Risk Factions: The Weird Digital-Only Risk Game....With Cats, Yetis and Robots

There is always some new variation of Risk. But there is only one that has stayed close to my cold heart. Risk Factions was a digital only game that has since been swept away by time. I'm here to retell its legend. And all the pretty nonsensical choices that went into it.
Twitter: / hubpointless

[@PointlessHub]

Sorry on the long time with no upload I was locked in the basement of a TGI Fridays

[@residentelect]

Hmm, now I'm not sure about this "Risk" you speak of, but I do enjoy a thrilling game of scrabble-Ship!

[@Thenomad1227]

Eh, could’ve been worse. You could’ve been trapped in the basement at Dennys.

[@raulrivas2343]

And that's a bad thing?

[@GhostRider67854]

As punishment you have to upload an epic fortnite montage.

[@EquateX]

Cody you could up load commentary on paint drying once a year and you’d still be in my top 5

[@jcc6913]

Cherished childhood memories of spending 8 hours with my family arguing about how everybody should stop invading Australia

[@residentelect]

You manage to nab the "Land Down Under" at the start of the game you're laughing all the way to world domination. Just make sure to guard those borders from mass-emu incursions!

[@nobodyjustacreep]

@@residentelect me and my friend split Australia in an online game called Call of War once. We also surrounded the whole country with battleships, called it our Great Wall of STAY THE F*CK OUT

[@Teek-yp5wd]

@@nobodyjustacreep pretty sure this was just how naval conflict worked in world war 1

[@merlenclownshuffles]

HELLO, YRAH 666 LIKES.... *cringe smile*

[@mikethetowns]

@@nobodyjustacreep Clive Palmer would love that

[@strikeforce1500]

"Joins the war for bullshit reasons, the only way to survive is to bring more idiots", I didn't expect this Risk game to bd based in real life.

[@KOTYAR1]

Tell me about it. I'm Russian 😢

[@xenamorphwinner7931]

What does bd mean? (I am from Eastern Europe and only know a fraction of the meaning behind such shorts)

[@lesigh3410]

@@xenamorphwinner7931 it's a typo, he meant be

[@xenamorphwinner7931]

@@lesigh3410 Thanks

[@Roketsune]

My condolences!

[@Tgungen]

I am actually interested in the story of how a stereotypical US General became the leader of all humanity

[@teogonzalez7957]

Basically Starship troopers

[@jonathanathor117]

@@teogonzalez7957 Give the stereotypical US General space wizard powers and you get warhammer 40k.

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

Well there are sentient cats & yetis not to weird

[@doscassette871]

@@jonathanathor117 I feel like with the US military budget we can figure out space wizard powers.

[@draketurtle4169]

@@doscassette871 it’s funny you say that… america was going to build one of the worlds largest particle colliders, then they didn’t because “better up there military budget and that big smashy boi is too expensive”

[@notvonbayern9202]

As a home rule for Risk we had the atomic bomb. If you rolled 3 1s on the attack, you nuked yourself and lost all but 1 troop. Many fist fights were had over this

[@nathangibson2114]

Omg

[@nathangibson2114]

I'd only roll 2

[@jaymevosburgh3660]

Genius

[@jasoethesentienteyeshapedg4847]

Are you still together or broken up?

[@RJKilroy]

Why

[@Hungeryan]

7:19 Imagine if this game was still on Steam and had it's own workshop, where people could submit their own custom factions, which players could download to play as. *People would definetly make serious factions and not things like... Among Us, nor would people not be completely apolitical about it*

[@GmodPlusWoW]

Sounds like a niche waiting to be filled. Though with that said, it'd have to mechanically-distinguish itself from Risk enough to avoid Hasbro getting narky, while still being enough like Risk to be the spiritual successor to Risk Factions.

[@jaymevosburgh3660]

But people don't care enough about political differences to argue over silly stuff. That would just be crazy!

[@KS-PNW]

Dude! That sounds bad@$$

[@skeletonking2501]

Good lord political compass risk

[@tanker00v25]

@@skeletonking2501 why did you have to say this out loud?

