History TabletopGame / Risk

** Also, on the licensed properties front, there's ''Risk: Film/LordOfTheRings'', ''Risk: Film/{{Transformers}}'', ''Risk: VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', ''Risk: Franchise/{{Halo}}'' (in two seperate franchise-general and ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' editions), ''Risk: Franchise/MassEffect'', ''Risk: ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', ''Risk: VideoGame/StarCraft'', ''Risk: VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'', ''Risk: Franchise/StarWars'' (in separate original and prequel trilogy flavors), ''Risk: Series/DoctorWho'', ''Risk: VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies''... it will likely never end.

** Asia. If you can control it long enough to actually start getting units from it, you can steamroll the other players in numbers. Problem is that it has many territories you need to take and can be attacked on a number of different fronts from very many provinces. Lose even one lousy territory and kiss your continental bonus goodbye until you can re-take it. You can get attacked by ''5'' different continents, with South America being the only one that cannot. Even if you manage to get a firm hold on Asia, expect the other players to start [[EnemyMine conspiring with one other to launch multi-pronged attacks]] before your large numbers of reinforcements become unstoppable.
** Newer editions of original Risk have cavalry figurines to represent 5 units and cannon figurines to represent 10 (as opposed to an infantryman being one unit). As awesome as it is to have cannons intimidatingly guarding your borders, get ready to waste time exchanging them for a horse and 3 men as you take losses, until you get fed up and just stick to using regular infantry for everything.

* OneWorldOrder: Generally, the game ends when all the [[SpaceFillingEmpire space filling empires]] are destroyed, [[AWinnerIsYou save one]]. Possibly averted in ''2210'' or ''Godstorm'', which have a five-turn limit, or games where completing missions is also a victory condition, and conquering the world is something of a feat.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: In some editions of the game (possibly beginning with german versions of the game in the 1980s), players do not conquer counties, they ''liberate'' them. Not by attacking, but by performing "Liberation Actions". However, when a player's turn ends, this well-meaning "Liberator" becomes an "Occupant" who defends his occupied countries against the "Liberation" by the other "Liberators".

** In ''Risk 2210'', it becomes significantly easier to StoneWall any continent depending on the radiation tokens. South America can become just as troublesome when one of the two entry points are blocked by a nuclear wasteland. And then there is the issue when [[{{Unwinnable}} both entry points become uncrossable]]. [[note]]Technically, it's possible to land in a blocked South America through a lucky use of the Invade Earth card. This doesn't happen often.[[/note]]

** The online Conquer Club map "Das Schloss" is notorious for this; its design can cause games to take months, and if you're using escalating cards ... well, good luck defending against [[ThisIsGonnaSuck that 600 army drop]].

* GaiasLament: ''Risk 2210'' has a war on a irradiated, polluted Earth.

** North and South America, Africa and Europe can be this. None of them offers the high bonus of Asia, nor the StoneWall characteristics of Australia, but they can be useful territory all the same. North America in particular has three chokepoints in or out, ties with (more exposed) Europe for the biggest continental reinforcement bonus outside of Asia, and can allow a player to deny others total control over Asia, Europe or South America.

->''"[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]], Russian front, not a good idea... [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] never played ''Risk'' when he was a kid...! Because, you know, playing ''Risk'', you could never hold onto Asia -- that Asian/Eastern European area? You could never hold it, could ya? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn't fucking hold it. Australasia, that was the one, Australasia -- all the purples, get everyone on Papua New Guinea and just build up and build up..."''

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The "Afghanistan" region doesn't even contain Afghanistan. The "Middle East" is one nation. Russia is required to hold Europe. "Northern Europe" doesn't include most of the actual Northern Europe but ''does'' include a large chunk of Central and Western Europe. Related to that: Scandinavia includes Finland (which isn't Scandinavian) but lacks Denmark (which is). Great Britain includes Ireland.[[note]]Not entirely ''wrong'', but... well, suffice to say that it's a touchy subject.[[/note]] Many areas named after countries or states don't correspond to any historical borders of that country (kind of Justified with South Africa and Central Africa, as both can be interpreted as areas rather than countries).

