for the Maize & Blue faithful.  We were tantalizingly close to securing up to *four* separate regions at one time, yet a combination of unfortunate actions by the hamsters running the core of the CFB Risk random number generating black-box left us one territory short in three of those regions.  We began the turn with two regions, attempted to gain two more, and ultimately ended with only one – so a net loss there. We regained control of eastern Canada, the Canadian Shield Region, and we are still receiving a bonus for that.  What does this mean?  For this turn, every attack move placed this turn is getting amplified by x1.5.  Every defend move placed this turn is getting amplified by x2.25.  It’s not as much as last turn, but it helps.

 

A quick explanation of “regions”, since we will be discussing them more and more going forward:

The game is moving into phases where teams will be competing to control entire “regions”, which are groupings of adjacent territories.  The map is divided into twenty regions, as shown below.  Just like in the classic Risk game, there are incentives to control whole regions – but in this game it is a mathematical bonus to *all* attack/defend odds in favor of teams holding regions (those bonuses are not limited to actions taken within held regions – they apply everywhere).

Controlling regions is good.  Preventing opponents from controlling regions is also good.

Michigan is *still* the most powerful team in the game and now is when we are starting to demonstrate that.  We recorded 780 players last night with a combined power of 1909 stars (and remember – each player’s number of stars increases the longer they play the game, even after a few days).  The player count was slightly decreased from last night (again), but this could be attributable to last night’s hockey game, the beer run to Canada, organizing one’s sock drawer, the local throat singing tournament, your spouse forcing you to put away the smartphone for the evening (*yes dear, of course I’m paying attention to the movie*), or any number of other (weak) excuses to not put in the entire two minutes of effort to enter a move. Pretty much all teams saw a minor drop in participation last night (again), so this is not a cause for concern. osu is still the second most powerful team in the game, but has now had four consecutive days of *decline* in player count (504 players for a combined 1265 stars).  We need to continue our growth to stay ahead in this game so if you haven't already - get involved!  If you already have, the get *someone else* involved!  Recruiting matters.

This would be a good time to have a high level view of the war: some way to visualize how things are progressing... like a map (now with added region boundaries and sea-routes, for your viewing pleasure).

Two steps forward, one step back.

By now the northeast corner of the map (eastern Canada, New England, and portions of the mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes states) has been well solidified as our base of operations.  We took back the east coast of Hudson bay from Wisconsin (which gained us the Canadian Shield Region), but they were able to retake Madison from us (which cost us the Great Lakes Region).  osu has been hand-fighting us for control just south of this area in the DMV, Ohio river valley and Indiana/Illinois, with them retaking Toledo and… oh… look who holds Columbus now.  How about that?

Further south in the east Appalachians and into the Carolinas, positions are still contested between osu, Georgia Tech, Tennessee and us.  Tennessee still controls the West Appalachia Region and is getting a bonus for that, but they are more of a threat to osu than us at the moment - yet they have now made contact with us in Illinois.  Things could get interesting in a turn or two, but more on that later.

Our little pocket in Georgia and northern Florida has mostly collapsed, but we now control both of the beachheads connecting back to the Canadian Shield Region (there is another in North Carolina).  Alabama, Florida and Georgia Tech continue to harass this pocket and try to force us back out - although Florida is down to one final territory and may not be around much longer.

Wisconsin maintains control of all of central Canada and the Northern Lights Region bonus it entails.  We continue to see harassment from them, but they are also attempting to wrest control of the northern US plains area from Iowa State and Nebraska (Iowa State also down to its last territory and Nebraska not far behind).

The Pacific Northwest Region spans from Alaska all the way to Idaho and Oregon in this map… and it is *almost* all ours.  A bad beat in Eugene kept us from full control this turn.  Next time.

The West continues to be a hodgepodge of small teams trying to survive: Oregon, USC, Stanford, Hawaii, Texas and Nebraska.   Washington didn’t make it last night.  We have the ability to strike further here from both the north (as discussed) and from the south, expanding from our bridgehead in Baja California, but things are about to get even harrier there because of…

Texas A&M.  They continue to dominate the center of the US and are pushing hard into the Southwest & Mexico and are now in control most of the west (right) bank of the Mississippi.  At this point they are now the greatest threat (not immediate, but long term) to us on the map.  They currently control three regions (one of which is completely safe from attack) and are in position to very likely grab a fourth this turn in the Southwest.  To make matters worse, they are in good position to control up to six regions after next turn from the way they are expanding in Mexico and the Caribbean.  Stanford, Oklahoma and LSU are still technically alive down in Mexico (aside from our presence in the westernmost part of Mexico), but only Stanford has any real shot of surviving for much longer.  osu has made some minor forays into the Caribbean themselves, but they seem more obsessed with fighting us in the north rather than securing this region for themselves.  Not only has Texas A&M secured themselves with this strong position, they have little in the way of any major power to check their advances.  Their west flank is most small teams or minor outcroppings of other teams.  Their northern flank is Wisconsin (who is more focused on us) and Nebraska (who is collapsing).  Their east flank is bordered by two other teams, Tennessee and Alabama, that have effectively allied with A&M (or at least put into place a non-aggression agreement).  These two teams have shown no real interest sending their forces westward – only east and north (and we are present in both of those directions).  Currently A&M is third in the overall player count and raw stars, yet when then region bonuses multipliers are accounted they almost match us in actual power (and we both are more than twice as strong as the next closest team, osu).  If A&M is allowed to gain 4+ regions… it may be game over soon.

