An Acceptable Risk

Tonight Andrew and I made the journey east to Chris' house to play the inaugural Spheres of Influence, a clear descendant of Risk. A long long time ago I spent a happy summer playing a lot of Risk. I'm not sure we ever finished a game though, and its attritional spirit probably never matched up to the fun of breaking it out and hoping our experience would live up to anything beyond chucking some dice around and hoping for the best.

 Mid-game

In Spheres of Influence there's a lot of similarities - the board is a map of the world, you fight across it in an attempt to gain control, and indeed, chuck dice. But there are some important distinctions too - for one, Spheres plays over a set amount of rounds and at the end of the final one whoever controls the most spheres (there are eighteen) wins. A tie-breaker is most capitals.

Which territories you control are also important - every territory has a production number and your collective total will define how many units you add to the board on subsequent rounds. Some territories have a high production number, many are low. Other territories produce oil, and the more oil you control, the more turns you will get in subsequent rounds! And finally some territories are an area of interest, which means you get to take a special card that can be either used as an event, or discarded to help you adding units, or in battle.

Turns couldn't be simpler - move (into an empty territory), attack, or pass. Or in special circumstances, you might want to annex - that's one of your factions ceding control of a territory to another. After a delicious roast meal - kind of a last supper - fed to us by Jacquie, we all began with two factions; Andrew black and purple, Chris yellow and white, me blue and red. I started in the east, controlling Tokyo and Beijing. Andrew was in Africa and the Americas, whereas Chris - maybe recalling it's strength in Risk - nabbed Australia, along with the Middle East.

The first round was rapid, as we all moved our units into virgin territories and bumped up our various incomes. The second was equally speedy, albeit a bit longer, as we controlled more territories. A nice twist to the game is that although you know how many turns you'll get in a given round, the turn order is completely random, decided by flipping cards.

In round three things began hotting up as Chris and I clashed in Pakistan. In fact the region stayed a hotbed of friction for the rest of the game, as both Chris and Andrew realised my spreading over Asia needed to be halted, and Chris came at me from east and west.

Andrew also rocked up, taking Chris' capital. 

Chris took it back shortly after.

Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere, Andrew was making hay, prevented from controlling half of Africa only temporarily by Chris. I sailed a couple of ships down there to cause some mischief, but Andrew sank them.

Then he breezed into Western Europe.

At this point my strong early running had been hauled back, and we were immersed in full on, dice-chucking war. In Spheres, you can roll as many dice (up to a maximum of five) as units you attack with, and every six (either a six, or combined numbers to make one) is a hit. But the defender gets a special die that can add an extra hit in return, or shield you from a casualty. And there's the rub of the green to consider too:

Pathetic 

...leading to much frustration and hilarity. Before we knew what was happening, the end game was upon us with Andrew and I tied on Influence, and tied on Capitals. We looked up what the third tie-breaker was, and it didn't exist. Instead, you play another round! As fun as it was, that was never an option for a Sunday night. But anyway a lot could happen in the final round, and it did.

Chris tried to take control of Japan and Korea to claim another sphere, but my red guys held out. I debated whether or not to try and spread into Russia, but Chris was there and Andrew was the guy I needed to stop. Especially when he surged into Central America, annexing his own territories to claim an out and out lead! His purple guys now controlled five spheres of influence, whereas my blues had four and Chris' yellows were on three. My reds were nowhere, but I could still use them to run interference. I sailed south and, despite being attacked from land en route, took control of Mexico City and held onto by my fingertips as Andrew attacked both north and south.

Chris meanwhile spread across Eastern Europe, which had remained curiously untouched by war up until this point. But he didn't have the momentum to get units in every territory, and thus couldn't claim another sphere to put him into a winning position, as he controlled more capitals than either Andrew or I.

Chris looking at Europe

It ended at 10pm with Andrew and I tied on spheres and capitals, and we agreed to rejoice in our shared victory - maybe not as realistic as the game's actual decider of fighting on til someone wins, but a pleasant enough denouement for us, and Andrew and I made the return home at a reasonable hour for a school night.

We all liked Spheres of Influence. It's close to its obvious ancestor in that it's simple and speedy to play, but with the additions of the two economies of production and oil and the randomized turn order, the game has enough nuance and tactical play to surprise.