Last week I was shocked to discover (as was my cup of tea) some people have had better thing to do in their lives then play board games, in particular, RISK. Googling for blogs on board games I was shocked again (causing more spillage of tea) to discover that apart from monopoly and a couple on clues on Cluedo (see what I did there!) there wasn't a particularly handy guide on board games. I have therefore come to the conclusion that apart from me, and when forced, my younger sister, no one else gives a damn about moving a piece round a board when they could be playing wii Party or Grand Theft Horse (aka Red Dead Redemption).
Now, I have taken it upon myself to find computer alternatives for each board game (if applicable) and to give some TOP SECRET CHEATS on how to improve your luck, without resorting to stealing from the monopoly bank/moving an extra space when no one’s watching, although of course if you can get away with these dirty rotten tricks (and live with your conscious) then continue your super sleuth skills.
First up is RISK.
You can play a similar flash version below called 'World Conquest'
What's Risk?Risk is a strategic board game, is produced by the famous Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro). The standard version is played on a board depicting a political map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, which are grouped into six continents. The primary object of the game is to occupy every territory on the board and in so doing, eliminate all other players. Players control armies with which they attempt to capture territories from other players, with results determined by dice rolls.
How to Play:
Setting up the Risk board for play is more involved than in many other games.
Each player first counts out a number of playing pieces or "armies" for initial deployment. The number of armies that begins the game depends on the number of players Players then take turns claiming territories by placing an army on an unoccupied territory until all the territories are occupied. Players then take turns placing their remaining armies on their territories. After all armies have been placed, the actual game begins with another roll of a die, used to determine the playing order.
Player turn
There are five phases to a player's turn: placing reinforcements, turning in Risk cards, attacking, fortifying, and receiving Risk cards.
Drafting troops
At the beginning of a player's turn, the player drafts new armies (troops) and then distributes these pieces around the board to reinforce any territory occupied by that player. The number of armies drafted is determined by summing the following several rules (official versions have varied with various editions):
Territories and Cities formula; draft armies equal to the number of occupied territories plus the number of cities in those occupied territories divided by three and rounded down to the nearest integer. If this result is less than three, round up to three armies.
Continent Bonus; The player receives additional armies for occupying an entire continent, equal to the continent bonus shown on the game board.
Continent | Bonus |
Asia | 7 |
North America | 5 |
Europe | 5 |
Africa | 3 |
Australia | 2 |
South America | 2 |
One additional army for every capital within the player's occupied territories.
Any armies gained from turning in Risk Cards.
Turning in Risk cards
The player may receive armies by turning in a set of three Risk cards. A set of Risk cards consists of one of the following:
three cards depicting the same unit (e.g. all three cards have cavalry pictures)
three cards showing one of each type of Risk unit (soldier, cavalry, artillery).
If the player has five cards, he must trade in a set. The player places the armies on any of his territories.
The first set to be turned is worth 4 reinforcements; the second is worth 6; third 8; fourth 10; fifth 12; sixth 15 and for every additional set thereafter 5 more armies than the previous set turned in. Also, if a player owns one or more of the territories depicted on the set of turned in cards, the player may choose one of these territories to be awarded two additional armies that must be placed in that territory.
Attacking
Attacks can only be originated by the player currently having a turn, and must be launched from one of the attacker's territories, against an adjacent or sea-lane connected territory occupied by an opposing player.
The attacking player attacks with one, two, or three armies, rolling a corresponding one, two or three dice. At least one army must remain behind in the attacking territory not involved in the attack, as a territory may never be left unoccupied. Before the attacking player rolls, the defending player must choose to resist the attack with either one or two armies (using at most the number of armies currently occupying the defended territory) by rolling a corresponding one or two dice.
The attacker's highest die number is compared against the defender's highest die. The highest number wins, with the defender winning in the event of a tie.
The attacker's next highest die is compared against the defender's second-highest die (assuming the defender committed a second army).
Any extra dice (dice not matched against a defending army) are disregarded and do not affect the results.
With each dice comparison, the loser removes one army from his territory from the game board.
If an attack successfully eliminates the final defending army within a territory, the attacking player then must occupy the newly conquered territory with at least the number of attacking armies used in the last round of attack. There is no limit to the total number of additional armies that may be sent in to occupy, providing at least one army remains behind in the original attacking territory.