[@rgm-96xjesta31]

They had this in on an Xbox 360 at a YMCA I used to go to when I was younger. There was this one little human soldier in a gasmask who was by himself and held off an entire Robot invasion force of 12 in the Mediterranean who I dubbed "Shotgun Larry" (despite him holding an M16)

[@remiliascarletmybeloved]

Godspeed Larry, wherever you are today

[@firstmiddlelastname]

Posthumously award Larry the BDE award

[@VainerCactus0]

I remember gas mask guy. I also remember sniper guy, who must have been special forces because he held off several attacks by himself once.

[@mrcopycat2355]

Like Fordo in Clone Wars

[@SergeantKillGore]

I will never forget the inevitable scenario of a single defender going Rambo and destroying an attacking force of 10x the size. Many Xbox 360s were nearly shattered by me and my friends because of this.

[@ntfoperative9432]

I'd honestly not even be made. Just put as much cheesey roleplay on there as possible, honoring the brave warrior that was an equal to ten men

[@runningthemeta5570]

There’s gotta be a tier list for games that cause division. 1. Uno 2. Mario Party 3. Mario Kart 4. Monopoly 5. Risk

[@believeinmatter]

You forgot Chess, you be surprised how salty that crowd can be, especially when they lose

[@runningthemeta5570]

@@believeinmatter ok where should it go?

[@jcc6913]

If they would only just play CLUE

[@runningthemeta5570]

@@jcc6913 I’ve only played clue once

[@jcc6913]

@@runningthemeta5570 did it cause division?

[@VikingTeddy]

I'm immensely disappointed that they didn't call the cat general *Chairman* *Meaow*. My day is ruined.

[@Tyler-sy7jo]

Might have something to do with China not taking to kindly to media that has Mao or any reference to Mao. Civilization IV was banned in China for just having the guy until a version was released with a different leader.

[@arandomhamster233]

Interesting enough, the Chinese character for cat (猫) has the same pronunciation as the Surname Mao (毛) it's just that they have different tones since Mandarin is a tonal language.

[@Tyler-sy7jo]

@@arandomhamster233 This has always been one of my favourite homonyms in Mandarin. Second being ma which could be horse 马 or mother 妈.

[@euansmith3699]

Or a German Cat called "Herr Ball"?

[@joeljustjazzing]

@@Tyler-sy7jo china moment also do they defend that guy and his warcrimes?

[@darken2417]

For a great Risk clone I'd recommend Warlight later renamed to Warzone (they did this before the Activision game with the same name and are being sued over it). This clone is amazing because you can make your own maps, set your own rules, have diplomacy if playing with other players, and a lot more. People have made highly detailed and fun maps for AGOT, Elder Scrolls, Avatar: the Last Airbender (personal favorite map), 1500's Europe, and enormous age of discovery map that will take you a full day to play a game on. O and for super long games you can even create games that aren't real-time but lets players take their turn whenever they want. And of course you can set the number of minutes, hours or days before a player is kicked for not coming back to the game.

[@fighter1375]

And also please support them. Activision is apparently trying to sue them for the name similarity, despite the non CoD one lasting first

[@Dragonite43]

Warzone is fun.

[@Seth9809]

@@fighter1375 WTAF, Activision is just so evil.

[@andrelee7081]

And for RNG issues, I love how individual games can use a luck number to set how much randomness they want in their games.

[@coffeebean_tamer]

I thought Risk was the gateway drug to Warhammer 40k? 😅maybe I have the wrong script

[@SuperGman117]

McGutterpants is canonically a Pennsylvanian. The only real-life location he ever references (to my knowledge) is the Susquehanna river.

[@henrycrabs3497]

HAHA SUS! WHAT AN EPIC AMONG US REFERENCE

[@Nobody-zl3kk]

"As a 2010's game, it does look better than most" (paraphrased ofc) turns out stylisation does beat "cutting edge" graphics.

[@boobah5643]

When I think of _Risk_ and story, my mind goes straight to _Risk Legacy._ Which starts out as a fairly slight variation on the rules, but as the game goes on you can end up with bio-hazard zones, ruins, and faction homelands. Among other things.

[@kulabster8916]

The Age of History II shoutout nearly gave me a heart attack.