->''"Second world war, Russian front, not a good idea ... Hitler never played ''Risk'' when he was a kid ... because, you know, playing ''Risk'', you could never hold onto Asia -- that Asia / Eastern European area? You could never hold it, could you? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn't fucking hold it. Australasia, that was the one, all the purples, get everyone on Papua New Guinea and just build up, build up, build up ..."''

** Asia. If you can control it long enough to actually start getting units from it, you can steamroll the other players in numbers. Problem is that it has many territories you need to take and can be attacked from very many provinces. Lose even one lousy territory and kiss your continental bonus goodbye until you can re-take it. You can get attacked by ''5'' different continents, with South America being the only one that cannot. Even if you manage to get a firm hold on Asia, expect the other players to start [[EnemyMine conspiring with one other to launch multi-pronged attacks]] before your large numbers of reinforcements become unstoppable.

* HumongousMecha: One of the units in ''Risk Legacy''.

->''"Second world war, Russian front, not a good idea... Hitler never played ''Risk'' when he was a kid... because, you know, playing ''Risk'', you could never hold onto Asia--that Asia / Eastern European area? You could never hold it, could you? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn't fucking hold it. Australasia, that was the one, all the purples, get everyone on Papua New Guinea and just build up, build up, build up..."''

* AfterTheEnd: One possibility for ''Risk Legacy'' after enough games have been played on the same board.

** Newer editions of vanilla Risk have cavalry figurines to represent 5 units and cannon figurines to represent 10 (as opposed to an infantryman being one unit). As awesome as it is to have cannons intimidatingly guarding your borders, get ready to waste time exchanging them for a horse and 3 men as you take losses, until you get fed up and just stick to using regular infantry for everything.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Every continent has its own color. Along with each Army.

* CrapsackWorld: A board of ''Risk Legacy'' will most likely turn into this after enough games are played on it.
** Vanilla ''Risk'' is basically an up-to-six-way free-for-all spread across the whole world until one guy amasses enough force to utterly crush all opposition.

* EasyLogistics; Players are allowed to "fortify" one territory per round by moving forces from one territory to another as long as there's a direct path through friendly territory. Yes, it's possible to move 10 units all the way from Alaska to the Middle East in the time it took for an enemy to move 2 units from New Guinea to Japan, details like rations and supplies be damned.
** Even easier - the reinforcements you receive at the beginning of each turn can be placed anywhere. Even in territories you just captured last turn. Even if they are completely isolated from the rest of your territories. Hundreds of armies can appear where there was just one a moment ago with no visible source.
* EnemyMine: A common strategy but seeing how there's only one victor, the end result of this is [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder easy to predict]].
* EpicFail: Imagine invading a territory that only has one guy in it with around five guys... then losing them all to extremely bad luck with the dice.
** Now imagine attacking Siam, holding 2 men, from Indonesia with over 40 men, and losing all but 2.
* FailedASpotCheck: Woe betide the holder of North America who doesn't notice his enemy slowly adding units to Kamchatka. It goes both ways too; woe betide the owner of Asia that fails to see the large army amassing on Alaska.

* FromASingleCell / NotQuiteDead: Due to the mechanics of the reinforcements card trade in, it is possible for a player to be beaten to 1 troop in 1 territory only for him to suddenly [[{{DeusExMachina}} raise an army out of nowhere]]. This becomes especially interesting if you're playing with the U.S. rules, in which card sets increase in value throughout the game.

* HoldTheLine: Players on the receiving end of attacks roll their (up to) 2 dice to see if their forces can hold. Interestingly, even though the attacker can use up to 3 dice, the advantage is theoretically always with the defense since they win if the dice tie each other (possibly to represent the "home field advantage") though the attacking player can certainly make up for this with a [[WeHaveReserves large enough force making repeated attacks]]. TruthInTelevision in that defending a fortified position does tend to require less manpower than conquering one.

* ImpossibleTask: Holding the continent of Asia. Good luck if you draw a mission that requires Asia.

* RandomNumberGod: The mechanics of the entire game are based on die rolls. Especially irritating if playing it as [[{{TheComputerIsACheatingBastard}} a video game.]]