If an attacking player occupies a defender's last territory, thus eliminating them from the game, the attacker acquires all of the defender's Risk cards. If the conquering player now has five or more cards, he must trade in sets until he has fewer than five. The gained armies are placed immediately.
Fortifying
When finished attacking and before passing the turn over to the next player, a player has the option to manoeuvre any number of armies from a single territory occupied by the player into an adjacent territory occupied by the same player. Under an alternate rule, the manoeuvring armies may travel through as many territories to their final destination as desired, providing that all involved pass-through territories are contiguous and occupied by that same player. As always, at least one army must be left in the originating territory.
Receiving a Risk card
If the player has conquered at least one territory during the turn, the player draws a Risk card from the deck, and the player does not trade in cards at this point. Play then proceeds clockwise to the next player.
Tactics!
A quick google, and you'll find plenty of different strategies and tips, with Risk it depends on who your playing with to determine the best tactics, after all playing against your kid brother is going to be a lot different to playing with a risk enthusiast mate.
Therefore my following tips are for playing against the computer, against five AIs actually, as strategies change of course, on how many players you're up against. It's not entirely fool proof, with Risk it never is due to the luck of the dice, and you may find through using my pattern, that you develop a different pattern that works better for you. Anywhooo, here goes revealing my strategy...
I come from a land down under...
Most people, who know me, know my irrational adoration of Australia. Maybe it's the care free attitude, the BBQs, the deadly creepy crawlies, the unusual animals, the large plains of desert, (or the large plains of jungle) I've never been, so I wouldn't know, but something about Australia has always gave me a sense of awe. Well i normally use this ridiculous love of a country I've never been to, to use as the reason why I attempt to conquer it first on RISK. Because of this, most people let me have it, thinking it's just a pet love of mine, it's too small to do any harm anyway...WORNG! Australia is key to the game. It is the only continent with just one attacking point making it an easily protected, allowing you to score 2 armies each turn. Trust me, this adds up when everyone else takes a mighty number of goes to conquer a different continent, to which can't be protected for very long. Capture this, and very slowly but surely build up an army at the entry point to Australia. Your need that later when you start to invade the impossible Asia.
Miss America
Whilst you've been deploying armies in Australia, I try to also deploy armies in South America, as well as near the entry points, especially in North America. Anyone who attempts to capture North America will be hitting you hard first rather than Europe or Asia (as they are the trickier continents to hold) and so you must try to keep the bottom half of North America to yourself. Easier said than done. The best way I find, is to try and keep away with Africa, building up a small army at the entry point and leaving everyone else to fight it out for Europe and Africa. Concentrate your efforts on keeping South America, and hopefully, along with Australia your gain enough troops to start to conquer North America. Going for Africa is risky (ha-ha RISK geddit!?) far too many entry points and from a number of different territories too.
Whilst you've been deploying armies in Australia, I try to also deploy armies in South America, as well as near the entry points, especially in North America. Anyone who attempts to capture North America will be hitting you hard first rather than Europe or Asia (as they are the trickier continents to hold) and so you must try to keep the bottom half of North America to yourself. Easier said than done. The best way I find, is to try and keep away with Africa, building up a small army at the entry point and leaving everyone else to fight it out for Europe and Africa. Concentrate your efforts on keeping South America, and hopefully, along with Australia your gain enough troops to start to conquer North America. Going for Africa is risky (ha-ha RISK geddit!?) far too many entry points and from a number of different territories too.
Don't spread your troops, they're not butter.
Your armies are much stronger together then singularly. Think "United we stand, divided we fall". When possible keep big enough armies at all entry points, about 50% MORE than those around the entry point. For example, if you have two territories adjacent to your entry point, one with 3, the other with 5, that’s 8 total, so you should 8 plus another 50% (8/2=4) giving you 12. This should prevent from being attacked even if that player gains additional troops. The rest of your troops should be placed together to take down another territory. Slowly slowly catchy monkey! You only need to gain one more territory to gain an extra card, so instead of trying to conquer 3 territories, leaving only a couple of men in each, thus all your efforts wasted when they are taken back off you, focus on one (or a couple more if you've have a ton of troops) and leave a good number of troops behind, daring anyone to take it back. Use the fortify (movement) to make sure you aren't leaving pointless stragglers randomly around when they could do better attacking in an army or protecting an entry point. If your entry points are strong enough, there is no need to have more than just the minimum 1 troop in each territory.