[@seanv42]

My dad has played this almost daily for ten years. It's the only game he can still play since his eyes started going. He loves it, just plays against ai in classic all the time. It holds a special place in my heart.

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

1:12 ah yes a fellow man of culture

[@louisduarte8763]

I thought I was the only one who remembered RISK having a Metal Gear Solid 4 edition. There were also 2 STAR WARS variants: Original Trilogy and Clone Wars. I remember this short-lived NBC sitcom called 1600 Penn, with Bill Pullman as the President and father of 4. One episode has him play a game of RISK with his youngest son, and I think he has the Joint Chiefs of Staff, NORAD, or all of The Pentagon advising him on military tactics to use. One guy says that if the situation looks hopeless, use the Nuclear Option: flip the game board off the table.

[@Calvin_Coolage]

The Clone Wars risk was pretty neat.

[@youcantbeatk7006]

The thing that makes Risk unplayable to me is that since the amount of units you get depend on the spaces of units you get the players that go first have an overwhelming advantage as they can just take all the late players spaces so they get very few points on the first round which creates a cycle of the early players unfairly getting more units and the late players getting the least.

[@boobah5643]

It's compensated for, a little, by the fact that later card turn-ins are worth more armies.

[@youcantbeatk7006]

@@boobah5643 That's true but I've played a lot of games where the player in last place gets stomped out extremely quickly just by having the other players dog up on them.

[@Deridus]

@@youcantbeatk7006 I always refered to those events as "Belgium, 1940."

[@joeljustjazzing]

@@Deridus tf so whats the ussr moment?

[@Deridus]

@@joeljustjazzing 2 sets of cards. Depending on the board, or version, you get additional troops because of the territory you have on the card. If you managed to knock out one of the other players and got their cards, it's basically a board wipe.

[@MovingWaif]

I loved this game so much that when my 360 got the red ring of death it gave me real sadness that I couldn’t play anymore

[@Winaska]

You mentioned "Toy Soldiers". That game is so damn good haha

[@TJK10]

5:48 The mythical pump-break-action double-barreled shotty. This NFT is almost as cool as Shadow, ngl.

[@seandawson5899]

Risk is probably the greatest board game of all time

[@csabaweisz8791]

As much as I prefer eurogames, it's indeed one of the better ones. It is INFINITELY better than Monopoly, a game that was designed to be an unfair and bad boardgame, which of course some executives and Hasbro chose to buy/steal and pump out billions of it

[@mandalorian_guy]

Axis and Allies is better in my opinion. You get to deal with various units while managing an economy and each faction played differently. It's the chess to risks checkers if you will. It just takes a looooong time and has massive set up requirements.

[@seandawson5899]

@@mandalorian_guy it's just so hard to play Axis and allies with people who have never played before

[@calibula95]

When the cats went "It's Risking time!" I felt that.

[@Methus3lah]

The Vaush joke was so funny omfg

[@crayonburry]

I was rolling. Though since it was Cuba it should’ve been our tankitty, Pigeon.

[@JacatackLP]

@@crayonburry Cody didn’t want to get demonetized from Pidgeon saying slurs

[@anthonyiglesias1221]

Honest question, is it pro or anti vaush? The community has been buried in so many layers of irony it's lost it's identity.

[@JacatackLP]

@@anthonyiglesias1221 yes

[@ajvsnajfb484]

god i fucking love this channel. one of the few people to cover deadliest warrior, thank god it wasnt just a fever dream i had as a kid 😂

[@lieutenantflyboy]

I treated that show as religion when I was 12 years old, thought that was just me for the last decade.

[@DeadSpacedOut]

if you didn't enjoy the stupidity but pure awesomeness that was Deadliest Warrior, i just don't believe that you're human.

[@ajvsnajfb484]

@@DeadSpacedOut i completely agree with you there.

[@helghannationalist9798]

Facts

[@DeadSpacedOut]

@@helghannationalist9798 nice Killzone reference btw

[@potentiallyunfunnyguy9716]

I always remember finding that, as silly as all of the factions kinda are in this game. The human soldiers looked badass as all hell. Glad to see someone cover this weird little blip in the entertainment sphere.

