Nautical-but-Nice Fast Risk, juiced down

 Overjuiced version - Previous Rules Set - Medium on Risk math 

MBJp134

Introduction

I've devised changes to the rules of Risk to make it play faster and more interestingly, and this time I hope to state these rules more clearly and to add a naval component. The original ruleset (with navy) seems to be over-juiced, so I'm going to try dialing the reinforcement values back to the previous version. We played the game on August 25, and I'm making a few updates.

 

Set-Up

Deal out the 42 Risk cards into six piles. Each player gets one pile, the rest go to "allied armies" (see below). In other words, all colors of armies go onto the board from the start.

Allied Armies Set-up

Place 2 allied armies on each Risk card territory plus 3 more on three random Territories (from card pile for that ally). Allies are now set up (with 23 armies each).

Each allied army gets one factory placed on a territory selected at random from the ally's cards.

Each allied army gets one ship placed next to the shore of a randomly selected territory with one die roll worth of armies on board. If the territory borders on two oceans (such as Central America, South Africa, etc., see below), roll a die to determine in which ocean the ship is stationed.

Each allied army is assigned one or more poker card suits, i.e., hearts, clubs, etc. Note that for the red suits the queen is always the high card.

Player Set-up

Decide who plays first by die roll.

Place three armies on each Risk card territory. Each player now has 21 armies. Once all are placed, they may be reärranged freely.

Each player gets one factory to place on any of their territories.

Each player gets one ship with one die roll worth of armies on board, to be placed by the shoreline of one of the player's coastal territories.

Shuffle the Risk cards and poker cards.

Each player gets 2 Risk cards and one poker card to start.

The game is ready to begin. 

Joining and Leaving Mid-Game

If a player turns up late and wants to join the game, they pick an allied army to take over. They immediately draw two Risk cards and one poker card. 

If a player leaves the game, their army becomes an allied army. Any poker cards they have remain with the new allied army and may be seized by the first player who manages to play the allied army (by a poker win or if unchallenged--see below) or if the new allied army is completely defeated by another player.

Turn-by-Turn Play 

Reënforcing at Start of Turn

At the start of every turn, including the first, a player gets:

1. Territory bonus (divide number of territories by three, minimum of three)
2. Continent bonuses
3. 2 armies per factory (on the factory territory)
4. Card turn-in (armies, factory, ship, with territory bonuses--see below)

Armies may be deployed to any territory held by the player, but may not be deployed directly to a ship--a ship may only pick up or drop off armies to a coastal territory within one boat length of the ship's location, during the player's turn.

Card Turn-in

A player gets either:

1. Armies equal to two dice rolls
2. A factory (to be placed at the end of turn)
3. A ship with one die roll worth of armies on board to be placed in an ocean bordering one of the player's territories (if no territories have a coastline, no shipbuilding is allowed)
4. ALONG WITH two armies for each card territory owned by player, on that territory

Mobilization Bonus at Start of Campaign

Details of how to conduct a campaign are discussed below. Note that the first time any other player is attacked during a turn, that player may cut the Risk card deck and if they own the territory shown they may place a "mobilization bonus" of one rolled die worth of armies AND optionally reveal one or more cards from their hand showing owned territories and place a mobilization bonus on each. The card-cutting bonus goes for allied armies as well. If the cut shows a wild card, or the player holds wild cards, the mobilization bonus may be placed at the attacked player's free choice (by the player rolling the defending dice in the case of an allied army).

End of Player Turn

1. Draw a Risk card and a poker card (if territory taken)
2. Place any factories purchased at start of turn
3. Replace any and all captured army tokens with tokens of player's own color (see below)
4. Make a single troop transfer of one or more armies through contiguous territory
5. After their turn, a player may choose to play an allied army

If a player has more than five poker cards at the end of their turn, they must discard some to get their stash down to five.

Allowed Troop Transfers

Play Allied Army

A player declares they want to play an allied army, and which one. One or more other players may contest this, provided they hold at least one poker card, in which case a poker game is played (see below), or the declaring player may demur. 

