"This is truly the best of all possible games." -Jesus Christ, on Diplomacy

The trouble I have Diplomacy is that it makes my brain hurt. Plus it causes me much moral anxiety.

Risk is a lot easier if everyone plays it like Risk and you play it like Diplomacy and manipulate your opponents.

Risk is only fun if you're the one who has managed to take Australia and started stacking a near invincible pile of units on your border.

tj: if it's too easy you just learn the others what to do and how... i've been busy for a long while getting people ready to confront me succesfully in Risk, so you just ened to elt everybody play it like Diplomacy, it's the only good way to play the game so it's like good risk too :)
you dojn;t have to manipulate all the time, as logn as you don't see every army as another army standing in your way but an army of a friend or an enemy... holding in mind you need to solo of course :)

Focusing on Australia is a rookie mistake.

Focusing on S.America is much better. It's almost as defensible and offers the same # of armies, iirc. The difference is you're able to fortify in both N.America and Africa, preventing other players from holding continents.

Focusing on Australia wastes too much time and doesn't give you enough armies to be worth it. IMHO, it's a great way to do nothing interesting the whole game and then lose.



On some boards, Africa has one fewer connections to Asia. In this case, Africa is very OP and should be your goal instead of S.America.

Damned near impossible to get enough units to fortify N.America and Africa suficiently. Someone will be tempted to attack one of them to take the S.America bonus off your hands, and then you've lost a good proportion of your forces with very little to show for it. The key to getting through the start of the game is making it more trouble than it's worth to fight you, and saving units.

I'm tempted to agree with the S.American party. Not only do you have more continents to cut off, but both of those continents are legitimate continents, not the big joke that is Asia (Nobody who wasn't in the process of winning ever got Asia).

Plus, if someone decides that Australia's armies are too strong, they can fortify SE Asia until you're STUCK in Australia.

Sorry Rommeltasic, but in all the games i played, the moment someone got Australia, they occuptied SE Asia the next turn. And in no game with more than two players, someone will fortify SE Asia because that is a wast of units and other players are outnumbering him elseware.

Like Abge, Risk was my major boardgame love as a kid. The most common injury in my house was stepping on some plastic Risk caltrop that had been lost in the packing process. I haven't played Risk in years, though -- the ratio of time invested to pleasure gained is not tha

I like games with a fair amount of

Sorry, my toddler son just hit "Enter" mid-message. The ratio of time invested to pleasure gained is not that favorable, at least ftf.

I like games with a fair amount of luck, but the random start can be a killer in Risk. Like a lot of folks, I began with an Aust strategy, then went Aust with a subsequent dash across to S Am (three defense points for four units). My favorite when I last played was S Am, expanding to N Am (three defense points for 7 iirc units.

Australia? South America!?!?!? Amateur strategies... The way to play risk is just to hang out in Urkutsk and Yakutsk and other places I can't pronounce and just take one new unfortified territory each turn, never lose a unit (well, lose one every third turn or so), and eventually have double everyone's units cuz everyone else is too busy squabbling over Brazil.

""This is truly the best of all possible games." -Jesus Christ, on Diplomacy"

"The way to play risk is just to hang out in Urkutsk and Yakutsk and other places I can't pronounce and just take one new unfortified territory each turn, never lose a unit (well, lose one every third turn or so), and eventually have double everyone's units cuz everyone else is too busy squabbling over Brazil."


So this is my strategy in Risk. Harass, destroy, flee, troll.

This makes me a nomad. I keep one large army together and give it everything. When it is my turn I attack the weakest adjacent army till it is defeated and take my card. Proceed until it is you versus the victor, and watch as all your former adversaries cheer you on like some kind of god. Laugh as victor fails to destroy your army on first or second attempt. Trololo as you deny him continental bonus for Asia, N. America and Europe all in one turn, and then go out in a blaze of glory in your last stand at Greenland saying "I don't give a fuck"

So basically, the true way to play Risk is to be Mongols?

Don't forget to reduce Baghdad to a pile of rubble!

@ unclabb

shit, you just told everybody my supersecret oil spill strategy

any good variants or is this question just to silly to ask??

"Risk is Diplomacy but then a random start and includes luck, isn't that better??"

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything about this but nobody has called you out on it. Is this supposed to be a troll? You're saying that risk is better for the exact reason why most people say it's worse...

As crummy as Risk is compared to Diplomacy, both games are great at teaching geography. I mean, 95% of the world would have no idea where Kamchatka is without Risk. Same goes for places like Galicia and Tyrolia.

@WhiteLine: Agreed. When I hear the word "Kamchatka," in my mind's eye I still see that province on the Risk map with the little dotted line from Alaska. We should build the Bering Straits Highway, and turn the map into the territory.

@whiteline: so?
@dD: not meant as a troll, actually i knew i wanted to say do something with it but didn't know what so kept it a bit neutral, now i know i'm searching for a variant :)

and i don't think you can get screwed by getting the wrong tettitories at the start; if you have you can still wander around waiting for everybody to settle down somewhere and then take the easiest spot...
best if you take an easy spot from the strongest enemy...

@steephie: so?

If I'm dice rolling a wargame, it better be Axis & Allies. Risk is just so 'meh' for me.

Draug, do you prefer revised A&A or the Avalon Hill release?

I haven't played it in so many years...

The revised allows more options on the Eastern Front than "build infantry, lather, rinse, repeat," makes Southeast Asia more crucial, slightly cuts play time, and provides more options and fun for Russia, Japan and especially the UK. However, the game becomes a pretty hard, grinding slog for the Germans, and the Allies still have a significant (albeit not insurmountable) advantage. Diplomacy still rules through the simultaneous reveal mechanic and by involving all players throughout the game. One could practically read a novella during the first German and Japanese turns in A&A Revised.

A&A is fun, but it's such a time commitment; there are many other things I'd rather be doing.

That's the one nice thing about RISK. It's nice an quick.

Risk? Quick? Really?

Yeah. My friends and I can easily finish in 1-3 hours. That's a lot quicker than A&A.