A final reminder: it is strongly recommended to join the Michigan Discord server and coordinate with our friendly team leaders for assignments/orders (see link below). This is how to *most effectively* use your attack & defend moves to get us closer to actually winning the game.  However… fighting for your school, your team and your home is always a good thing, even if you have your own ideas about how to do that.  In the end, it’s still a game and the purpose is to have fun.

Team Standings

We are now down to fewer than 25 active teams in the game from the original 130 and the final rankings are beginning to take shape.  Here is where they stand thus far (teams are ranked by # of territories first, followed by a mix of metrics examining how efficiently they used their players & stars:

1.    Michigan (47 territories)

2.    Texas A&M (44 territories)

3.    (an) Ohio State (23 territories)

4.    Wisconsin (14 territories)

5.    Tennessee (10 territories)

6.    Alabama (7 territories)

7.    Stanford (6 territories)

8.    Nebraska (6 territories)

9.    Texas (5 territories)

10.  Hawaii (4 territories)

11.  Georgia Tech (4 territories)

12.  Oregon (2 territories)

13.  USC (1 territories)

14.  Iowa State (1 territories)

15.  Oklahoma (1 territories)

16.  LSU (1 territories)

17.  Florida (1 territory)

18.  Washington (killed Day 13)

19.  Georgia (killed Day 12)

20.  Notre Dame (killed Day 11)

21.  Virginia Tech (killed Day 11)

22.  UCF (killed Day 11)

23.  Minnesota (killed Day 10)

24.  Baylor (killed Day 10)

25.  South Carolina (killed Day 10)

 

So remember to drink your Ovaltine, submit your move before 10:30pm today and have fun storming the castle!

 

Steps To Play Every Day

(1) Sign up for a reddit.com account if you don’t have one already

(2) Visit collegefootballrisk.com – Click Sign in with Reddit – Select Michigan as your team

(3) Join the Michigan Risk discord by going to https://discord.gg/DRQyjp56kP (this is now a permanent link, so there should not be problems accessing it)

(4) Go to the "vetting" channel and type in your MGoBlog username and Reddit username.

(5) Once vetted, get your orders from the "orders" channel.

(6) Return to collegefootballrisk.com – Click on the blinking "target" icon at the bottom of the page (3rd button from the right), and then click on the territory you're attacking or defending.

(7) Talk trash with your fellow Wolverines as we prepare for tonight's roll.

How Does the Game Work?

It is up to each team to recruit players and coordinate moves. You can choose to defend any territory that your team currently holds or attack any adjacent territory. A "roll" happens each evening to calculate which teams have won which territories that turn based on the moves that were made by individual players. The ultimate goal is to conquer as much of the map as possible for your team. There are a number of different ways to do this, such as through recruiting players in sheer numbers or forming alliances with other teams.

 

Previous Recaps

Day 0 intro: College Football Risk is BACK - Season 3 is now LIVE!

Day 1 recap: College Risk Again!!! Sign up.... 1st in the books!

Day2 recap: No update

Day 3 recap: No update

Day 4 recap: CFB Risk Day 4: IT BEGINS

Day 5 recap: CFB Risk Day 5 - And THIS is Why They Nerfed Us

Day 6 recap: CFB Risk Day 6 - This Feels a Lot Like Real Life (Sparty Gon' Die)

Day 7 recap: CFB Risk Day 7 - F*cking Sparty (They Still Gon' Die)

Day 8 recap: CFB Risk Day 8 - WE NEED YOU TO AVENGE THE ORANGE BOWL (also, sparty's dead)

Day 9 recap: CFB Risk Day 9 - We Kicked Georgia Out of the North -- Now We Go South

Day 10 recap: CFB Risk Day 10 – The King in the North! (also, sorry about that Penn State)

Day 11 recap: CFB Risk Day 11 – ANN ARBOR HAS BEEN TAKEN!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!

Day 12 recap: CFB Risk Day 12 – It’s Groundhog Day…again (also, Notre Dame is finally dead)

Day 13 recap: CFB Risk Day 13 – NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN HO-HO-HO