An allied army gets all of the same army bonuses as a player.

If a player takes territory using an allied army, they get an additional Risk card and poker card for themself. 

The allied army gets a troop transfer.

Playing Poker

In order to take part in a poker game, a player must be holding at least one poker card in their "stash," and must use at least one of these cards in their hand. The active player cannot answer a challenge without at least one poker card in their possession. This can happen if the player failed to take territory during their turn, i.e., they may elect to play an allied army, but if contested, they cannot.

The active player and all players contesting them count out their "betting pots." They count out all of the armies they stand to get at their next turns. This means they will not get these armies on their turn, in a sense they are getting them in advance. Note that if a player loses everything at poker, they shall have no armies to play with at their next turn, except for factory bonuses, if any.

If a player has already counted out their betting pot for a previous poker game, and has not had a turn since, they do not count out their pot again but use the pot they have left from before, if any.

Any player may be the dealer. The game is five-card draw. Each player must take at least one card from their stash and be dealt the rest.

Red queens are always high.

Each player antes up one army. The bet is to the active player (they start the betting). Each player may bet, check, call, fold, or raise. Each action is for only one army at a time.

Betting is where a player adds one army on top of the ante (if no bets have been made yet, i.e., the "live bet" is zero). Calling is where a player matches the "live bet" (which includes what other players may have made on top of the initial bet by the active player). Raising is where a player adds another army on top of the "live bet". Folding is where a player drops out of the hand, forfeiting their armies in the pot, and not showing their cards.

The betting round ends when all players have had the chance to bet, raise, or fold, and no one has raised the last bet.

A player may "draw" from discarded cards from their stash, if any, or get cards from the dealer.

Another betting round ensues, followed by the showdown. If all players but one have folded, the remaining player wins the pot. If a player has been called, they must show their hand first. All other players have the option of showing their cards, or mucking, i.e., folding without showing their cards.

The best poker hand wins the pot.

If the active player wins, and their winning hand contains at least one card in the suit of the allied army they wanted to play, they may play that army, otherwise they just collect the pot and their turn ends.

The player who wins the pot converts the armies they won into their own color, and keeps them to use for their next turn or if they want to join another poker game before then.

How to Campaign

Normal battles are conducted as in normal Risk, i.e., the attacker rolls up to three dice, and the defender rolls up to two dice, ties going to the defender.

However, these battles can slow the game down considerably, especially when large armies are involved. One solution is to roll more dice and force both sides to commit more armies. This is done through two types of attacks: Committed Attacks and Flanking Attacks.

Committed Attacks

In a committed attack, the attacker "selects" how many armies they will "commit," moving them towards the front lines. This determines how many dice the attacker will roll. The defender rolls one less number of dice. Both sides must roll this number of dice or the maximum number of troops they have. For instance, if the attacker commits eight armies, the defender must roll seven, every time, or up to how many armies they have.

The attacker may reinforce this group from reserves (in case of casualties), or increase it, committing more, and declare the number increased, but they may not decrease it. If the attacker loses armies and does not replace them, they roll fewer dice, but the defender keeps rolling the maximum.

There are only two possible outcomes for the attacker:

1. They win and send in the committed troops and possibly more
2. All the committed troops are destroyed and the attack ends

If a committed attack fails, the player may take no more action from the given territory for the rest of the turn.

Flanking Attacks

A flanking attack is similar to a committed attack except that the attacker commits two separate blocks of troops (initially of equal size), or "flanks" to the attack. Each flank attacks as a committed block.

Ties still go to the defender, but the attacker may add one to any one die in a roll. If the defender suffers a total defeat on a dice roll then one of their defeated armies is captured by the attacking flank.

If the attacker wins, all committed armies from all flanks (but not captured armies--they remain behind) move into the captured territory and play continues. 

Flanks may include multiple separate bordering territories, and one or more ships can each be a flank. If all armies on a ship are destroyed, the ship sinks. Captured armies on a ship do not count as crew but can serve to commandeer the ship for the defending player should all of the attacking players armies be destroyed. That is, if a flanking ship captures enemy armies, and the player's armies on the ship are destroyed in the attack, the defender takes control of the ship with the captured armies as its crew.

