CFB Risk Day 17 – WISCONSIN ON THE RUN
Pre-Recap Announcements:
o Team leaders are *still* asking players to join the Michigan Discord group (see link below). Currently less than 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.
o For any players wanting guidance on where to attack this turn (without having access to orders through the Discord site), feel free to hit any of these territories:
-- Missouri (Missouri)
-- Springfield (Missouri)
-- Cote Nord (Canada)
-- Sault Ste Marie (Canada)
-- Nova Scotia (Canada)
“I can do this all day.” – some guy
Two turns ago Wisconsin publicly insulted Michigan and then tried to proverbially punch us in the face… it has not gone well for them since. In that time, they have been knocked down from having 15 territories to only 6; from being in a position to control most of Canada and threaten us from multiple directions to now being surrounded and on the defensive. If we continue this push, there is a real chance to knock Wisconsin out of the game. Interesting.
Consolidation is happening now in Canada, which we mostly own at this point. Wisconsin forces have been pushed south and east, but osu has started challenging us more aggressively. Because of this we lost our region in eastern Canada, but osu also lost control overOhio. While we squabble back and forth on the east coast, the Texas A&M DEATH STAR continues to strengthen in the south.
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 has done a reasonable job of maintaining that position, as you can see in these convenient plots:
That is a lot of players… and a lot of stars. We can do even better.
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).
The Great (White) Maize North.
Abbreviated front summaries:
o All of Canada & Pacific Northwest: open season on Wisconsin.
o US East coast: mostly us in the north & osu in the south with skirmishes for control in between. Georgia Tech trying to reform a power base.
o Greater Midwest: osu has only partial control of Ohio and Indiana, we have control most of the rest. Tennessee (content to be an A&M sidekick) keeps pushing up from the south while the A&M is pushing up from the Plains.
o US Southeast: osu, Georgia Tech and Tennessee battling for control. Alabama guarding A&M’s east flank. Florida not long for this world.
o US Rockies & West coast: small teams battling it out in the space between Michigan and A&M. Stanford is dead.
o US Southwest, Mexico, & Caribbean: AGGIE DEATH STAR nearing completion – in a better position now than yesterday. A&M likely to squeeze out small teams remaining in Mexico; more resistance in the Southwest. Caribbean is A&M vs osu now, with osu gaining.
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 15 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. Michigan (48 territories)
2. Texas A&M (42 territories)
3. (an) Ohio State (32 territories)
4. Alabama (10 territories)
5. Georgia Tech (9 territories)
6. Tennessee (8 territories)
7. Wisconsin (6 territories)
8. Texas (6 territories)
9. Oklahoma (5 territories)
10. Iowa State (4 territories)
11. LSU (4 territories)
12. Hawaii (3 territories)
13. Nebraska (3 territories)
14. Oregon (1 territories)
15. Florida (1 territories)
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 tonight 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
February 8th, 2023 at 2:28 PM ^
Bye Wisky:
February 8th, 2023 at 3:39 PM ^
Thanks for giving out "marching orders" for those of us that --don't know how, or can't- access Discord.... I think you will find more coordination for a few of us....!
February 8th, 2023 at 1:30 PM ^
Might be helpful to explain how to update our moves on discord. This might get you more participation on discord. I hadn't bothered until recently since it took more than 4 seconds to figure it out. Think I've got it now.
Star count is the number of stars at the top which is the average of the 4 categories of stars listed below?
February 8th, 2023 at 1:40 PM ^
They list the territories they want to make moves in with the desired star count in each, which each move prioritized from the top. So if you know your own star count, you "vote" by clicking that number of stars for that move. If it says "Defending Ann Arbor 50 stars" then you put in your move and click "3 stars" to add your move to the count. When enough people click so that it gets to 50, the title changes to "Complete"
February 8th, 2023 at 2:01 PM ^
And then don't forget to make your move on the risk website.
February 8th, 2023 at 5:02 PM ^
<bad image>
February 8th, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
Unfortunately, the graph of star power with bonuses tells a very different story. TAMU almost had as many adjusted stars as we did last night, with 500+ fewer players. OSU was only 200 adjusted stars behind, with almost 500 fewer players.