[@funuf5987]

i fiended the demo version of this game so hard at my daycare where i would go afterschool. you do not understand how amazing it is that literally anyone else acknowledged this game's existence.

[@SkinnyETBird]

I’m so happy you talked about this I played this as my first ever strategy game in 2010 at the ripe age of 8 or 9 on the 360 and watching this video made me realize that I’m the weird one, 10 years and only now I realize the yetis and zombies and cats a strange choice my 8 year old self simply went dam that’s cool 😎

[@wetwillyis_1881]

Such great editing with the memes in the early part of the video. I remember risk fondly, as my dad would never take it easy on me, so when I would play it at school I never lost.

[@nuggetseeker5084]

"We are at war with PISS. PISS makes us weak, PISS makes us flabby"

[@ScrumbynPlumbo]

Truly an upgrade from the original.

[@miniaturejayhawk8702]

Is age of history really the peak of the genre? I can litterally just be a city state and subjugate empires in the early stages of the game by building a large army and throwing around ultimatums. Not to mention the tax policy.

[@peegeeare]

lol aoc2 go reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@KS-PNW]

I'd never heard of this version before now but it sounds like something 12 year old me would have loved. My favorite version was always 2240 (2120?) , you had lunar colonies and artificial islands to fight over. Plus a few territories would randomly get "nuked" at the beginning, making them impassible, really threw a twist at you. Not sure if it ever got translated to computer/console but that giant board provided a lot of entertainment over the years.

[@believeinmatter]

Risk is so much fun, used to get together with a few friends and play together, before the end times

[@luisvaldes4248]

Dude! You forgot to talk about the special powers like freezing a territory or converting it when you had control of Von's temple! First time I played it, it was on a friend's Xbox, and since I did not have a pc or console back then, I made a board game representation of it, and actually filled the gaps on what the actual world would look like adding some territories, especially for the yeti, since they did not appear to have territories named after something yeti'ish, and to fill in the gaps, made a territory to balance the superpowers gap left in an area of the map by making a base for what my take on what a good alternative faction could be; reptilians! I have been searching for good copycat versions of the game but no luck so far. The only thing I found is that apparently there was a short lived different version of the game for facebook but I did not get a chance to play it since they pulled it out by the time I knew about it.

[@8thFurno]

0:21 For my friends it was always Alaska instead of Kamchatka. The big in-joke was that Alaska was impossible to invade, as every time someone did they lost like all their troops (we played the video game version).

[@phillipjohn4800]

I'd LOVE a re-release of this game!

[@juanmendez3290]

Other cool things from the factions game like the capitals, airfields, extra maneuvers and attack and defense dice were also really cool additions to make the game more complex but faster to finish. My friends and I even replicated some of those for the tabletop versions because they were that good.

[@antleymeese2147]

I have been absolutely loving these videos of you being unchained and letting your chaotic energy loose and just expressing yourself. Genuinely huge respect Cody, keep it up

[@cd_monty3010]

I remember playing this game as a child with all my cousins, fantastic memories

[@brushwaterkhan]

While i only played the demo I remember liking the cutscenes. I also thought that the guys who did penny arcade did the art for risk faction Then I tried playing the Facebook game spin off………

[@Amesang]

RISK: It's a game you can play… _outside._

[@jessemarshall7685]

I'm definitely enjoying the very underrated Spyro music!

[@BUMMY105]

Although I've spent 5 years into Dominations, Factions is my most favourite digital Risk game all because of the random probability system, infastructure bonuses, and the double sixes bonus. Sure, its infuriating to lose 20 troops to a 2-army tile, but it gives off that feeling of suspension and dread real wars often show and gives the underpowered players a chance to become an underdog. The anger, the quarreling, the name calling -- it makes Mariokart look like a game of chess. I wish Dominations adds a mode that mimics Factions, as even with Capital Conquest selected it barely resembles Factions gameplay. Factions gameplay is fun because its awful, so I hope I get to play it again someday when someone releases a hacked copy.

[@redtexan7053]

I think it’s bold of you to assume Vaush wouldn’t immediately denounce Chairman Meow as a tankie.