If only one flank remains, the battle reverts to a committed attack and the attacker loses the plus one advantage and the ability to capture enemy armies. Flanks fail when all but one army are committed and destroyed, on land, or when the last army on a ship is destroyed and the ship sinks (or is commandeered).

Ships

Movement

A ship moves two die rolls worth of boat lengths on a cruise. If a cruise reaches a port of call (to pick up armies), or a landing, or a naval battle, and the pick-up, landing, or battle succeeds, the ship may go on another cruise, proceeding to the next action with a two dice roll. A player may take action with each of their ships at least once per turn.

Ferrying Armies

At the start of a turn, or between successful actions such as an opposed landing or a naval battle, a ship may pick up one or more armies from any one territory and drop them off at any other friendly territory, including any armies already embarked on the ship, before continuing on to action.

Patrol

If a player has ships in an ocean when another player tries to make an opposed landing on one of the player's territories, the attacking player must overcome those ships in a naval battle before being able to land.

The separate oceans are, by the way, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Arctic. The Mediterranean Sea, Hudson Bay, and the Black Sea (Ukraine and the Middle East) are part of the Atlantic, and the Red Sea (Middle East and Egypt) are part of the Indian Ocean.

Eastern Australia is connected only to the Indian Ocean, Western Australia only to the Pacific

South Africa, the Middle East, and Egypt are connected to both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

Central America and Argentina are connected to both the Pacific and Atlantic

Alaska and Kamchatka are connected to both the Arctic and Pacific.

Scandinavia, Greenland, the Northwest Territories, and Ukraine (by way of the Black Sea) are connected to both the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans

Iceland is only connected to the Atlantic

Siam and Indonesia are connected to both the Indian and Pacific Oceans 

Opposed Landings

An opposed landing is where one or more ships attack and try to take over a hostile territory with or without the assistance of the player's land-based forces. Multiple ships may attack the same territory, but only if in a flanking attack, otherwise one ship must mount the attack. If the landing is a committed or flanking attack and all armies on board are defeated, the ship sinks. In flanking attacks, captured land armies go onto the attacking ship.

Naval Battles

Any one or more ships may engage any one or more other ships in the same ocean in a naval battle. The attacker decides which enemy ships to engage, but the defender is free to send in any other unattacked ships in the same ocean as desired.

Each ship in an attacking fleet chooses an enemy ship to attack. More than one ship can attack a single enemy ship. This may be a normal attack, a committed attack, or a flanking attack (if two or more ships are available). 

Sinking and Capturing Ships

Total defeat of a defending ship gives the attacker the option of letting the ship sink OR boarding her with one or more armies and capturing her. In this case, the capturing ship is out of action for the rest of the turn, unable to engage other ships (though she may be attacked herself), pick up troops, or engage in other action. If multiple ships are attacking, one of them must decide to capture, the others are free to continue action. If the victorious ship has insufficient armies (less than two), the defeated ship sinks.

A ship may make a concentrated attack against one other ship, or a flanking attack with two or more. A ship may only engage one other ship at a time, but multiple ships may engage a single ship. In other words, while a ship may only be actively attacking one other ship, the defender, it may be under attack from two or more at once.

In any engagement, as attacker or defender, if a ship suffers a “total defeat” (loses all die rolls) in a turn, both sides roll a die and if the defeated ship gets a lower roll, the ship immediately sinks. 

Sea Roving

If all of a player's land armies are destroyed, but they still have ships at sea, they may continue to play, effectively as a pirate. They cannot reinforce however, even from the winnings from a poker hand, since ships may only embark troops from a friendly land territory.

Pirates may attack other ships or attempt opposed landings. If successfully attacking enemy ships in a flanking attack, they may capture enemy troops to be added to their own crews.

If all of a pirate's ships are defeated at sea, or sunk or captured in an attempted landing, the player is out of the game and may choose to play a still-active allied army, if any.

