By Chris Moore:

Hey there, folks. I’m back so soon after announcing the great news of our record-breaking day on Tuesday… to announce the friendship-breaking, heartache-causing, family strife-invoking events that took place in the meeting area of FMP Studios early on the morning of Thursday, July 24.

Early on, the scene looked something like this…

As you’ll note, the western third of the board is almost all red, the central third is almost all green, and the eastern third is almost all blue. Just for reference sake, I was red, Mike was green, and Jim was blue.

You may have guessed by now that, after recording some background vocals for Jim’s upcoming solo release, the boys of Fusco-Moore Productions kicked back with a game of Risk – the game of global domination, as the saying goes.

Early on, it was anybody’s game. And, from looking at the board, you might say — hey, they look about even. They must be happy.

A glance at the next picture will explain how wrong that statement is…

Some highlights of the game were the tension between green and red between South America and Africa, a standoff that remained non-violent until the end of my time in the game. Also, Mike and I took turns fighting for Iceland. In the pictures above, I own it so that Mike won’t own the entire continent of Europe, but then he just takes it back from me on his next turn. Jim quickly became the ignored party, having less troops than the other players, but being a silent killer. No, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not talking about farts. I’m talking about how he suddenly took ownership of Asia and maintained control of Australia AND a foothold in North America.

It is my strong opinion that I lost the game the moment, after having fought Mike for Iceland and winning, I forgot to attack Jim in Alaska, the one country in both Americas that I didn’t own at the time.

And he had only one man there!

Within a couple turns, he had flooded my troops, made a pact with Mike, and I was wiped out. So begins the final, dark chapter of the evening…

Well, dark for Jim, at least at first. It seemed that Mike would wipe through Jim’s troops, but the battles quickly proved that he would not prove so easy a target.

At the time of publication, the battles are still raging on throughout northern Africa, Mike’s original stronghold and a continent that saw no action until the final moves of the game. The final results will be posted when they become available, along with friendship statuses…

WINNER:  Check back soon!!

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:

• Jim and Chris: BEEN BETTER – Jim’s feeling good, riding high on having lasted so long. But, on the other hand, I’m not so happy. I still haven’t been convinced that Jim didn’t make the pact less out of a desire to win than out of a desire to take me out of the game. I may be wrong, but how can I be happy when I was the first casualty of war. Still, there are no hard feelings. But there is a hard rematch to come soon!!

• Jim and Mike: HEALTHY – They both agreed at the end of the game that the strategy involved kept them interested and thinking at all times. A rare positive ending to a violent game of Risk for these brothers.

• Mike and Chris: PRETTY GOOD – Years ago, I had trusted Mike and made a pact with him. He made a move that was best for him, thus spawning my classic Risk phrase, “MIKE! WE HAD A PACT!!” But, as the Monkees would say, that was then, and this is now. Mike treated me well, up until the pact. But Jim proposed the pact, so…

Well, that was more detailed than it needed to be. Until next time, this is your local loser Chris Moore reporting live from FMP Studios in Connecticut for all you Fusco-Moore fans out there…