NationStates Jolt Archive

Alright so I was playing Risk with one of my family members this morning, for those of you who don't know Risk is that world domination game where the game board is a really poorly scaled map of the world and you have this tiny men that you move into different areas and try to beat your opponent. This certain family member that I was playing with has a ridiculous tendency to have an enomous amount of luck with any gambling or board games of any sort, but this morning I thought I would out smart her. Sadly enough I got my bum kicked. But I am not a world class quitter! I would like to ask if anyone has any suggestions for better strategies in the game Risk. Thank you in advance!

play with like six people.Its more fun that way.And bring food.Preffarably something salted and High in trans fats.Thats all the advice I really have.

Always make sure you have either south america or australia to start with

I played Risk for seven hours straight, with six players. Still, nobody one, but someone was dangerously close to conquering the WORLD with the Americas.
Advice? Play with six players and gang up on the person who is winning.
THAT's how I lost North America.

Wow! I haven't played that for some time,but don't you get the most men/units for occupying all Europe? or is it Asia? I forget. As far as I remember,whoever kept control of this usually won due to the replenishment of troops.
Keep control of it at all costs.
If someone else is controlling it,attack at all costs.Even if you cannot gain the whole region,the idea is to stop them controlling it and getting their bonus.
Whenever I thought "right,I'll attack in a minute" I ended up being over-run by a huge army.
Most of all-be aggressive!
don't hesitate-
DEATH OR GLORY!!!!

I Am The Shiz At Risk

chuck every single unit you have into one country at the start, preferably near or in Australia or Sth America. Its like a game of chicken as chances are people will avoid the confrontation at the start and you get a free continent.

Don't even think about trying to hold Europe until you have a definite advantage.

More tips, make sure you get a card on every single turn even if it means losing some units for a territory you dont need or want.

If your opponent looks like he is using the tactic i advised a couple of posts ago, take him on. The Napoleanic style - attack where he is strongest cause that is the place where he least wants and expects to be attacked.

I would like to ask if anyone has any suggestions for better strategies in the game Risk. Thank you in advance!
Get BIGGER dice!!!!

In games with more than 3 people be sure to get Austrailia and build up on Indonesia until you have no more little soldiers. Then attack.

I rule at Risk!!! Heck, they call me Hitler because I usually win from Europe...

Everyone will tell you to take South America or Australia first... it's better if you don't. I prefer Europe personally, as you can tell, but I've seen it done by taking over North America, which I suggest since it's easier to defend. Slowly creep into either South America or Aisa (one country per turn, but take other countries if there's just 1 or 2 guys on it). South America will give you more men, and an entrance into Africa, but Aisa will be the best in the long run. Aisa can't really be adequatly defended, but you'll have opposition from the Australian forces if they move northward. Most Australian players have the tendency to move westward into the Middle East, though. Attack Europe from both North America -AND- Africa if you want any hope of victory... but at this point, the European player should have most of Africa anyways.

Anyone trying to take over Aisa initially... has problems... like, their brain was left in the washer to long.

Asia is to difficult to hold from the beginning of the game. Its too large to defend with the forces you are given in the beggining. Typically i like to start with controlling N. America for a couple reasons.
Its a good place to start from because it easy to defend. Only a couple of places to attack from, The OPFOR(opposing forces for you civvies) can only attack from Asia, Europe, and S America and there are only one way to attack from each of the above areas. So can your place your forces in a good defensive pattern. Now usually l locate my forces where i can attack from both the east and the west. Attack into Europe from the Eastern N America. and into Asia into the from Western N America. Always maintaing larger combat forces on my fronts then in the rear. I meet myself in the middle of either Asia or Europe and then push down into the Middle East into Africa. Usually those battles occur at the same time as taking the land down under or at least cutting it from the mainland so OPFOR cant retreat down there. Unless there is a large amount of enemy forces in S America i save it for last.
The key to victory though is being flexible in your plan. You must be able to quickly change your battle plan to adapt to now develpments on the field. Think before you attack your enemy. Dont blindly charge into battle without thinking through all your options. But dont be scared into not pressing an advantage.

yeah Nth America is good if you can get it early. Doesnt always pay to take either it or europe early though cause it makes you look strong and then people tend to pick on you.

I saw a copy of Lord of the rings Risk last week. Middle earth mapped out into continent style regions. Look svery cool and i might have to buy it.

N. America is easy to defend, but only if you hold all of N. America, and if you lose one of the gateways, it becomes astronomically harder to hold. An enemy with a toehold in Canada is a serious pain, so try to hold at least 2 provinces away (Greenland & Iceland, Mexico & Venezuela, Alaska & Kamchatka). If an enemy gets there you should divert everything you have to kicking them out.

the Ukraine is weak, I will crush the Ukraine

Believe it.

Oftentimes if someone gains a portion of N. America from me i have a difficult time repelling them. But if you can hold onto it, it makes a very good base of operations

Ok, look for a place where you control a decent amout of territories, but is not Asia or Europe and place all your armies in one or two of the territories and take control of the continent. (I like S. America and Africa because you can attack several places from them, but easily defend). Also, I like to take the territory in the other continent that it borders(eg. for s. america venezuala and N. africa, if you decide to go with Australia definantly take Siam) because this lets you defend your continent while not losing a country and it prevents other people from taking a continent.

Also, LOTR risk is not that great, it's different than risk, although they did change the spoils system so that no one gets like 50 armies from turning in one set.