If a pirate makes a successful landing and captures one or more territories, on their next turn they may reinforce that territory with the usual bonuses, including any poker winnings still held.

TOOL The Master 映画

Overall

The production of the film, the mise-en-scène, the music, the acting, the props, and the sets gave the impression of a thorough and well-done job of filmmaking, and very understated. There was at least some CGI, for example, when Amy Adams' eyes changed from green to blue to black, so whatever else there was, it seems to have gone well-hidden.

I took this to be an analogy of the founding of Scientology and Lancaster Dodd to be L. Ron Hubbard. I wondered whether Freddy Quell were an historical figure or no.

Les Personages

Freddy Quell's drinking of toxic substances, the poisoning of the man at the farm, and subsequently giving similar potions to Dodd to drink made me wonder if it were a metaphor for his mental state, his relationship with Dodd, and Dodd's mental state. At one point Dodd's wife tells him he needs to stop drinking (since he got very sick after the "A'Roving" song scene, where he made the nose-and-ear gesture to Freddy to make booze), and then she went to Freddy with the same message, i.e., quit boozing or leave.

Dodd is ambivalent about Freddy's role as a semi-informal enforcer. One can wonder whether we are to assume that that was one of the reasons why Dodd was so keen to keep him around, i.e., his easy propensity to violence.

Joaquin Phoenix gives us a similar character and performance to Joker, his wiry skinniness, mentally ill, often violent, lacking restraint, in this case even more sexually obsessed and perhaps slightly less sexually frustrated. 

I really liked Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal. His hair, his moustache, and the fact that he was a little bit unshaven. Sometimes he was florid, and other times not. I'm told that actors are able to modulate that. He was a great actor. He was able to flip between emoting calm, even in the face of chaos, sharp and sudden anger, and so on, and as I mention below, his in-group jokes, control of tone, and expressions served well to depict him as a believable cult leader.

Poignant Scenes

What do we draw from Freddy chucking his cameraman job? He was drinking his developing chemicals. He attacked the corpulent businessman he was photographing--why? He was drunk from the day before, hungover, after fooling around with the woman (did she work at the store?) in the dark room? Next he was working on a farm, and again getting into trouble with alcohol. It did a good job of painting him as a social awkward, emotionally disturbed, unstable, potentially violent person.

There were a couple of scenes where Dodd was speaking, after the wedding at the beginning, and also at the book release, where he talked about wrestling with a dragon, mentions "death" with a comic and falling intonation, and also at the book release saying how his discoveries are "very, very serious" and the point is the attendants laugh, even though what he says is quite banal, not particularly funny, full of in-group references, so laughing asserts loyalty, membership, and recognition.

Keeping adherents' attention, engagement, even through the banal and the boring, is, I think, characteristic of the behavior of a cult leader. Another part is speaking a lot, even if one say little, or talks nonsense. Apparently a standout sociological parameter which makes group members perceive one as "a leader" or such is the share sheer length of total time one is the one talking.

The scene where he said "Pig Fuck!!" to the guy who was questioning their beliefs and was later beaten up by Freddy and Dodd's son-in-law. This kind of liberty-taking, i.e., using crass language or references in front of adherents, and against opponents, seems to be a typical feature of cults and cult leaders. Obviously the threat or the actual exercise of violence against opponents or dissenters is another.

Another feature is doing crazy, meaningless things, or talking a complete load of bollocks, as perhaps exemplified in renting the big yacht, doing the "pick a point and ride toward it" and "things that happened a trillion years ago," "Time travel," "curing leukemia" and so forth. Each of these gives adherents and scoffers alike a choice: do it and you're in, otherwise you're out. It's a well-marked and well-closed meme, if a stupid one. A fun thing about cults is that they exist entirely on the "religious", "dogmatic," or possibly "pseudo-spiritual" plane, so spiritual significance may be attached to anything with almost complete freedom, and memetic pairing, already something which the human brain is highly susceptible to, is a much more lightly constrained affair. You can pair total nonsense with existing memes, often recycled mainstream religious memes, like the Mormon's repackaging of Jesus, Satan, the children of Noah, among other things.