[@bombocrusty4251]

Actually the Generallisimos policy towards workers democracy was very very forward thinking. Just don't bring up what happened to the mice 😰

[@cinnamoon423]

Vaush would denounce chairman meow because they're not chairman neighlin. If you know what I mean

[@burneraccount8416]

Vaush was deported from Kitty Cuba because he was caught with the kittens

[@yuhboijosiah8083]

@@burneraccount8416 💀

[@redtexan7053]

@@bombocrusty4251 Well, you know, the mice could have just gone along with the Five Year Plan like everyone else, but they decided to go and make a huge mess of everything instead.

[@yourfriendlyneighbourhoodo436]

I fucking love risk, I never learned how to play but I just like mashing the pieces together.

[@SlipperyDoobie]

I bought a used set at a garage sale just because I thought the box looked cool. It was missing damn near everything. But still mashed those pieces

[@Xedlord]

1:46 for some reason this made me spit out my entire mouthful of water and start laughing for 30 straight seconds. One of the funniest things I've heard in a long time.

[@Rasc0117]

The writing and the memes are just on point Pacha: when the sun hits that ridge just right meme*

[@danieltsiprun8080]

I remember watching JeromeASF playing that game and wanting to play myself but i didn't have any oc or xbox to play it. So kid me played it through Jeromes videos.

[@LazerShark7777]

YEAH I loved when he played this game. It was literally the only thing I watched from him in the last 5 years

[@rarestarsd3221]

I got the game cause I saw Jerome play it, had fun with friends good times

[@diegopalma4368]

Your editing always cracks me up!

[@JARV9701]

The Sudden appearance of Vaush sent my brain cell ricochet all over my skull, wasn't expecting to hear his voice here.

[@LordyT34]

Are we not talking about how hilarious 4:50 is? 🤣

[@ash12181987]

Accurate Voosh cameo

[@bebberonibizza]

the best part of playing risk with my dad and uncles was the shouting matches and accusations of cheating, especially with the games that took more than one day

[@keerongill7310]

Thanks for putting the theme song at the end .

[@WAHegle91]

“How did the war start?” “Well, it all started when the dog launched a nuclear assault against the cats on Nyan Eleven.”

[@Fenrisson]

I just CANNOT live without this channel.

[@amirbabazadeh3361]

I laughed too much at the "I've been deceived" - Sun Tzu :D

[@_CasualFriday7]

The fact that you used the Spyro the Dragon music is so nostalgic. Love it

[@jacobrobinson787]

I'm glad you made a "summary" video again. Been a while since CnC.

[@alextaylor2445]

I want more of this channel all the time!!

[@MikeSpike117]

3:52 the horse man approaches

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Seeing Age of History 2 being mentioned made my day

[@HusZat]

Same ... Glad I'm not the only one ... 😆

[@phillipfaris8624]

Cody, I love the music choice you picked near the end. Love me some Stewart copeland

[@makeda6530]

The split second of the 'Cooooral' cut in when talking about zombies got me too good. lol

[@purplepictures5213]

That "PEACE" speech must be the most American thing I've heard all year 😂

[@quintonmaxfield5757]

I have so many memories playing this game with my brothers on my old ps3. Damn amazing game.

[@brokenmekhane5807]

God that Hasbro cut-away reminds me so much of Punk Ducks little jimmy cut-aways. Even better that the boss is the exact same image for the dad in those cut-aways.

[@Slappist_streams]

I never thought I’d see a modern video on a game that I still play today 😂😂

[@Jimbo55151]

There as that one pc risk game that has a bunch of features like rebels, culture specific bonuses, and fortifications. Fun time

[@theangelbelow88]

That Pinky and The Brain clip give my soul life and hope

[@pghchaos]

God it makes my heart feel so good that you use Spyro the dragon music for the background music

[@theonlybilge]

3:59 it's not a horse or a child, he wouldn't say that about a cat.

