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Until breaking into the news recently, the country of Ukraine was probably best known to most Americans from its role as a territory on the Risk board. In particular, Ukraine-From-Risk is central to a very memorable Seinfeld scene
This naturally raises the question—is the Ukraine weak? The answer, I believe, is yes.
Key to analyzing this question is Garrett Robinson's paper performing mathematical analysis of Risk (ht to Walt Hickey whose summer 2013 writeup of the paper I recalled when looking into the issue). To understand the weakness of Ukraine, we need to start with the map. Here's Robinson's version, slightly annotated by me to make an important point:
One issue that arises here is that many Risk boards out there don't have a Ukraine territory. That's because the territory traditionally labeled "Ukraine" on Ukraine-having Risk boards is not even close to replicating Ukraine's location in the geography of the planet earth. The same territory is sometimes called "Russia" (and it does, roughly, correspond to European Russia's location) or "Eastern Europe." You can consider this ambiguity over Ukraine vs Russia to be somewhat emblematic of the current political crisis over there. But for our purposes, that's Ukraine all the way up to the Arctic Sea. To analyze the situation correctly you want a schematic. Here's Robinson's:
Now you see two things here. One is that there are only two territories on the board that are capable of being attacked from six different territories. One is Ukraine and the other is Ontario. But there's a big difference between Ukraine and Ontario—all of Ontario's borders are with other provinces in North America. So while Ontario is a hard space to defend, it's also frequently not a territory that will require defense, since a savvy player will concentrate forces in Mexico, Greenland, and Alaska to control the whole continent. By contrast, Ukraine is both crucial to the defense of Europe and unusually vulnerable to attack. Which is to say that Kramer was right: The Ukraine is weak (in Risk, at least).
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Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.
I've never played Risk before, so I may just be misunderstanding something, but, if I'm reading that schematic correctly, there are at least 5 territories that are located in such a way that they could be attacked by 6 neighboring territories.
So when ellis and I make jokes about a mass murder in Norway, we're forever branded as assholes, but it's okay about the Ukraine because the name was also a Seinfeld soundbyte?
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 2:22 pm Posts: 4377 Location: faked by jorge
@SkitchP wrote:
So when ellis and I make jokes about a mass murder in Norway, we're forever branded as assholes, but it's okay about the Ukraine because the name was also a Seinfeld soundbyte?
gotcha.
i don't remember this at all, link?
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Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.
it was the the willie gault line, right? totally agree with skitch then.
hey, @skitchp - could you explain please? I don't think you're an asshole. I mean, I do think you're an asshole, but just in general, which I appreciate in people, but I'm pretty baffled by your comment.
_________________
Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.
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