The scene where Lancaster Dodd was singing "I'll Go No More A'Roving" and the women in the room got progressively completely naked. I wondered whether this were really happening, or whether it were Freddy Quell's imagination, or some surreal fugue, as in a meta-reference to how cult leaders tend to take advantage of their female (or otherwise vulnerable) adherents.

Why do they do this? Is it to impress the male adherents, for example? And if so, how and why does this work? This is a whole big question. The way the scene was shot sort of put this whole hidden sexual underbelly of cults out there, visible, but uninterrogated.

The idea of accessing past experiences, if not past lives, is part of trauma therapy and re-evaluation counselling. Hence the shift of "can you remember" to "can you imagine" looks like a significant shift from psychic healing to demagoguery. 

At minute 1:45, at the book release, Laura Dern and Dodd get into a tiff about the not-all-that-slight change from "can you remember" to "can you imagine". The well-balanced scene depicts it as on one hand seeming nit-picking by Laura Dern, but by the content of her issue and Dodd's explosive reaction, a seminal point. 

It makes me think of things like how the Supreme Soviet, I believe it was in the 1980s, changed the Soviet Constitution from the classic Marxist phrase "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need" to "...to each according to his work" and the "botched baptisms" performed by an American priest where he substituted "we" for "I" in the sacrament, and the Vatican ruled that those so baptized were not saved and had to be rebaptized since the invocation was not to God through the agency of the priest, but to the congregation, as was the priest's apparent intention, i.e., not a valid source of salvation.

I believe the priest may have been defrocked. One can presume that he hadn't molested any young boys, since in such a case the church would've surely leapt to his aid. Sorry for the off-color joke... Again, cults taking advantage of their most vulnerable adherents.

Words have meaning, ideas have consequences, but it is harder to show a way of saying things to be problematic or an idea to be false than it is to simply say it in the first place and have it sound good and have a few people back it, especially if those people are attractive or powerful...or violent. Standing up for basic values and even conservative traditions is one way to keep cultish madness in check. There may be others, but arguing with somebody who's talking sheer nonsense tends to give weight to their position by sheer dint of attention (the talking length principle again) and resorting to the defense of one's own position may often be at the expense of telegraphing to anyone paying attention that one's position needs to be defended.

Nautical-but-Nice Fast Risk (overjuiced)

 Previous Rules Set - Medium on Risk math 
MBJp134

Introduction

I've devised changes to the rules of Risk to make it play faster and more interestingly, and this time I hope to state these rules more clearly and to add a naval component. 

 

Set-Up

Deal out the 42 Risk cards into six piles. Each player gets one pile, the rest go to "allied armies" (see below). In other words, all colors of armies go onto the board from the start.

Allied Armies Set-up

Place 2 allied armies on each Risk card territory plus 3 more on three random Territories (from card pile for that ally). Allies are now set up (with 23 armies each).

Each allied army gets one factory placed on a territory selected at random from the ally's cards.

Each allied army gets one ship placed next to the shore of a randomly selected territory with two dice rolls worth of armies on board

Each allied army is assigned one or more poker card suits, i.e., hearts, clubs, etc. Note that for the red suits the queen is the high card.

Player Set-up

Decide who plays first by die roll.

Place three armies on each Risk card territory. Each player now has 21 armies. Once all are placed, they may be reärranged freely.

Each player gets one factory to place on any of their territories.

Each player gets one ship with two dice worth of armies on board, to be placed by the shoreline of one of the player's coastal territories.

Shuffle the Risk cards and poker cards.

Each player gets 2 Risk cards and one poker card to start.

The game is ready to begin. 

Joining and Leaving Mid-Game

If a player turns up late and wants to join the game, they pick an allied army to take over. They immediately draw two Risk cards and one poker card. 

If a player leaves the game, their army becomes an allied army. Any poker cards they have remain with the new allied army and may be seized by the first player who manages to play the allied army (by a poker win or if unchallenged--see below) or if the new allied army is completely defeated by another player.

