Risk

[Felch]

I'm going to head out and play tonight with some of my smoking buddies. Although I know this belongs probably in Other Games, I figured I would get more responses by posting this in OT.

Here's the deal. I've played Risk before, but not for years, and I really don't know any strategies. I was wondering if you all could give me any hints within the next hour or so.

[Ming]

Ok... since you only have an hour, I will leave it here for now.
After an hour, I'm moving it to the other games forum

Good luck tonight.

[orange]

go for a continent, any continent, early. Preferably one you get a lot of units on.

If you're able to pick your own nations, try to get a monopoly on Australia or South America or both. Amateurs try to get a big force in Eurasia - this is a mistake! Your easily made the target of expansion and you're attacked from all sides. Try to get a set of territories that connect somehow.

Try to make some alliances with people, some mutual 'he's the bad guy' stuff going on...stab when necessary or easiest.

Good luck!

[Felch]

Thanks Ming. Cool, Orange, will do.

[Chowlett]

Australia is usually a good bet, you can pick it up quickly and there's only one border to controll - hold Siam and you're laughing. SA is decent as well, only 2 entrances there.

[Frankychan]

my tactic is to take over Autralia first, it only has one point of entry and i usually bolster this area with all my troops. you get little troops at first, but combine them with troops in Asia and you'll do relatively well.

I usually try and claim Australia and South America first cause their the easiet to defend. After, its N. America, Africa, S. Europe, N. Europe and Asia last.

Just have some troops in Asia blocking the pass into Australia. Use Aussieland as a last defense if your losing, or a supply depot for your armies in other lands.

Good luck, dude.

[Hobbes]

Get all of North and South America at all costs. If at all possible have the Australian continent. Also have Iceland, Siam, and to a lesser extent, East Africa. Build up, then kick ass. Invade through the Bering Straight, and Africa. Wooopah!

[Felch]

Cool.

So basically the trick is just to pick the right continents? Or is there anything else I should be aware of.

I suppose it'd hard to explain specific things, but are there any common tricks that I should keep an eye on?

[Natan]

North America is actually a pretty good continent, just don't get caught up in an endless war there in the beginning. I've had some success with Africa, but it's probably not the best choice. North and South America are the best choices. Australia doesn't work especially well because it's so isolated.

As for strategy, depriving other people of continents is almost as important as getting one yourself. Try grabbing one territory beyond your continent - i.e., if you've got South America try to grab West Africa and/or Central America, since it won't be any harder to defend those than to defend Brazil and Venezuela.

[orange]

Originally posted by Felch X
Cool.

So basically the trick is just to pick the right continents? Or is there anything else I should be aware of.

I suppose it'd hard to explain specific things, but are there any common tricks that I should keep an eye on?

It's really nice if you can get a good territory like Siam or Brazil built up with tons and tons of troops, and then invade and go as far as you can in one major push. Try to take out the biggest guy, it helps you to gain some support from the others...you may not hold those territories long, but you take a big chunk of the lead's power by taking away his territories.

[Darsnan]

If I recall correctly you only got to draw a card if you conquered a territory. Therefore if your in SA and have opponents in both NA and Africa, then establishing a small army in Asia and/or Europe is a must. Conversely, if your in Australia it behooves you to eliminate the SA players armies in Asia, as then the SA player can only attack NA or Africa, causing instability in those areas.
Wow - Risk! That brings back some good old memories! Good luck!

[Felch]

Tight. This sounds good.

[orange]

Originally posted by Natan
As for strategy, depriving other people of continents is almost as important as getting one yourself. Try grabbing one territory beyond your continent - i.e., if you've got South America try to grab West Africa and/or Central America, since it won't be any harder to defend those than to defend Brazil and Venezuela.

Australia is only good if you can get Siam, and massively built up on top of that.

North America is a good place to have, but I recommend making it the second continent you conquer, not the first (as it, along with east asia, is often the source of much fighting and the least hegemony.)

[Hobbes]

Key areas of defence (pretty fricken obvious):
Alaska
ahh... the Russian side of Bering
Greenland
Iceland
Mexico
Brazil
East Africa
Siam
Indonesia

These are always good to have and fortify.
Oh, and defenders win a lot. So, it's good to be a defender. Also, if you're very competetive you will usually loose. That seems to happen a lot and it really pisses that person off.

[Andemagne]

if you cannot take/get Australia or SA in beginning,
try to conquer one of the bigger ones by taking on area
per turn and securing all your possions on that continent.
you get 1 risk card per turn and then when you get a
complete set take the rest of the continent. make sure
you don't lose that continent right away. then when
your secure and strong continue to another continents.

[Frankychan]

Felch- yes, pick the right continents is defintely a must! IMHO, you should claim all of Aussieland with asian countries as "buffer-states", after you pick your countries (which ideally, will be all clustered together) you should go about and claim all the surrounding territories within that continent. In terms of defense: Asia is the worst, followed by N. Europe, S. Europe, Africa, N. America, S. America, and Aussieland as the easiest to defend.

Try to claim Aussieland as your base of operations, with holdings in S. America. Spread to Africa. A lot of players don't like Africa because it gives them little troops, but i find that with Aussieland and Africa under my control, I can bolster my defenses until its time to strike.

In my playing of Risk, I tend to notice that people want to take over N.America and N. Europe fast (maybe because of historical value). I recommend saving these for later.