Our inability to secure regions (and belief in alliances with untrustworthy "allies") has been our achilles heel.
February 8th, 2023 at 1:37 PM ^
Yeah was going to say that. OSU and TAMU have effectively the same star power as Michigan because of their region bonuses.
February 8th, 2023 at 1:43 PM ^
True, but bonuses are not always available. Not the best way of comparing the "core" of each team.
February 8th, 2023 at 7:37 PM ^
Region bonuses come and go, but those (Michigan college football risk players) who stay will be champions
February 8th, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
I find these updates endlessly fascinating even though I have no clue what you are doing (mainly because there's not much else going on)
I do have one question though. Is this blog the only source for Michigan player information? It would seem that joining the discourse (whatever that is) is very important to a coordinated attack on whatever it is you kids are attacking. But unless there's alternate means of communication among players how would any non-mgoblog risk player even know to join the all important discoursee-thingee?
February 8th, 2023 at 1:43 PM ^
Discord is just a chat app. It's the same as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skype, WhatsApp, etc. With a few features that make it good for large groups.
February 8th, 2023 at 3:12 PM ^
college football Risk originated on Reddit a few years ago before migrating (kicked out) and still has a significant presence there. The same updates are posted on the UM board there as well
https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeFootballRisk/
https://www.reddit.com/r/MichiganWolverines/
February 8th, 2023 at 7:39 PM ^
Tell us you’re old without…nevermind
February 8th, 2023 at 1:36 PM ^
Joining the discord makes it too many steps to be worth it for those 50% (me included). I'll do this one thing (the daily risk move) for fun -- but adding going to a different website to get directives to be able to do that thing every day turns it into work.
What did you do before discord existed to give directions? If it is less work, do that.
February 8th, 2023 at 1:49 PM ^
You probably spent more time typing this post than the time it takes to check orders and log a move on Discord. I waste my 60 seconds (Discord + CFB Risk) each day from my phone while on mindless conference calls or standing in line at the grocery store.
February 8th, 2023 at 2:23 PM ^
The whole process takes less than 30 seconds daily. It was probably 5 minutes to set up the first time (sign on to discord, get vetted).
February 8th, 2023 at 1:57 PM ^
A fair point. I like the addition by the OP of the "If you don't join the discord just attack these territories". Should make it easier for you
February 8th, 2023 at 2:24 PM ^
I'm with you MHalo--checking the risk map and clicking a territory--5 seconds and fun to wander around Canada.
(Even ignoring the discord sign up time) checking discord, entering my stars, going to the risk map... just an extra 15 seconds but makes it seems more like 'work' than "attack Canada".
February 8th, 2023 at 2:32 PM ^
what existed before discord was yet another website (*gasp*) called Michgan Risk dot com or something, where you clicked to get a move. The organizers would put in "okay tell 50 people to do this, 20 to do that" then it would randomly spit out something for each person. The problem was that other teams would just go to the website, have a bunch of players click, and then you could figure out Michigan's plan.
There's really no way to coordinate 1000 people without some sort of private chat type thing. Mgoblog does not have that. Discord does.
February 8th, 2023 at 2:42 PM ^
That's not really how it worked. We had it split by stars, not people, and you couldn't just have a bunch of players click. There was a verification process. Anyone who didn't register a move would be blocked, and anyone who wasn't a Michigan player would be blocked. We had 95% order compliance rate while engaging 87% of all Michigan players. The other teams weren't able to get information from it unless they were actively playing for us and would never have been able to see our distribution.
The current set-up means that one spy gets the entire distribution. A website's the better move.
February 8th, 2023 at 3:14 PM ^
So why did we go to the current system?
February 8th, 2023 at 3:22 PM ^
The person who ran the old website is no longer participating, and attempts by new team members to revive it have not yet succeeded.
February 8th, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^
Well I guess I was totally wrong. I thought I remember something about other teams knowing our plans.
February 8th, 2023 at 9:56 PM ^
I don't think you're totally wrong. As I recall the first time this was a subject on MGOBlog we were discussing moves on here which is where opponents would check and see what we were doing. Thats why orders aren't given out here. I may be misremembering after all I'm a bit gray and long in the tooth. "Get off my lawn you kids!"
But at least I can understand how to get on Discord and play CFB for the betterment of the MGOBlog community!