Turn-by-Turn Play 

Reënforcing at Start of Turn

A player gets:

1. Armies equal to roll of one die plus one more for each the largest bloc of contiguous territory divided by three
2. Continent bonuses
3. 3 armies per factory (on the factory territory)
4. Card turn-in (armies, factory, ship, territory bonuses--see below)

Card Turn-in

A player gets either:

1. Armies equal to three dice rolls
2. A factory (to be placed at the end of turn)
3. A ship with two dice rolls worth of armies on board to be placed in an ocean bordering one of the player's territories (if no territories have a coastline, no shipbuilding is allowed)
4. ALONG WITH two dice rolls worth of armies for each card territory owned by player

Campaigning during Player Turn

Details of how to conduct a campaign are discussed below. Note that the first time any other player is attacked during a turn, that player may cut the Risk card deck and if they own the territory shown they may place a "mobilization bonus" of two rolled dice worth of armies AND optionally reveal one or more cards from their hand showing owned territories and place a mobilization bonus on each. The card-cutting bonus goes for allied armies as well.

End of Player Turn

1. Draw a Risk card and a poker card (if territory taken)
2. Place any factories purchased at start of turn
3. Replace any and all captured army tokens with tokens of player's own color (see below)
4. Make a single troop transfer of one or more armies through contiguous territory
5. After their turn, a player may choose to play an allied army

Allowed Troop Transfers

Play Allied Army

A player declares they want to play an allied army, and which one. One or more other players may contest this, provided they hold at least one poker card, in which case a poker game is played (see below), or the declaring player may demur. 

An allied army gets all of the same army bonuses as a player.

If a player takes territory using an allied army, they get an additional Risk card for themself. 

The allied army gets a troop transfer.

Playing Poker

In order to take part in a poker game, a player must be holding at least one poker card, and must use at least one of these cards per hand they take part in. The active player cannot answer a challenge without at least one poker card in their possession.

The player wanting to play an allied army and all players contesting them count out "their betting pots." They count out all of the armies they stand to get at their next turns. This means they will not get these armies at their turn, in a sense they are getting them in advance. Note that if a player loses everything at poker, they shall have no armies to play with at their next turn, except for factory bonuses, if any.

If a player has already counted out their betting pot for a previous poker game, and has not had a turn since, they do not count out their pot again but use the pot they have left from before, if any.

Any player may be the dealer, and they may choose any poker game they like, e.g., Texas Hold-'em, 5-card draw, etc. Each player must take at least one card from those they already hold and be dealt the rest. Once a player has used up all their starting cards, they must stop playing.

Red queens are always high.

The dealer decides the betting. Typically a pre-deal ante, a bet, discard, bet again, etc. 

A player may "draw" for discarded cards from their supply of poker cards, if any, or get cards from the dealer.

The player whose turn it is may keep playing poker games until they win, give up, run out of armies in their betting pot, run out of starting cards, or until nobody else wants to play (uncontested situation). If they win a hand, and that hand contains a suit of the allied army they want to play, the poker game ends, and they may play the allied army, otherwise they just collect their poker winnings and their turn ends.

All players who won convert the armies they won into their own color, and keep them to use when their turn next or another poker game comes up.

How to Campaign

Normal battles are conducted as in normal Risk, i.e., the attacker rolls up to three dice, and the defender rolls up to two dice, ties going to the defender.

However, these battles can slow the game down considerably, especially when large armies are involved. One solution is to roll more dice and force both sides to commit more armies. This is done through two types of attacks: Committed Attacks and Flanking Attacks.

Committed Attacks

In a committed attack, the attacker "selects" how many armies they will "commit," moving them towards the front lines. This determines how many dice each side will roll. The both sides must roll this number of dice or the maximum number of troops they have. For instance, if the attacker commits eight armies, the defender must roll that many dice as well, every time, or up to how many armies they have.