[Chowlett]

Originally posted by Hobbes
ahh... the Russian side of Bering

Kamchatka, I believe

[Hobbes]

Ah yes, good ol'... Kamchatka. Thanks Chow.

[Tom201]

Always try to keep a balance of power between the others players. Ally with the weak ones against the strongest and make him fall. While you of course try to get the biggest chunk of the loot
Try to make it seem you are weak and not a threat at all their best friend who never will atack .... and than ... BOOOM muhahaha

Diplomacy is the road to victory.



2. Tactic is playing Isiolanist. Get A small continent (SA, Africa or Australia, perferable the last ) and stay passiv, while the others fight their wars. When the last one finally manages to defeat no.2 with only a few troops left you rush him with your 500+ troops.
As the result you get rewarded for being the most boring player

[Bosh]

Like everyone else says go for Australia if at all possible (unless there's very few people playing in which case NA is a good bet if you can get it without a fight). And no matter what you do plunk down ALL your units in your starting continent. Although its vitally important to try to deprive other people of whole continents the first turn isn't the time to do it, also seeing someone plunk down all their units in one place usually lets you get the place without much of a fight.
After that slowly expand across Asia slowly and with as little fighting as possible but never come close to getting all of it (at least until very late in the game) and make it very obvious that you're not going for all of it by not setting up a real defensive perimiter (just leave a large back-up army in Siam that you should plunk down a unit or two in every term so as to have it in emergencies).
As you play try your best to work with Africa and SA (and the poor bastard in Asia if there is one) to keep Europe and NA from being united for more than one turn running (but don't let them be whiped out completely) and if one is successful try to emphasise what a big horrible enemey they are so people don't notice your slow growth.
Then when its late in the game and the cards start getting worth a lot do EVERYTHING you can to to kill of vulnerable people in order to get their cards and to keep other people from getting them. And throughout the game be a relatively nice guy (I like to kind of roleplay as a balance of power/defender of the weak kind of power which is good for you if you can get other people to think of you as that as that) who quietly plays off the antagonisms of the other powers.

Risk is a fun game as long as you don't get newbies who feel all scared and ally with one of the major powers unconditionally, that throws the game all out of wack and makes it a lot less fun.

[Felch]

Well they'll already know that I suck, so convincing them I'm not a threat shouldn't be hard.

Basically the trick is just to not piss anybody off until I'm the biggest baddest mofo around?

[chequita guevara]

Screw Oz, go for North America, unless someone else is making a play for it. Forget Europe and Asia. Europe is next to impossible to hold. Asia is impossible to hold. Australia and South America are weak, but defensible. Oz leaves you without much room to expand, and it's very difficult to gain a second continent. Africa is tough to hold onto, but if you can, it leaves you poised to take a crack at Europe.

Don't let anyone else get a continent, but don't wipe yourself out doing so. Try not to be greedy. Generally only take one territory a turn and conserve your forces. If an opportunity to take a continent in one gulp appears, go for it if you think you can hold it. Hold your sets as long as you can (until you have five cards). It increase the point they are worth, and you met get another set, which you can put down on your next turn for a double army whammie.

Don't just watch your enemies, watch your enemies' enemies. Players can go through someone else to get at you (and vice versa). Make alliances, but don't be bound by them. Screw your allies when you need to do so, but not so often no one will ally with you. Don't try and become the most powerful until you can hang onto it, cuz everyone will jump you.

[Aeson]

Diplomacy is key... along with rolling those sixes (always a good idea).

Everything else depends on the countries you draw, or if picking, who else is going for what. Try to stay out of massive continental squabbles, but going completely isolationist will just delay the inevitable.

Keep a small standing army somewhere in Asia to get cards if no other easy targets are available. I don't like Australia because the second step is Asia, and it's tough to hold if your opponents have any idea what they are doing. You end up stuck with 5 armies per turn while someone else will end up with the rest of the world.

If anyone gets control of N. America without a huge struggle, most everyone else is toast, starting with S. America.

Using the default reinforcement rates though, it mostly comes down to who gets lucky with cards at the right time. I like to play with castle risk reinforcement rates, keeps the game a bit more strategic.

[Inverse Icarus]

no. if you play with like 4 or 5 opponents, grabbing a continent is BAD early on. when you get a continent you have 2 or 3 neighbors who dont want you getting those extra men, and once the beat your borders, your soft underbelly is done for. you're nothing but a card farm. the best thing to do for a while is to chill somewhere (i like asia because not many people play around in there), and slowly move 1 or 2 territories a turn, grabbing cards. when you have enough men, storm somewhere.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Aeson
I like to play with castle risk reinforcement rates, keeps the game a bit more strategic.

It's the only way to play. It get's rid of those late game world rushes back and forth across the board.

[Tom201]

Australia-Problematic:
You dont have to stay in Australia and dont need to conquer asia. Just conquer a corridor thrue india, me, and go than for africa or europe. Since there is only 1 border. You dont need too much troops for defence (standing of course in siam to make sure noone gets hold of asia).

Aja and never atack with only 1 atacker left. with 2 only if absolutly important. You dont want to give the defender any advantages

[orange]

play secret mission risk for a twist. It's a lot of fun.

[Felch]

I'm on my way out, thanks all

[Aeson]

Australia's biggest fear is UberKrux's strategy. They can't go anywhere if someone is just walking around Asia getting cards with their whole army.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Felch X
I'm on my way out, thanks all

That's all I was waiting for... Moving this to the other games forum now.

Good luck tonight.