Risk strategy

[YourMathTeacher]

Ironically, I usually take Europe first (starting position permitting). Most opponents go after the guys in Australia and the Americas first so that the aforementioned strategies don't work. Although there is a lot of give and take early, I eventually secure Europe and have many fronts to battle and win cards from. I typically am ignored early on since the others feel I am not a threat. Noone wins with a base in Europe, right? 

[JSB23]

S. America to Africa = win

[Prof Underwood]

To win consistently it is important to have a win strategy from each continent.

Australia - take on the first turn and leave enough in Indonesia or Siam to hold the continent, use the rest of the troops to have a presence somewhere else in the world.  Follow any of the plans below, and enjoy having a couple extra couple guys each turn to do it.

S.America - take on the first turn, expand into N.America or Africa depending on the situation, then conquer the world.

Africa - take on the first turn, expand into S. America and follow the plan above or make an alliance with that player and both focus on the continents to your North.  In the latter case, let the S.A. player finish taking N.A. first, allow the other players to talk you into ending your alliance with S.A. and work with them to stop the leader.  At the right time, take Europe, weaken the other superpower, then conquer the world.

N.America - take on the turn after someone takes either Europe or the combo of S.America & Africa (on the grounds of balancing the other superpower), strengthen the borders while leading the coalition against the other superpower until they are weakened, then conquer the world.

Europe - take on the first turn or two, put enough armies in Greenland to keep anyone from completing that continent, put the rest of your armies every turn into N.Europe and leave only 1 army on each border with Africa and Asia.  Just stockpile armies in that central territory.  You won't be an immediate threat to anyone as you can't attack from there, but no one will want to attack you because taking any border territory will open them up to your huge force plowing into them.  When the time is right, fortify to the border and conquer the world.

Asia - don't take any continent for a long time.  Sit up around Yakutsk and just take one territory each turn while keeping you entire army in one location.  After about 15 turns, you'll have all but a piece of so of Asia, 2 or 3 people will already be dead, and you'll be ready to make your move.  Take the last piece of Asia and Ukraine (to cut down on borders and prevent European consolidation).  Then conquer the world.

[Lamborghini_diablo]

Yeah, the best thing to do if you get trapped in  Australia is to stockpile units in Indonesia. It can only be attacked from Siam, while Siam can be attacked from two different places. Then, once you have about 20-30 people on Indonesia, attack siam, and keep 10-15 people on indonesia, send the remaining forces out to mess with people.

[The Schaef]

20% Initial set-up
20% Dice rolling
20% Tactical strategy
40% Personal diplomacy

I think this might be my personal bugaboo with Risk and games like it.  I love cooperative games, and games where it is strategic to make mutually beneficial trades that can still be to your advantage.  But negotiation games just tear it for me.  I know it comes as a real surprise to all of you that I wouldn't be a big fan of games that rely on my diplomatic prowess. 

But if you take out the negotiation aspect, then Risk is reduced to who claims the sweet spots and whose tactical decisions are not thwarted by their own dice.  Hence, the less-than-enthusiastic attitude I have towards this game compared to other endeavors.

[Prof Underwood]

Schaef is correct that without the negotiation aspect, RISK becomes a really dull game.

For comparison, here are my stats for another "negotiation based game" called Diplomacy.
15% Country assignment
15% Effect of other players quitting
20% Tactical strategy
50% Personal diplomacy

If you like RISK, but hate the randomness of the dice, then give Diplomacy a try.  It has many of the same aspects of the game as RISK, but with no dice or cards.  On the other hand, if you don't like negotiation like Schaef, then this would be the worst game in the world to you

[TimMierz]

I'm generally bad at negotiation in games, but I love Bohnanza. I can't figure out how or why.

[The Schaef]

15% Effect of other players quitting

Best Line of the Week.

And no, I've never even bothered with Diplomacy.  Two hours of that is plenty for Risk, and large-scale games of Diplomacy can drag on for hours.  A Game of Thrones is the one I tolerate the most, because there are negotiation aspects to it, but the order placement system makes for very intriguing board play.

[Prof Underwood]

large-scale games of Diplomacy can drag on for hours.

This is definitely true.  In fact, most games of Diplomacy are played over email with turn deadlines of every week or every 2 weeks.  A weekly game would probably last for 6 months and a bi-weekly game for a year.