February 8th, 2023 at 3:25 PM ^
I think OSU was still using the dedicated-website approach; I saw one of their rogues post their order and saying they were ignoring it to attack Ann Arbor or Toledo.
February 8th, 2023 at 9:39 PM ^
I'm mostly in the same boat, not really interested in getting to know Discord all that much. But I spent a few minutes getting on Discord, then sending in my login names to get verified (which I think happened?). Now I just leave a tab open on Discord to the chat about orders and another tab with the Risk game map and it takes hardly any time to read an order, click the region on the map and then click the number on the Discord order I followed.
February 8th, 2023 at 1:38 PM ^
Every day I try to verify my discord. Invite invalid.Verification required. Verify by email. Email is already registered. Stuck. Every day.
I don't really give a shit about Risk, I'm just trying to help out. I've tried 7 times to do this damn discord shit, it doesn't work and then I go rogue.
February 8th, 2023 at 1:46 PM ^
just attack Wisconsin every turn until they die if you can't get verified on Discord
February 8th, 2023 at 8:34 PM ^
I had the same problem when attempting to connect using safari on my iphone. I tried using firefox on my ancient macbook and was able to get in and get vetted. Now i just use the discord app on my iphone and all is well.
February 8th, 2023 at 1:46 PM ^
Wisconsin has nowhere to run - they need to die!!
Once we kill them off, we can capture regions and fend off TAMU and TOSU.
February 8th, 2023 at 1:57 PM ^
Once a team gets consolidated down to a few regions don't they become hard to defeat? Sure the have fewer stars, but their stars are spread over a vastly smaller number of regions to attack and defend. Ie, they become concentrated.
February 8th, 2023 at 3:26 PM ^
Yes. Iirc last year at about this point Michigan's strategy devolved into whack-a-mole. With ever more futile attempts to vanquish a few schools that had "wronged" M in the past. Then into a stretch at the end where M tried to do too much with too little and blamed the loss on RNG. Which of course is the smart idiots excuse for failing to plan for humans being humans.
February 8th, 2023 at 8:18 PM ^
Yes, so Rougues attack TAMU to prevent them from getting a multiplier!
February 8th, 2023 at 1:53 PM ^
Fuck 'em up!
February 8th, 2023 at 2:30 PM ^
Buckeyes taking over my beloved home province!!!! This must be avenged.
February 8th, 2023 at 2:48 PM ^
Insert Game of Thrones “The King in the North” gif here.
February 8th, 2023 at 10:18 PM ^
That was Day 9.
February 8th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
For those that are doing their part (even though they don't want to join Discord, which i understand), I commend you.
Another way that even rogues can help out is by recruiting as many friends/family to join the cause as you possibly can. I have about a dozen friends/family that are helping out now that just weren't willing to join discord and get orders.
With everyone in the game essentially hating us, we can still easily overwhelm them with pure volume of players if you all keep recruiting!!
February 8th, 2023 at 4:38 PM ^
We have a chance to consolidate 3 regions, 1 on the west coast, 1 by Michigan and another on the east coast. I think that's the upmost important. Taking those regions and getting that boost would really help us throw our actual weight around, on a team like say... Wisconsin.
February 8th, 2023 at 4:42 PM ^
Anyone know the odds of eliminating Wiscy this turn?
February 8th, 2023 at 6:51 PM ^
The discord server was a small challenge to get signed up for in the beginning for me.
Now I enjoy going in there when I have a few minutes to see what is being posted. Some funny stuff and really doesn’t take much time once you are in.
February 8th, 2023 at 8:58 PM ^
Vet me already, and while you're down there...
February 8th, 2023 at 10:36 PM ^
Well, dang. Not a good roll for Michigan. Frigging Wisconsin and OSU.....
February 9th, 2023 at 8:33 AM ^
Looked at the map this morning. Wow, that was ugly.
February 8th, 2023 at 11:48 PM ^
While we worried bout Wisconsin, we have lost 7 territories while OSU have gained 16. AnM is up to Illinois and OSU have captured Ann Arbor. Its looking like OSU is in an Alliance with Texas AM . We have no regions. I say we retreat, concentrate on getting a region to boost our star power because its looking bad right now