I suggest snatching S. America as fast as possible. From there you are well positioned to assault either Africa or N. America, depending on how well they are defended.
Remember, though, that you have to be aggressive! If you slow down and wait, the enemy will walk all over you. Especially if you have been playing for a few hours and the bounty on cards has gone up.
Finally, unifying to take down the strong player is OK sometimes, but I have found it works better to take out those who are weaker than you. After all, if you finish them off you get their cards and a few new territories.

I usually play one enemy off the other while building Europe and Africa into a centralized fortress. the weak points typically border the Middle East, Ukraine, Greenland, and Brazil. The key to my success is to move glacially, one country per turn, collecting cards every turn, and holding onto them until the cash-in gets good and high, say ten armies. Later on, I focus on getting the cards of the weaker players to bolster my reserves, making me increasingly difficult to extract.

Slow and deliberate wins the game, especially when paired up with a silver tongue.

Risk annoys me to hell.

There's one question I've wondered about always, can you attack multiple times in the same turn?

I never played with that rule before, and I played this one game with 5 friends, and I was eliminated before it got to my turn... (I went last, or was supposed to go last)

Never get into a land war in Asia. Go for Australia early, you can with the game with only it if there are a few other players, and especially if you get Asia without anyone really noticing. Africa is fairly strong, but South America and Europe are weak.

Since everyone goes for South America and Australia, they're always the first targets! Take advantage of that and grab what you can while no one's really looking!

Risk annoys me to hell.

There's one question I've wondered about always, can you attack multiple times in the same turn?

I never played with that rule before, and I played this one game with 5 friends, and I was eliminated before it got to my turn... (I went last, or was supposed to go last)

I'm pretty sure you can attack as often as you want, according to the game's rules. Obviously house rules can change that, but I think officially you can attack as long as you have the troops for it.

Never get into a land war in Asia. te he he, that reminds me of the movie the princess bride.


rule number one - never get into a land war in asia, rule number two, never take on a sicillian in a battle of wits.

As soon as possible, capture a continent. Preferably Australia or South AMerica. Maybe North America.

Don't try to hold Asia or Africa! They have other better uses.

Unless you're making a strong push for a continent, capture one AND ONLY ONE territory per turn. This ill conserve your forces while getting more cards. You want a card a turn. You NEED a card a turn! *nod*

te he he, that reminds me of the movie the princess bride.

A wonderfull movie!

also try to use the dice to your advantage. The attacker has to throw first remember. So when defending, let the attacker roll the dice and then decide how many dice you are going to use. It works great.

with 3 attacking dice vs 2 defending dice the attacker has the advantage,
but when he throws 3 dice and then you decide wether to throw 2 or 1 dice, the defender has a small advantage.

Play a better game? :-D

But if you want to play Risk then:

Don't have a set strategy at the start. If two people decide they have to own Australasia, they will both lose, so you want to make sure that you decide your strategy based on what you think the other players are doing.

You should try to win a card every single turn. It's the cards that allow for big swings in power, more than anything else.

Keep all your armies in border territories. Your opponent then has to fight through lots of your armies even to get one territory, and you can defend with two dice for longer, rather than having a lot of defending with 1 when half the armies in a territory have been killed.

Try to minimise your border territories. If you have 5 borders, and 20 troops, you have 4 armies in each territory. If you have 3 then you have almost 7 armies per territory. Always look to attack where you can minimise your borders. This is often where you can attack into a large territory from a smaller one.

Try to maximise your opponents territories. If he has to defend 3 territories from your attack rather than one, he will find it much harder to mass his armies and attack you effectively. If he has too few armies he can't roll enough dice to get the best odds.

In general, don't try to hold Europe - it has too many borders. But do be on the look out for places you can claim whole continents.

Judge your opponents - if you are playing against aggressive "gang up on the leader" players, it can be better to hold Africa than Asia, because if you hold Asia everyone will be beating on you. If you are playing against more passive players, then you might be able to hold Asia, and scare people into not attacking you.

Build up slowly, but at some point, take the Risk. Go for a killer blow, taking out most opponents, and crippling the others, if not taking the whole world in one go. This is a risk because it will leave you spread thinly if you fail, but if you don't take it, you can expect to be dragged back into the pack by a coalition of the other players.

Finally, the most important factor of all in Risk, and the reason I don't like it much....be lucky.

I'm suprised no-one has said it but ALASKA is the place you wanna be
everyone knows that

That's some good advice in that last post.

Personally, assuming I have the men close enough, I shoot for owning South America, and push into the adjoining territories in both North America and Africa. You can now choose either-or continent to invade next. This all depends on your opponents defences.

If you're playing with two people, this may be extremely difficult, or easy, depending if you're both going for the same spot or not.

All in all, if your current instincts are making you lose the game, then maybe you should question your instincts when they first come to mind, and look over the board again. Sometimes it's better to stay back instead of push forward, sometimes it's not.

And be lucky!

Good dice rolling ... : )

Diplomacy is also a key factor. I usually play with 6 players and both me and one of my friend use about the same tactics and strategies and have been perfecting them, but still he wins most of the games purely because he is very very skilled at using every player in the game to his advantage.

Whenever he takes a country, he tries to do this in the most friendly manner (says he needs a card, etc.)

He is always convincing others to attack where he wants them to attack, but the ones that attack never seem to notice how he is influencing them. He is always showing them the advantages of the attack whilst being very silent about his own gains.

He is constantly 'guessing' what the others are going to do with the result that they get blocked by the rest, but while he is making sure someone is going to get attacked, he is quietly building up his forces and expanding. It is also almost impossible to show the others what his real intentions are.