Your armies are much stronger together then singularly. Think "United we stand, divided we fall". When possible keep big enough armies at all entry points, about 50% MORE than those around the entry point. For example, if you have two territories adjacent to your entry point, one with 3, the other with 5, that’s 8 total, so you should 8 plus another 50% (8/2=4) giving you 12. This should prevent from being attacked even if that player gains additional troops. The rest of your troops should be placed together to take down another territory. Slowly slowly catchy monkey! You only need to gain one more territory to gain an extra card, so instead of trying to conquer 3 territories, leaving only a couple of men in each, thus all your efforts wasted when they are taken back off you, focus on one (or a couple more if you've have a ton of troops) and leave a good number of troops behind, daring anyone to take it back. Use the fortify (movement) to make sure you aren't leaving pointless stragglers randomly around when they could do better attacking in an army or protecting an entry point. If your entry points are strong enough, there is no need to have more than just the minimum 1 troop in each territory.
Three times the charm.
When attacking you need to have at least 3 times more troops then the territory you are attacking. With the luck of the dice 4 would not always be enough to beat 2, plus even if you got lucky, you wouldn't have much troopage left to defend the territory you took. 6 to 2 is much better, because odds are you'll be left with 3-4, a good match for opposing 2s and 1s nearby. (of course if adjacent territories have much bigger armies you think again before attacking, you may just end up wasting your troops as other players take you down).
When attacking you need to have at least 3 times more troops then the territory you are attacking. With the luck of the dice 4 would not always be enough to beat 2, plus even if you got lucky, you wouldn't have much troopage left to defend the territory you took. 6 to 2 is much better, because odds are you'll be left with 3-4, a good match for opposing 2s and 1s nearby. (of course if adjacent territories have much bigger armies you think again before attacking, you may just end up wasting your troops as other players take you down).
The Art of War
You may think taking down the stronger player, to leave yourself with the weak seems like a good plan, but it's probably the worst thing you could do. By battling out with the strong player, even if you are successful your only be much weaker, and find the weaker players just as hard. When playing against the computer, unlike humans, you can count on the other players to try and take down the stronger players. Therefore use this to your advantage, rather than trying but probably resulting in a massacre of your troops in failing to take territories from the strong players. Defend twice as good against the strong and focus on attacking weaker players, to make yourself stronger. This strategy should produce yourself as a stronger player then your tricky opponent, and finding it much easier to take him on then when you were a mere thorn in his thumb. Also if you're in luck he might actually be worn down by some of the weaker players, making it even easier for you to 'wipe the board' so to speak. It may not seem ethical, in fact it's quite devious and cowardly, but you want to win the war, not an epic battle.
You may think taking down the stronger player, to leave yourself with the weak seems like a good plan, but it's probably the worst thing you could do. By battling out with the strong player, even if you are successful your only be much weaker, and find the weaker players just as hard. When playing against the computer, unlike humans, you can count on the other players to try and take down the stronger players. Therefore use this to your advantage, rather than trying but probably resulting in a massacre of your troops in failing to take territories from the strong players. Defend twice as good against the strong and focus on attacking weaker players, to make yourself stronger. This strategy should produce yourself as a stronger player then your tricky opponent, and finding it much easier to take him on then when you were a mere thorn in his thumb. Also if you're in luck he might actually be worn down by some of the weaker players, making it even easier for you to 'wipe the board' so to speak. It may not seem ethical, in fact it's quite devious and cowardly, but you want to win the war, not an epic battle.
Other pointers such as working out what’s a big army, what’s a small one, and how much you should attack, when and who will come to you naturally after playing a few games. It differs on every game, and the rules can mean different tactics, but the above strategy will work no matter what version you’re playing, as long as, of course, you have a bit of luck on your side. As Napoleon once said, I do not want a good General, I want a lucky one.
Sources:
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