An Interesting Day, Filled With Risk and Chess!

Today was quite interesting...
Ashman, Hari, Sehran, Hazwan, Jaslyn and I planned to stay back at school today to meet with a chess coach that was coming to our school at 3.30pm.
School finished at 12.30pm, so Sehran and I followed Hari back to his house. We had to because we obviously wouldn't want to wait at the school for 3 whole hours, now would we?

So anyway, we walked to Hari's house.
After I played a short game of Chess with Sehran, we decided to play a game of Risk, because we still had roughly 2 hours left.
Hari, Sehran and I just finished setting up our troops, when all of a sudden, Ashman just barged into Hari's room! He wasn't even courteous enough to knock the door first!

So, we had to remove the original 3-player troop configuration, because Ashman wanted to play too.
Ashman handled the red pieces, I handled the yellow pieces ( as usual! ), Hari controlled the White pieces, and Sehran had the Blue pieces.
Just when we finished setting up the new 4-player configuration, Hazwan arrived.
Luckily we didn't have to waste time setting up the 5-player configuration, because Hazwan didn't want to play.

Hari went first, he controlled most of Central Asia. My turn was next, and I had complete domination of Europe. Sehran was third, and he had control over Northern America and South America. Ashman's turn was last, and he had forces in Australia and Eastern Asia.
So technically, it's like Sehran and I were dominating the Western territories, whereas Hari and Ashman were controlling the Eastern territories.

The gameplay commenced when Hari began attacking Ashman's foothold in Asia.
Sehran and I made a pact, where Sehran allowed me to take complete control over Europe, and I allowed Sehran to completely dominate South America, therefore granting both of us reinforcement bonuses.
On the other side of the world, Ashman and Hari were too preoccupied warring with each other.
After every battle, both Ashman's and Hari's forces were grievously weakened and their defenses were spread very thin.
Sehran and I decided to take advantage of the war between Hari and Ashman. We planned to gather our forces in Europe and Africa. After that, we would unleash a multi-prong attack on the warring Eastern territories. Their weak defenses would never stand a chance!

Sehran and I played rather passively, slowly gathering territory cards every turn and congregating our reinforcements, preparing for the final, decisive assault.
Sehran launched a campaign to take control of Africa in order to allow our main strategic objective to come into fruition. Africa was an important target, as it provided a springboard for Sehran to launch an attack into Southern Asia.
However, the conscripts in Congo, led by Ashman, put up tenacious resistance against Sehran's onslaught. And soon, Sehran was forced to retreat.

I, on the other hand, gradually built up my "Grand Army" in Europe. I received 8 troops per turn, and therefore I was able to field a massive army in Russia. It was pretty impressive, one of the largest armies I have ever fielded in Risk. The sight of my numerous forces congregating in Russia was extremely intimidating, especially to Ashman and Hari.
Apparently, at the sight of my massive army, Ashman and Hari agreed to be allies, working together to stop Western expansion into the Eastern territories.

But by the time Ashman and Hari formed the Eastern Alliance, it was too late. Sehran managed to seize control of Africa with a vengeance. With complete control of South America and Africa, Sehran was able to concentrate his armies on the main target - Asia.

Here's a picture of the world situation after Sehran's successful conquest of Africa:

Soon, my "Grand Army" in Russia swelled with almost 50 troops, including the bonus troops I received for trading in 3 of my territory cards.
Sehran and I decided that the time was ripe to unleash our assault on the Eastern territories.
Of course, Ashman and Sehran mustered what forces they had at their disposal and placed them at key chokepoints, which represent the passageways into Asia. If either Sehran or I could break through one of these key chokepoints, the other defenses would soon crumble and Asia would be ours for the taking.

The Great Battle began with my invasion of the Ural region.
Hari's troops initially put up some pretty stiff resistance. But in the end, my forces overwhelmed the defenders - All of Hari's soldiers in the Urals were brutally annihilated.
Since I managed to penetrate one of the passageways into Asia, it was inevitable that the rest of the Asian defensive lines, including Afghanistan and the Middle East, will soon crack, allowing Sehran entrance into Southern Asia.
My forces would lead the drive across Northern Asia, smashing into Ashman's troops at full force and wiping him off the map. Sehran, on the other hand, would be able to advance inexorably towards Australia, conquering Southern Asia in the process.

The game ended after my victory at the Ural region.
Hazwan decreed that Sehran and I were the winners, because according to him, our victory was inevitable.
Well, overall, it was a good game - we had a great time and loads of laughs...
Too bad Hazwan wasn't playing... He would have made the game REALLY interesting! [ smiles ]

Anyway, after that game of Risk, we began our walk back to school.
We met Jas along the way...
Apparently, the Under-15 Chess qualification competition was being held in the library, so we figured that the Chess coach would be in there as well.
When we entered the library, the U-15 competition was still going on. And I guess the coach was the arbiter, I think, I'm not sure myself...

The hours passed by quite quickly...
We observed the U-15 players games. Then, I played a few rounds of Chess with Ashman.
Later, I helped Hazwan teach Jaslyn about the basic principles of the Endgame. When the competition ended and the library was almost empty, I agreed to teach Jas basic midgame principles, as well as various tactical weapons.

Well, I think today could be classified as an "interesting day", right?

Anyway, I'm supposed to go for PBSM tomorrow.
But during Bahasa Melayu class, Winnie came and announced that, due to the fact that the MSSD chess competition is around the corner, there's going to be a Chess training session tomorrow from 8 to 10am, which is exactly the same time as PBSM!
That means I won't have to go for PBSM after all! Yay!

May the Force be with you...