The attacker may reinforce this group from reserves (in case of casualties), or increase it, committing more, and declare the number increased, but they may not decrease it. If the attacker loses armies and does not replace them, they roll fewer dice, but the defender keeps rolling the maximum.

There are only two possible outcomes for the attacker:

1. They win and send in the committed troops and possibly more
2. All the committed troops are destroyed and the attack ends

If a committed attack fails, the player may take no more action from the given territory for the rest of the turn.

Flanking Attacks

A flanking attack is similar to a committed attack except that the attacker commits two separate blocks of troops (initially of equal size), or "flanks" to the attack. Each flank attacks as a committed block.

Ties still go to the defender, but the attacker may add one to any one die in a roll. If the defender suffers a total defeat on a dice roll then one of their defeated armies is captured by the attacking flank.

If the attacker wins, all committed armies from all flanks (but not captured armies--they remain behind) move into the captured territory and play continues. 

Flanks may include multiple separate bordering territories, and one or more ships can each be a flank. Ships, of course, may not be reinforced from reserves, and if all armies on a ship are destroyed, the ship sinks. Captured armies on a ship do not count as crew but can serve to commandeer the ship for the attacked player should all of the attacking players armies be destroyed.

If only one flank remains, the battle reverts to a committed attack and the attacker loses the plus one advantage and the ability to capture enemy armies.

Ships

Ferrying Armies

At the start of a turn, or between successful actions such as an opposed landing or a naval battle, a ship may pick up one or more armies from any one territory and drop them off at any other friendly territory, including any armies already embarked on the ship, before continuing on to action.

Patrol

If a player has ships in an ocean when another player tries to make an opposed landing on one of the player's territories, the attacking player must overcome those ships in a naval battle before being able to land.

The separate oceans are, by the way, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Arctic. The Mediterranean and the Hudson Bay are part of the Atlantic, Eastern Australia is connected only to the Indian Ocean, and South Africa is connected to both the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans.

Opposed Landings

An opposed landing is where one or more ships attack and try to take over a hostile territory with or without the assistance of the player's land-based forces. Multiple ships may attack the same territory, but only if in a flanking attack, otherwise one ship must mount the attack.

Naval Battles

Any one or more ships may engage any one or more other ships in the same ocean in a naval battle. The attacker decides which enemy ships to engage, but the defender is free to send in any other unattacked ships in the same ocean as desired.

Each ship in an attacking fleet chooses an enemy ship to attack. More than one ship can attack a single enemy ship. This may be a normal attack, a committed attack, or a flanking attack (if two or more ships are available). 

Sinking and Capturing Ships

Unlike with land-based attacks, a ship with only one army left must continue to attack or break off the attack and retreat to another ocean (not possible if all armies are put into a committed or flanking attack). Defending ships may not retreat.

Total defeat of an attacking ship (the last army destroyed) sinks the ship and it's removed from the board. 

Total defeat of a defending ship gives the attacker the option of letting the ship sink OR boarding her with one or more armies and capturing her. In this case, the capturing ship is out of action for the rest of the turn, unable to engage other ships (though she may be attacked herself), pick up troops, or engage in other action. If multiple ships are attacking, one of them must decide to capture, the others are free to continue action. If the victorious ship has insufficient armies (less than two), the defeated ship sinks.

A ship may make a concentrated attack against one other ship, or a flanking attack with two or more. A ship may only engage one other ship at a time, but multiple ships may engage a single ship. In other words, while a ship may only be actively attacking one other ship, which would be the defender, it may be under attack from two or more at once.

The attacker may break off the attack by withdrawing to some other ocean, but the ships may not be used again for the rest of the turn. In a committed or flanking attack, the attack may only be broken off once the committed armies on the ship have been destroyed.

In any engagement, as attacker or defender, if a ship suffers a “total defeat” (loses all die rolls) in a turn, both sides roll a die and if the defeated ship gets a lower roll, the ship immediately sinks. 