[@afrenchfrito]

This is now the greatest channel on the youtubes. Thank you

[@grisha5051]

I love the little AOT bits Cody slips in

[@katherinebot]

Age of History 2, while initially appearing to be a bargain bin version of HOI4 or EU4, is genuinely one of the best value to content ratio map strategy games on the market. Easy to use modding tools, a pretty good base game, and a somewhat small but very proficient modding community let you do… pretty much anything you can do in a paradox game for $5 It’s simplistic, it’s turn-based, it’s nothing like the games it draws inspiration from, but it still manages to supersede them in terms of content and customization. I love Paradox, but there’s absolutely no reason not to get AoH2. Especially if you have a creative mind and some programming knowledge.

[@nocollab9676]

thank you for that 5 second shout out of the toy soldiers video game, that game made a quarter of my childhood.

[@phillipjohn4800]

Risk Factions is one of my favorite strategy games, I am so happy seeing it get the attention it deserves!

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

That Perfection commercial was an ancient reference buried in the ruins of the 90's.

[@sunsetman22]

I always sucked at Risk but it was worth it just to spend time with the homies

[@meathir4921]

I remember playing the demo for this and immediately realising how rigged the dice were.

[@MSW_Skule]

All the Spyro cut-ins and music makes me unreasonably happy.

[@StanLeeGhost]

I don't think I have ever heard of this game but the lore seems interesting.

[@chadwellington2524]

the other kind of maps were really fun.. you could do 2 man maps or 3,4,5. it was really fun

[@Donerci_Pikacu_Usta]

4:51 This moment is perfect.

[@TakeShyo1234567890]

Love your stuff man keep going let’s GOOOOOOO

[@hannahbrown2728]

Age of History 2 is one of my favorites when it comes to these games

[@Ikcatcher]

I remember playing a demo of this on an old Xbox magazine demo disc. Just the thought of a demo disc makes me feel old

[@pissqueendanniella4688]

I keep forgetting that this is a video about a video game. My favourite kind of video 😹😹😹

[@Lazazia]

I loved Risk Faction for when I had to study. I would play at my turns and study in between. I loved the different maps and special effects. I did play the actual boardgame a lot, but I liked the twist and the simplicity of this edition.

[@Somtaw420]

We had a nuke rule where everyone started with a nuke or two, but you could only bomb a country you had the card for, which made under-the-table card trades intense negotiations with potentially huge ramifications. Nuking a country reduced armies stationed there to 1, and made it subject to D6 turns of "radiation" where any army occupying or moving through the country would lose (IIRC) half their troops per turn. Nuked countries were typically marked with bottle caps holding small dice showing the remaining irradiated turns, though I had a mushroom cloud token I had formed out of a bunch of Ferrero Rocher wrappers. Wild to think that was nearly fifteen years ago already.

[@TheTuttle99]

3:22 General sounds just like the voice actor for Bread in Bread barbershop

[@Darkdaej]

While I've always loved Risk in concept, the dice just hate me too much. I've had too many scenarios where I had 50 armies, they had 3 and I gave up the attack after losing 30. So I see no problem with the dice rolls in Risk Factions lol

[@lefaplefaplefap]

4:40 "WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION?!"

[@lefaplefaplefap]

Lmao, i just realized that "McGutterpants" is probably a "MaryJane Rotten Crotch" reference

[@ripleyandweeds1288]

"A faction joins for bullshit reasons, and the only way to survive is to bring in more idiots" literally every war story summed up.

[@voidwalkerbruh7426]

That’s elic

[@rocko7711]

I remember going to Xmas at my Aunt and Uncles house one year. There was a massive snow storm, and we were trapped there overnight. My cousins, my brother, my dad, and I passed the time by playing a massive, Future Risk game

[@spectre312]

I still have this game on my PS3 hard drive and love it. Thanks for doing a video on it😎

[@DeShawnMcDonald]

I legit had a nostalgia overload when you mentioned toy soldiers followed by 1 vs 100 I'll be invoicing you my hospital bill

[@Shift18]

I listened to this video while driving around, so I didn't have any visual context whatsoever and it felt like I was having a fever dream

[@Fudgetastic2]

AOH II letting you start WW3 for the low price of 6 gold and watching as your greatest rival is torn apart.

[@youraverageuser7039]

glad to see this game get some attention loved this game alongside my brother never was into RISK but Factions was the exception it really would hook any kid with its puns and animations alongside the factions