CFB Risk Day 22 – Third time’s a charm.

Before we begin today’s recap post, everyone please keep in mind those in the Michigan State community coming to terms with last night’s senseless tragedy.  Although we may be sporting rivals, these are still our friends, family, colleagues and neighbors – be there for them as best you can.

Pre-Recap Announcements:

• Here are the ways for how you can choose your level of involvement with the team – use only one method within the same turn:
  • If you would like to see/discuss overall strategy and choose your daily mission from a list of approved targets, use the Discord link (https://discord.gg/DRQyjp56kP)
    • Note: if already using Discord, please do not change to another method.
  • If you want a simple order to follow without overthinking or hassle, use the new orders distribution website (http://www.whataremyorders.com/). 
  • For any new players or those that want to “go rogue” (or are having problems getting access to orders through the other options), feel free to hit any of these territories tonight to help the cause!
    • Denton (Texas)
    • Dallas (Texas)
    • East Houston (Texas)
    • Tulsa (Oklahoma)
    • Minnesota
    • Wisconsin
    • Toledo (Ohio)… or anything else in Ohio, just for fun

 

“You won’t get another chance at this, Admiral.” – some guy

The Michigan Rogue Force© attacked Texas A&M with a direct assault on their AGGIE DEATH STAR (again) last night but was met with strong resistance (again).  Their shield held and our fighters were unable to make a breakthrough and hit the core.  To make matters worse, A&M was able to complete another section of the DEATH STAR (having conquered the region of Mexico).  This would have given A&M three bonus regions again (while we lost ours due to some cross border shenanigans by Wisconsin), except that… the Texas Ewoks... er, Longhorns... led an assault from the rear and took out one of their shield generators by breaking up A&M’s region in the southwest.

Fortunately, we still control positions next to A&M and have exposed even more of their core to attack.  We are counting on you, Michigan Rogue Force©, to continue the assault: your targets are listed above.  Now let’s blow this thing and go home.

Overall Michigan had a relatively neutral night.  The negatives have already been discussed (didn’t blow up the DEATH STAR, lost our region bonus in Canada), but we did have several positive developments elsewhere.  We pushed back the nerf-herders of osu and regained a large amount of territory in the Midwest and eastern Canada.  osu actually had the worst luck last night (statistically) of any team in the game, with A&M having the third worst luck as well (just not where *we* wanted it).

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.  With the territories we gained last night, we have been able to improve our ranking and are now in 2nd place behind Texas A&M (osu is now 3rd).  Stay the course, Maize and Blue faithful, we aren’t even at the midway point yet… and we are known as a second half team.

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

We saw a strong uptick in players last night (over one hundred!) and, although all teams saw increases in participation as well, our lead in total player count over osu and A&M continues to increase.  This is just impressive – keep it up!

We need to continue our growth to stay ahead in this game so if you haven't already - get involved!  If you already have, then 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.  With Texas A&M keeping two region bonuses from their DEATH STAR – and us losing our own bonus – we are almost in a dead heat with them for actual power on the board.

 

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).

So close.

Abbreviated front summaries:

• All of Canada: mostly ours except for some osu hooligans in the east and Wisconsin intruders in the west.
• Pacific NW:  Wisconsin expanding and trying to wrest away this region from us. 
• US East coast: Georgia Tech claimed a region and is close to getting a second – osu somewhat scattered.
• Greater Midwest: A&M driven back into the Plains.  We are fighting with osu for control all around the Great Lakes.  Wisconsin still around.
• US Southeast: Tennessee and Bama still not doing much (no surprise).  Florida not dead (good surprise).  Georgia Tech resurgent.
• US Rockies & West coast: Nebraska moving to take California – pushed out Texas and working on Oregon.  Iowa State roaming.  Oklahoma in Hawaii.
• US Southwest & Mexico:  AGGIE DEATH STAR remains on the edge of become the destroyer of worlds.  A&M consolidated Mexico but Texas moves into Arizona lands.  Michigan Rogue Force© waiting for someone to take down that shield.. got to give them more time.
• Caribbean: osu in strongest position but mostly a jumbled mess.

A final reminder: it is strongly recommended to join the Michigan Discord server and coordinate with our friendly team leaders for assignments/orders, but the new orders website is also a good option.  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 (38 territories)

2.    Michigan (35 territories)

3.    (an) Ohio State (33 territories)

4.    Georgia Tech (22 territories)

5.    Wisconsin (10 territories)

6.    Alabama (8 territories)

7.    Tennessee (6 territories)

8.    Nebraska (6 territories)

9.    Texas (5 territories)

10.  Iowa State (4 territories)

11.  Oklahoma (4 territories)

12.  Oregon (3 territories)

13.  LSU (2 territories)

14.  Florida (2 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 20 - The Michigan Rogue Force (Read for Orders)

Week 3 recap:  CFB Risk Week 3 Recap - Risk Bot! And I'm Seeing Boosted Stars