模倣子 Baby Got Back to the Future

Original A Medium article 

 I don’t know. I felt like all of the events mentioned were wrong and felt uncomfortable. All of the characters involved were disapproving of what was going on as well. Marty was disapproving of George with his binoculars, George was reticent about Marty’s plan to make him the hero, but they both understood that George beating him up would be both justified and welcome, and the substitution of Biff for Marty upped the ante on this, ie, George would not only appear the hero but be the hero in fact. We were relieved that Marty was no longer the bad guy assaulting Lorraine—we got the ick, but then got off the hook with all our built-up disgust now directed rightfully at Biff, and George placed in the do-or-die position he had to be in in order to commit as he did. 

Marty getting sexually assaulted by Lorraine, yes, yes. A welcome bone thrown to men’s rights activism, perhaps. But Marty was relieved of the temptation, and the audience spared the ick, since he knew Lorraine was his future mother, in other words, the audience was able to suspend disbelief, freed from any patriarchal, misogynistic, male fulfillment fantasy, if you like, of the rapacious, concupiscent young woman (who was by the way, acting quite shy, coy, and reticent, if disingenuously) coming on strong to the young man cornered in a strange bedroom in his underwear. He HAD to resist, absolutely, so we could enjoy the situation without any fear of it going too far. That was, as they say, the joke. 

Marty taking his dad’s place was a cute allusion, one might say, to how his parents met. His grandfather’s comment of “all these damn kids jumping in front of my car”

There was the one thing, that of Lorraine undressing with her curtains open, along with that remark, including George at the ready with binoculars on that very tree branch, followed by Lorraine accosting the ersatz George in the person of Marty. 

You could make the argument that the film is making a case that Lorraine was “ asking for it” and being deliberately exhibitionist with the undressing through open curtains, but I would disagree. 

It was how George and Lorraine got together, and this was presented non-judgmentally, consensually. Lorraine’s behavior, exhibitionism, drinking, smoking, coming on to boys, her cleavage-revealing clothing, her coquettish super-aggressiveness, in short, her overtly vivacious sexuality, were all presented as purely her free choice, an attractive and distinctive feature of her personality if anything, harming nobody, and by no means granting open license or consent to anybody. 

Far from a “sluts get their comeuppance” the film was very clear. Biff was the bad guy. He was wrong, and deserved what he got, including a kind of damnation through to the end of time (which might actually be a strong, even biblical message, à la “and I shall lay my curse upon you, even unto the last generation of your house”). Even Marty pretending to affront Lorraine was a grey area, a necessary evil. 

So no, I’d say that the message is more along the lines of, for reasons aforementioned, sex is wholesome, if at times, awkward, and the time travel narrative served to keep it squarely in the awkward and no further. On top of that, the film underscores the point that women own their own bodies and no license is granted implicitly, and that sexual assault and rape  are absolutely beyond the pale, unforgivable, deserving of immediate, harsh, and of course, extrajudicial, retribution and punishment. I rather like the inherent evil and eternal damnation angle that seemed to go with that, especially if you include the other films—what does everybody think?

So, rapiest? Except for Biff attacking Lorraine in the car at the end, which was shocking, but also by the bad guy, a cautionary tale, and thwarted, I don’t see it. There are better ways to look at this film, in terms of these events with the context of the narrative. If you judge every single event in life from an omniscient POV, then everything is bad. Lorraine coming on to Marty in his underwear may have not been bad from her perspective but bad from ours and his (possibly for different reasons). Lorraine changing with the curtains open may have been good (for different reasons) for her and George and bad for Marty and still differently bad for her dad who hit Marty-ersatz-George. Only Biff attacking Lorraine is objectively bad from all perspectives, and nobody’s disagreeing on that one, including all the other characters in the film. 

One might ask “is it appealing/unappealing?” (arguably the least important—but that may be as far as you got) “is it believable?” “Do I sympathize with the characters involved?” “Do I believe their motivations?” “Do I buy the structure of the narrative?”

I think most people would report a strong positive to all of the above, and I think that’s why this movie is so beloved.  Your observations are effectively true, but in a way superficial, and I fear ultimately unimportant. 

Jared on Ideology

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