Risk:
Turn based
Multiple units may occupy the same territory
Conflicts are resolved by a dice based war of attrition. Thus 20 armies will usually beat 10 armies, but luck can change this.
You get extra armies each turn based on the number of territories you control, with bonus armies if you control a continent. The larger the continent the more bonus armies you receive.
Each turn you take one or more territories you get a single card. Once you get a set you can cash those cards in for more armies with each successive set handed in being worth more and more armies.
The usual strategy is to take a continent, and wall in with large numbers of armies on your borders, while trying to deny other players continents. You will then wait until the cards become so valuable that you can cash them in for enough armies to completely take out another player, thus capturing his cards. If you then have another set you may cash those cards in for even more armies. Rinse and repeat taking out more players until you win.
The "risk" is that if you are unnseccesful at achieving total victory that the next player will hand his cards in and go on to take you out.

It's a pretty good game, but Diplomacy is on a whole other level of sophistication and skill.

Risk is great, but it's like Diplomacy for infants.

In Risk you don't get stuck with Austria, but you do get stuck playing Risk.

For a better game that looks a lot like Diplomacy, but is totally different, try Imperial.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24181/imperial

Imperial is awesome! It can be hard to learn to detach yourself from your starting nations though ;)

That, and learning to lose units for tax purposes! I like to invest heavily in Russia and Austria, lock up the east, and trade neutral territories back and forth to maximize revenue for each power at tax time.

When I tell people I like war games, sometimes they naively say, "Like Risk?" I always say yes, hoping someday they play Diplomacy.

I just try to get people to sign up and play a game with me. Few ever do. I'm hoping to hook someone.

Risk isn't as frustrating as Diplomacy. Fuck Diplomacy. But then again, nothing surpasses the sheer level of bullshit when your 25 armies can't your friend's 10 armies because your friend's a lucky cunt who survives shit like that.

@CommanderByron is there a site where you play? Or by email?

*can't defeat your friend's

Warlight is rather fun if you have half an hour to kill. Well worth googling

World Dip is great, but it's like Diplomacy for infants.

Gunboat is like the Risk version of Diplomacy...

*removes pin, tosses grenade, sits back and watches*

What if we combined risk and diplomacy. You can put as many units as you want on a territory but rather than using dice to decide combat we use diplomacy rules. So a territory with 10!units is supported by a territory with 5 units into a territory with 11 units. That's 15 v 11 the 15 win and the 11 are displaced then the retesting player roles the dice to discover how many units were lost in combat; then the attached does the same. Ties no one moves but both players role to discover losses. It would be like adding the stattegy of dip to the attrition of risk.

there is a variant like that, but without the dice.

The difference is Diplomacy.

I have had Hearts of Iron sitting on the side for the past few weeks. I had a look at it bit I haven't been able to get into it. Does anyone know it, play it. Is it worth persevering with.

Hearts of iron 4 is out soon. I beta test for Paradox on it.

HoI3 was not my favourite game - it's massively complicated. Unnecessarily so. But Hears of Iron 4 is a lot better in that regard.