“In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.”

Tonight my wife, Teresa, asked me if I wanted to play Risk: Star Wars Edition before dinner. You might recall that she gave it to me for my birthday back in September after playing it for the first time in Chicago the week before. After cleaning off the dining room table (which needed to be done anyway...I'm not entirely sure it wasn't a ploy on her part to get me to do it) I went ahead and set up the board. She chose to play the Rebel Alliance, which left me fighting for the glory of the Empire once again.

As before, the game was fast moving and lots of fun! I once again managed to kill Luke Skywalker early in the game and started using the Death Star II to blast the Rebel fleet into oblivion. At the same time, however, the shield generator was destroyed and Teresa moved in to try to destroy the Imperial space station. If any of the attacking ships roll a 6, the Death Star II is blown apart. 

I realized that I accidentally left a sector by the station vacant, which the Rebels moved in to. The Super Star Destroyer Executor moved in to attack and was successful in eliminating most of the ships there. With only one Y-Wing left in the sector when she played the Y-Wing card, Teresa decided to attack the Death Star II "for the Hell of it" and for the laughs. 

She rolled a 6 and destroyed the Death Star. With one die. The Rebels won the battle. 

We were both laughing up a storm at how ridiculous and awesome that was! That's honestly one of my favorite things about these sorts of games: you never know how one dice roll will change things. Especially if they're played for laughs. Teresa kept saying over and over again that it was "nothing more than dumb luck."

"In my experience," however, "there's no such thing as luck."

We had a super fun time, and I look forward to playing again very soon!

Risk: Star Wars Edition

My wife and I are in Chicago for a wedding and we’re sharing an Airbnb with our friends Helen and Eric. Risk: Star Wars Edition was brought and so yesterday, Eric and I decided to give it a go. 

The setup is quite a quite a bit different than than the usual version of Risk, as you can see in the photos. It represents the three different aspects of the Battle of Endor: the space battle around Death Star II, the ground battle on the forest moon, and the duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. The Rebel objectives: destroy the shield generator, destroy the Death Star, and destroy/redeem Darth Vader. The Imperial objectives: keep all that from happening and destroy everything. 

Eric played as the Rebel Alliance and I fought for the glory of the Galactic Empire.

As in Return of the Jedi, the Rebel Alliance starts with their entire fleet on the board. Additional squadrons are located on auxiliary fleet ships. Half of the TIE Fighters were deployed at the game’s start, with reinforcements aboard the Super Star Destroyer Executor. 

The side panels represent the additional fights going on simultaneously. The Rebel assault towards the shield generator is on the far side, and one nearest the camera has health charts for the Millenium Falcon, Executor, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader. 

The Falcon moves in to lead the Rebel assault!

The Executor takes damage! Admiral Piett orders more TIE squadrons deployed and takes evasive measures.

Suddenly, a bright green flash momentarily illuminates the area! A Rebel frigate, with a full complement of fighters, is gone. The Death Star II is fully operational! 

At almost the same instant, Luke Skywalker is struck down by his father. Emperor Palpatine laughs with sadistic glee.

The Rebel strike team breaches the bunker manages to destroy the shield generator! Rebel ships above begin the main assault. Only one D6 roll of six will destroy the space station. In an attempt to slow down the enemy, Executor sacrifices itself by serving as a distraction. The Rebels take the bait!

Meanwhile, all the fleet ships having been destroyed, the Death Star II targets the Millenium Falcon. It is destroyed instantly. 

Although the vast majority of Rebel ships have been destroyed, there’s still a great danger. Remember, the Rebels only need one roll of a six to win.

But in the end, the Empire wins and destroys the Rebel Alliance. The Galactic Civil War is all but over! 

All in all, this was a super fun game! It was neck and neck right until the end, and Eric could very well have won at several times if the dice had favored it. This is a game that I would definitely recommend and would play again in a heartbeat.