CFB Risk Day 21 – WE’RE GOING IN. WE’RE GOING IN FULL THROTTLE.

Pre-Recap Announcements:

• Reminder there is no roll tonight (Sunday), so make certain to have your moves logged by 10:30pm tomorrow (Monday).
• Team leaders are *still* asking players to join the Michigan Discord group (https://discord.gg/DRQyjp56kP) or the new orders distribution website (http://www.whataremyorders.com/).  Currently only about 50% of our team is coordinating their actions together while everyone else is just doing their own thing (a.k.a. going “rogue”).  We can do so much more damage when working together.
• For any players that *do* want to go rogue (or are having problems getting access to orders through the Discord site), feel free to hit any of these territories to help the cause! :

            o   Denton (Texas)

            o   Dallas (Texas)

            o   Norman (Oklahoma)

            o   Ruston (Louisiana)

            o   Columbus (Ohio)… because we can

 

“It’ll be just like Beggar’s Canyon back home.” – some guy

The AGGIE DEATH STAR may still be under construction and not yet fully armed and operational, but it is still an unrivalled power in the game.  We made our first direct attack upon it last night.  After finally identifying a weak spot, we sent a group of fighters against it and took a strong shot right at the exhaust port (which is an apropos metaphor for Dallas anyway)… and it didn’t go in.  Just a tight hit on the surface.  While this first attack wave may have crashed and burned, we remain undeterred.  The DEATH STAR may almost be in range to hit us directly (Texas A&M is now in Madison, WI), but we intend to try again tonight and make this shot count – just like another Luke did this weekend (a beautiful hockey sweep against Sparty).  We are counting on you, Michigan Rogue Force©, to lead this attack: your targets are listed above.  Now let’s blow this thing and go home.

Michigan had a slew of bad luck in the game last night – in fact, statistically we had the second worst roll outcomes of any team in the game this last turn.  Yet we are still in a strong position overall (most of the losses were our attacks or defenses of low priority territories).  We retained control of our power base and region of central Canada and are fending off most of the probing assaults by the scruffy looking nerf-herders from osu and Wisconsin.

Also keep in mind that the final “winner” for this game is the team holding the most number of territories when the clock strikes zero on Day 45.  The standings are shown near the bottom of the post, but we are now in 3rd place – behind Texas A&M and *blech* osu.  Do not despair, Maize and Blue faithful, we aren’t even at the midway point yet… and we are known as a second half team.

Fortunately Michigan is *still* the most powerful team in the game in terms of participation and raw power and has done a reasonable job of maintaining that position, as you can see in these convenient plots:

We saw a slight drop in our participation numbers last night, most likely from people watching/attending some of the games yesterday or other social activities – most of them will be back in action on Monday.

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.

Here is the boilerplate information on regions again:

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.

Got it?  Good.  Here is why it matters:

Those region bonus multipliers can make all the difference in this game; the right side of the chart shows what the adjusted stars are (with bonus effects included) – these are the stars that are actually going into battle today.  We need MOAR.

 

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).

Canada: Big House North.

 

Abbreviated front summaries:

• All of Canada: ours except for some osu hooligans in the east and Wisconsin intruders in the west.  Hockey still awesome.
• Pacific NW:  Wisconsin and Nebraska nipping at our presence. 
• US East coast: Mostly osu and Georgia Tech, competing for control of different regions.
• Greater Midwest: osu trying to take all of Ohio and Indiana/Illinois, but we continue to stymie them.  A&M got lucky and pushed into the Great Lakes and still have a strong presence in the Plains.  Wisconsin still around trying to fight us.
• US Southeast: Tennessee and Bama not doing much (surprise!).  Florida still not dead (good!).  Speech still hardly intelligible everywhere north and west of Jacksonville (dagumit y’all!).
• US Rockies & West coast: Iowa State just having fun playing whack-a-mole with Wisconsin and A&M. Texas, Oregon and Nebraska playing musical chairs.
• US Southwest & Mexico:  AGGIE DEATH STAR still *just* on the edge of become the destroyer of worlds.  Two regions under full control and a breath away from getting three more.  Help us, Michigan Rogue Force©… you’re our only hope.
• Caribbean: This was amusing.  Oklahoma had a chance to take almost all the Caribbean last night and hit everything… and failed almost completely.  Still around in Central America (along with LSU), but osu now in strong position here.

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.

CFB Risk Top 25 Team Standings

We are now down to 14 surviving teams in the game from the original 130, with some not likely to last much longer.  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.    Texas A&M (41 territories)

2.    (an) Ohio State (40 territories)

3.    Michigan (29 territories)

4.    Georgia Tech (17 territories)

5.    Wisconsin (10 territories)

6.    Tennessee (7 territories)

7.    Alabama (7 territories)

8.    Texas (5 territories)

9.    Oklahoma (5 territories)

10.  Oregon (4 territories)

11.  Nebraska (4 territories)

12.  Iowa State (3 territories)

13.  Florida (3 territories)

14.  LSU (1 territories)

15.  Hawaii (killed Day 18)

16.  Stanford (killed Day 16)

17.  USC (killed Day 14)

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 tomorrow 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

Day 14 recap: CFB Risk Day 14 – EPISODE XIV: THE AGGIE MENACE

Day 15 recap: CFB Risk Day 15 – You Come at the King, You Best Not Miss

Week 2 recap: CFB Risk Week 2 Recap - I'm Back....and I'm Annoyed

Day 16 recap: CFB Risk Day 16 – WELCOME TO THUNDERDOME, WISCONSIN

Day 17 recap: CFB Risk Day 17 – WISCONSIN ON THE RUN

Day 18 recap: CFB Risk Day 18 - No One Likes Us, We Don't Care

Day 19 recap: CFB Risk Day 19 – YO, LISTEN UP HERE’S A STORY ABOUT A LITTLE GUY WHO LIVES IN A BLUE WORLD

Day 20 recap: CFB Risk Day 19 – CFB Risk Day 20 - The Michigan Rogue Force (Read for Orders)