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Risk:
God Storm
 The
Classic Game of Risk
in mythical proportions. Armies
and gods fight for domination of
ancient Earth and the underworld.
Enter
a time of myths and legends. Enter
the world of Risk Godstorm,
where ancient faiths and fears rule.
Battle across the Earth and in the
dark regions below. Harness spiritual
forces to strike with devastating
power. Command five ancient cultures
- Greek, Celtic, Babylonian, Norse,
and Egyptian - in a continent-spanning
battle that will determine whose
civilization reigns supreme. Rest
assured, the gods will not sit idle
in this war.
Risk
Godstorm also includes everything
needed to play the classic game
of Risk
on an Ancient Earth Game board.
Components
General
Overview
This
game may be about gods and goddesses,
but they're nothing (literally)
without the little people. Without
soldiers in their territories, gods
simply cannot exist.
The
five factions in Godstorm each have
two types of figures to represent
their forces of war. The soldier
-- a simple fighting man with a
humble spear -- represents one army
of men. The war elephant -- a massive
beast with five riders in its howdah
-- represents five such armies.
At any time in the game you can
trade five soldiers in one territory
for a war elephant, or vice versa.
Arnie Swekel's illustration of the
soldiers and war elephants came
to life as these figures.
Up
to five players can play Godstorm.
Each takes on a civilization's armies.
In a two- or four-player game, each
civilization starts with 30 soldier
figures. In a three-player game,
each player gets 35 armies. In a
five-player game, each player gets
25 armies.
To
start the game, you can deal out
the 42 territory cards and have
each player place one army in each
territory they get. Then each player
places three armies at a time, either
in one territory or several, until
all are out. (You can also play
with a non-random set-up, with a
die roll determining who chooses
the first territory. Then each player
places one army in another territory,
and so on until all armies are out.
This is an especially good way to
play if you want the Egyptians to
start in Egypt, for example. Simply
agree that the home territories
will be the first territories chosen.)
In
a two-player game, a neutral civilization
enters play. You divide the territory
cards into three piles, each player
picks one, and then three armies
of a neutral civilization are placed
in each of the third pile's territories.
Those neutral armies can defend
but never attack, summon gods, or
use any of the other special actions
in the game.
One
of the most powerful abilities of
the soldiers in Godstorm is to make
their gods incarnate. A god cannot
exist in a territory without his
or her followers. Should the last
soldiers fall in a territory, the
gods fall with them. In fact, it
is the faith of men that holds this
world together.
The
Faith of Men
Faith
powers Godstorm. Tokens of your
faith can be sacrificed to summon
gods, control the turn sequence,
build temples, and play cards. All
the faith tokens start in a faith
pool, and each player gets three
1-point tokens to start. (Five 1-point
tokens can be exchanged for a 5-point
token, and vice versa, at any time.)
A
game of Godstorm can take a maximum
of five epochs. (Most of the time.
Like everything else in Godstorm,
this maximum is alterable by the
wills of the gods. More on that
in a few weeks.) Each player takes
one turn in each epoch. Who goes
first can change on each epoch,
based on the bidding of faith tokens.
At
the start of each epoch, each player
takes some faith tokens in his or
her hand. You reveal how many you
want to sacrifice in the bid for
turn order. The player who made
the greatest sacrifice gets to choose
which turn order marker he wants,
then the next player, and so on.
Players of Risk 2210 know that sometimes
you want to go early in the turn
sequence, and sometimes you want
to go late in the sequence. Bidding
high lets you make that choice first,
even if you choose to go last.
On
your turn, you collect a number
of both armies and faith tokens
equal to one-third of the number
of territories you control; this
first step of the turn is called
the Raise Armies and Gather Faith
step. You get a minimum of three
and a maximum of 14 of each (armies
and faith tokens) from this calculation
each turn. You can place them in
any territory you control. Some
of those territories, however, might
be very bad places to put your soldiers.
Forsaken
Lands
Risk
2210 introduced devastation markers,
a very cool innovation that changed
the play of every game. Those four
markers sealed off territories for
the entire game, meaning that you
had to go around them, never through
them. Risk Godstorm uses a similar
concept but with a very different
effect.
At
the start of the game, four territory
cards are turned over randomly,
and those lands each get a plague
marker. In the middle of each turn,
the pestilence kills half of the
armies in each plague-land. You
round down, so a single soldier
in a plague-land can't be killed
by the plague.
The problem is, someone still controls
those territories. In fact, to control
a continent that contains a plague-land,
you must station an army in that
hot zone. It makes plague territories
both easier and harder to defend,
and also makes attacking through
them very difficult. Having a plague-land
on the fringe of your empire can
be very useful; having one in the
middle can destroy you. It all depends
on the whims of fate.
There
are five plague markers in the game.
Four lands start with the plague,
and it's very possible for another
territory to contract it - fair
warning.
Plague
does one more thing that can change
the game on a dime. Gods in plague-lands
are immediately dismissed when the
plague hits, as the faith of men
is easily shaken by such horrible
events. Because of this, plague-lands
effectively serve as a barrier to
marching your gods and goddesses
across the board without fear.
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GOD STORM WALK THROUGH
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