Risk Legacy: Game 3

Our third game of Risk Legacy made up for my dismal experience last time: I won!  Unlike the previous two games, we all kept to ourselves in the beginning and focused on building our armies.  At some point, Ryan was gaining an advantage with rapid expansion in Asia, and Greg went after him.  They spent the remainder of the game trading insults and territories.  This was a "fortuitious circumstance" for Kylen and me.  The nice bonuses they earned from large areas of conquered land went into funding their war against each other, while Kylen and I peacefully and slowly grew our forces with the help of our small continent bonuses (Africa and South America respectively).  Ryan always got his Australian bonus, and Greg was able to hold North America a few rounds.

All of us had big armies left at the end.

My faction had the special ability of my capital always being fortified.  The plus 1 on both my defense dice discouraged any attempt at invading.  Kylen decided to try for Greg's capital and began making his way north.  I had a sizable army in Europe that I'd built in preparation to strike a capital, but I held back due to everyone's daunting fortifications.  Kylen eventually left one of his border territories weak, and Ryan swept in to capture his capital.  If he hadn't, I would have!

Kylen and I had started with an extra victory point (red star) since we hadn't won before.  Each capital is worth a star, and you can also trade in cards for them.  Greg and Ryan traded their cards for men.  On my next turn after Ryan's big invasion, I traded in cards for my third star and used my European army to take Kylen's capital from Ryan.  He rolled very poorly, and I was able to get my final star.  For my reward, I followed in the footsteps of my two predecessors and chose to name a continent. I christened South America "Rivendell," an Elven outpost from Lord of the Rings. 

My army on Kylen's capital.

Here is where we came to a thrilling moment!  If the other three players chose to name a minor city, we could open up our first secret envelope!

There are six secret containers, four being envelopes.

Ryan decided to carry the animosity between him and Greg beyond the game and insisted that he would only name a minor city IF Greg would draw a smiley face on his hand.  Ryan and Kylen had revived their hand face silliness during the game, and this was Ryan's way of getting in a little good-humored jab.  Greg, being the stubborn man he is (we're perfect for each other!), wouldn't hear of it.  Much conniving ensued, and I even attempted to forcibly draw a face on his hand myself.  He fought me off valiantly, but Ryan at last consented to get even by naming a minor city "Smiley Face On Greg's Hand Island."  He then took a picture of it with his phone while proclaiming loudly that it would be on record for all time.

"Smiley Face On Greg's Hand Island"

As winner, I nominated myself official secret envelope opener.

It had quite a pile of cards inside, some of which will result in major changes to our future games!  Very exciting, but I'll wait until the next Risk Legacy post to talk about them.  =)