When playing face-to-face games, there is a slightly different breakdown for success:
10% Country assignment
10% Effect of other players quitting
15% Tactical strategy
40% Personal diplomacy
25% Tenacity (ability to remain conscious and think clearly after playing a game for 8 hours straight)

[slugfencer]

LOVE diplomacy!!!! Used to play in college in our gaming society...fun times. We also played pax brittanica and other boardgames.

[redemption99]

Me and my brothers enjoy LOTR risk more than the normal one.

[The Schaef]

Pretty much any variant with alternate victory conditions or missions > plain vanilla Risk (yes I know recent rulesets have missions).

Except maybe Castle Risk.  That just doesn't look appealing at all.

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

Castle risk? Link?

[Prof Underwood]

Castle risk? Link?

Castle RISK was a lot of fun when I played it as a kid (around age 9).  However, I have played several games as an adult and have found it to be really quite poor.  The map is just the continent of Europe (actually quite similar to a Diplomacy board) and the game just goes a bit to quickly and randomly for my taste.

[EmJayBee83]

Is there anything like Cold War Risk or somesuch?  Something where I can have a huge strategic nuclear arsenal and keep threatening total annihiliation while I get other players to have their countries fight proxy battles for me?

That's the kind of "Personal diplomacy" that I'm best at.

[The Schaef]

Twilight Struggle?

[Alex_Olijar]

Is there anything like Cold War Risk or somesuch?  Something where I can have a huge strategic nuclear arsenal and keep threatening total annihiliation while I get other players to have their countries fight proxy battles for me?

That's the kind of "Personal diplomacy" that I'm best at.

I'm sure most people could do that if they had nukes at their disposal. 

[Prof Underwood]

Something where I can have a huge strategic nuclear arsenal and keep threatening total annihiliation while I get other players to have their countries fight proxy battles for me?

Did you read my strategy guide to winning from Europe?

There's not much more intimidating than having 35 guys sitting in N.Europe just waiting for someone to be stupid enough to take your little 1 army in one of your border territories.

And there's not much more fun that listening to the other players try to convince everyone (but themselves) to be the person to go in and tick you off first

[D-man]

The main thing that I see left out of this discussion so far is the most important part of RISK.  In my opinion, success at RISK depends on the following:

20% Initial set-up
20% Dice rolling
20% Tactical strategy
40% Personal diplomacy

I agree somewhat, but I would put rolls as more influential to success.  Many a time I've taken a force twice the size of my opponent's and lost it all.  That can lose the game, especially if said battle happens on the border of a continent you own.

Europe - take on the first turn or two, put enough armies in Greenland to keep anyone from completing that continent, put the rest of your armies every turn into N.Europe and leave only 1 army on each border with Africa and Asia.  Just stockpile armies in that central territory.  You won't be an immediate threat to anyone as you can't attack from there, but no one will want to attack you because taking any border territory will open them up to your huge force plowing into them.  When the time is right, fortify to the border and conquer the world.

It seems to me that since Asia is usually not occupied by any one person until the end of the game,  I could just put a few armies on one of my Asian territories, and attack Ukraine (I may have to attack a few other territoies first, but they are usually fortified by only 1 man).  Then you're free to do what you want with your big force, and hopefully my forces are in the Americas or Australia.  If they are, I won't have to worry about your force.

[Prof Underwood]

It seems to me that since Asia is usually not occupied by any one person until the end of the game,  I could just put a few armies on one of my Asian territories, and attack Ukraine (I may have to attack a few other territories first, but they are usually fortified by only 1 man).  Then you're free to do what you want with your big force, and hopefully my forces are in the Americas or Australia.  If they are, I won't have to worry about your force.

If you are solid in another continent like SA or Aus, then:
1 - you won't have a lot of guys in Asia
2 - you won't really want to weaken Europe because they will be keeping N.America and Africa (who are your primary growth targets) busy.

If you were foolish enough to attack Ukraine, then I would simply send enough guys to wipe out your small forces in Asia and then you would be trapped in SA or Aus where you belong
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If you are not solid in another continent and therefore have your main forces in Asia, then:
1 - you are having a bad game to begin with
2 - you can't afford to be ticking off the guy with a huge army in the middle of Europe
3 - you also would rather him being all big and scary so that the rest of the world will focus on Europe and leave you alone

If you were foolish enough to attack Ukraine, then I would just wipe you off the board.  I would take your cards, and use you as an example to teach the rest of the players on the board to not attack me.