Currently Reading #6
Little has changed since CR#6 as I have had very little time to enjoy Pattern Recognition which I am close to finishing off at last… I am mostly eager to begin devouring a work that I have been needing to read for some time, mostly ever since a tutor referred to me as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
In some respects Pattern Recognition is becoming a firm favourite for me in regards to William Gibson, it just feels very at home in the current social climate.
I’ve recently managed to watch the Earthsea attempt that the Sci-Fi channel made and despite my alarm at the trailer it wasn’t quite as BAD as I thought it would be, I read the Earthsea Quartet at such a young age that I was hazy on enough of the plot to not be irritated by anything I saw before me…
However I know really want to read all four again and I haven’t got my own copy. *sigh* 
Played a brilliant game of RISK tonight, I was by far the scariest player and I didn’t actually win despite having the most powerful empire. Essentially my success and failure lay in the fact that I had one of the harder missions coupled with one of the most successful opening turns.
I ploughed everything into two of my African countries and thus consumed the continent very early on without a single loss and an alliance in South America I proceeded to establish staging posts into Europe and Asia… Asia was massively dominated by the fluke of territory cards which gave a player much of it for free. I devoured my South American Ally and forged a four country front-line… I had 19 troops coming to me in the next turn and was ready to tear through North America when the cunning blue player forged the alliance of four.
The council of war was resolved on cracking into my continent bonuses, they failed to break South America despite having a 19v6 advantage courtesy of a blue. They broke into Egypt however after throwing everything from red and black at my position. I proceeded to reclaim that hold and the purples eventually cut a line through Africa and into Brazil. All of this only served to beat me back rather than defeat me utterly, for I very rapidly consolidated and re-claimed Africa and South America, giving up my European and Asian positions….
The alliance crumbled and I remained dangerously powerful but to no avail since blue completed a mission and won 
March 30th, 2008 at 12:22 am
I rolled so appallingly in that 19v6! What did I lose? 17 troops? I rolled shitly against yellow too.
And if the bloody backstabbing reds and blacks had not turned on each other so soon I’d have won so much easier. Idiots. And purple would have lost a lot less troops. I have to remember their lack of patience next time; they do not understand the way of the warrior.
I should get a shogi board.
Considering that was the second time I had ever played RISK… I think I owned pretty damn well… at manipulating other players. Why didn’t you tell anyone what I was doing?
I think my favourite thing about RISK is manipulating other players… it’s fun watching them completely give away their plans and weaknesses as they squabble. Politicking is fun!
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
To be quite honest I had only an inkling of your mission and I had pretty much decided early on to just play a good game of devastation… It isn’t easy to do Africa and Asia at all even for a player with my flair for treachery and measured military campaigns. I gave Sam every chance to complete her objective, when it was clear she had failed I claimed her RISK cards as the easiest on-board kill with the most secure geographic pay-off.
I actually didn’t consider you the sole mission beneficiary of the alliance, the eagerness of the others suggested they could also achieve mission wins as a result. You guys really struggled to break my hold over the south and even then only managed to force me to consolidate out of Europe.
I really enjoy RISK, it rarely turns nasty or ill-favoured amongst players and always tickles my love of war gaming campaigns to *geek rant* levels. That game however as Baggage stated was a very good one and entertaining for observers. Mostly because we actually had a World War.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
It was only a struggle because I rolled a big pile of poo… 16 times!
I want to play more!