yths and legends say that in ages long past, gods walked the Earth, shaping the very nature of civilization as they meddled in human affairs with magic and guile. Avalon Hill's new Risk: Godstorm draws on those legends to create a board game in which avatars from four ancient pantheons return to do battle. Like its science fiction-themed cousin, Risk 2210, Godstorm is a Risk variant that evolves the classic board game's basic game mechanic into something radically different from the original.
Some familiar aspects remain. There is a map of the world divided into separate countries, although this time around it is a map of ancient Europe, Asia and Africa resembling something out of Robert H. Howard's Conan stories. Augmenting these realms are two supernatural ones, Atlantis and the Underworld. Atlantis is like any other continent, save that magic can sink it. The Underworld exists apart form the others, and receives all armies slain in battle.
As in Risk, players place armies on these countries, and then attempt to invade their neighbors. Attackers roll up to three six-sided dice—one for each attacking army—while defenders roll one or two six-siders, based on the number of armies defending and their personal preference.
The game mechanics quickly diverge from there. Each player's armies generate a certain amount of "faith," which is represented by tokens. These faith tokens are then spent to summon one of four gods—war, sky, magic or death—to the real world. Once in the physical world, gods to do not fight human armies directly—that would be beneath them. Instead, they provide indirect divine assistance. The war god causes the attacking armies to win all ties—something that was usually the prerogative of the defending player in traditional Risk—while the magic goddess allows the attacker to re-roll all 1s. In addition, gods can fight one another directly in "godswars." In such cases, the gods' strength is bolstered by the faith of their followers, with gods gaining a bonus for each army with them.
In addition to their usefulness on the battlefield, gods can provide miracles in the form of "miracle cards." The powers of the cards vary. Some provide temporary help via additional armies or the ability to quickly move armies around the map. Others are more powerful, and can banish gods, summon lasting artifacts or even sink Atlantis. Cards can be purchased for two faith tokens, but players can also secure them by accomplishing tasks for each god. The war god grants a miracle whenever his forces win three offensive victories, while the magic god grants a boon whenever a player rolls three of a kind on the dice.
Ancient Earth at Risk
Godstorm shares many similarities with the earlier Risk 2210. They both field super-powered figures, have a turn-based structure, use specialized cards and implement sideboards for alternative battlegrounds. Those who give Godstorm only a passing glance might consider it to simply be a fantasy-themed knockoff of 2210. In truth, though, the two games play very differently.
In Risk 2210, the various commanders and command cards serve to augment the armies, and while there are new sea- and space-based targets, they all part of a larger whole. In Godstorm, though, the gods and their powers truly stand apart. Assigning powers to the gods that affect mortal battles—like the war god's "win all ties"—adds an intriguing new component to the game, particularly when players start strategizing and combining god powers together to form an unstoppable, divine-powered horde.
Or, rather, seemingly unstoppable, because the power of the miracle cards cannot be underestimated. The cards can radically upset the balance of power. The sinking of Atlantis is a perfect example of this—with one card, players can remove an entire continent from the game, ruining everyone else's strategies at the same time. Other cards can banish all gods from the face of the earth, turn back time and cause the game to last a sixth turn, or even summon a plague to destroy a country. Powerful magical relics provide additional, lasting effects: "The Great Pyramids" lets players draw an extra Sky miracle card each turn, while others provide additional faith tokens or armies at the start of each turn. And, of course, there's a card that destroys all relics.
The Underworld sideboard works well—players who find themselves being slaughtered in the surface world suddenly smile when they realize their legions can now overwhelm the Land of the Dead. The playing board could have been 50 percent larger; as is, the dead armies often overflow the tiny subsections.
Overall Godstorm is an extremely chaotic game that can—and does—change drastically from turn to turn. It's very easy for a player who appears to be in an unassailable position early in the game to be all but destroyed by turn four. This chaos factor is disconcerting (not to mention often disheartening) and may turn off those who prefer more stability in their games. That said, a fundamental aspect of Risk has always been its unexpected turnabouts, with one army impossibly holding off a dozen. This is just more of the same, albeit on a far grander scale, one that perfectly fits its divine namesakes.
It's easy to ask, "Does the world really need another Risk variant?" After all, toy stores are already choked with too many Monopoly iterations to count. But while the Monopoly games are all fundamentally the same, the Risk variants—particularly 2210 and Godstorm—change things up enough to make each game unique.
— Ken
Back to the top.