** Also, on the licensed properties front, there's ''Risk: Film/LordOfTheRings'', ''Risk: Film/{{Transformers}}'', ''Risk: VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', ''Risk: Franchise/{{Halo}}'' (in two seperate franchise-general and ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' editions), ''Risk: Franchise/MassEffect'', ''Risk: ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', ''Risk: VideoGame/StarCraft'', ''Risk: VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'', ''Risk: Franchise/StarWars'' (in seperate original and prequel trilogies flavors), ''Risk: Series/DoctorWho'', ''Risk: VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies''... it will likely never end.
* RedShirtArmy: It's pretty safe to assume that, after an hour or so of playing, all the pieces that were on the board to start with will be dead.
** And of course, some of the pieces actually are red.

** The online Conquer Club map "Das Schloss" is notorious for this; its design can cause games to take months, and if you're using escalating cards . . . well, good luck defending against that 600 army drop.
** The entire combat system is based on this. You can have an army of fifty units going against an army of five but rather than being ten times as powerful all that means is that your enemy is more likely to run out of men before you do.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Asia. If you can control it long enough to actually start getting units from it, you can steamroll the other players in numbers. Problem is that it has many territories you need to take and can be attacked from very many provinces. Lose even one lousy territory and kiss your continental bonus goodbye until you can re-take it. You can get attacked by ''5'' different continents, with South America being the only one that cannot. Even if you manage to get a firm hold on Asia, expect the other players to start [[EnemyMine conspiring with one other to launch multi-pronged attacks]] before your large numbers of reinforcements become unstoppable.

* BoringButPractical: Australia. Only one way in or out (and the owner of Asia likely has bigger concerns at the start) and a total of 5 reinforcements each round (assuming that's all the player owns) means it's possible to amass an enormous army then conquer once everyone else has depleted themselves fighting each other. A good way to tell veterans from beginners is who thinks they got screwed over by getting 3 out of 4 Australia territories doled out to them and who thinks they've already won.
** In the {{Website/Pogo}} version of Risk, at least if playing against AI players, the winner is usually (though not always) whoever manages to grab Australia.
** In ''Risk 2210'', this doesn't work quite as well, between the existence of sea territory and the fact that taking Australia won't be enough to win the game for you on turn 5.

* FailedASpotCheck: Woe betide the holder of North America who doesn't notice his enemy slowly adding units to Kamchatka.
** It goes both ways: woe betide the owner of Asia that fails to see the large army amassing on Alaska.

* GaiasLament: ''Risk 2210'' has a war on a irradiated, polluted, Earth.

** Newer editions of vanilla Risk have cavalry figurines to represent 5 units and cannon figurines to represent 10 (as opposed an infantryman being one unit). As awesome as it is to have cannons intimidatingly guarding your borders, get ready to waste time exchanging them for a horse and 3 men as you take losses, until you get fed up and just stick to using regular infantry for everything.

-->''"Second world war, Russian front, not a good idea... Hitler never played ''Risk'' when he was a kid... because, you know, playing ''Risk'', you could never hold onto Asia--that Asia / Eastern European area? You could never hold it, could you? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn't fucking hold it. Australasia, that was the one, all the purples, get everyone on Papua New Guinea and just build up, build up, build up..."''

* NewGamePlus: The point of ''Legacy''. The winner can found a city for the next game.

** Also, on the licensed properties front, there's ''Risk: Film/LordOfTheRings'', ''Risk: Film/{{Transformers}}'', ''Risk: VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', ''Risk: Franchise/{{Halo}}'' (in two seperate franchise-general and ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' editions), ''Risk: Franchise/MassEffect'', ''Risk: ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', ''Risk: Franchise/{{StarCraft}}'', ''Risk: VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'', ''Risk: Franchise/StarWars'' (in seperate original and prequel trilogies flavors), ''Risk: Series/DoctorWho'', ''Risk: VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies''... it will likely never end.

* EasyLogistics; Players are allowed to "fortify" one territory per round by moving forces from one territory to another as long as there's a direct path through friendly territory. Yes, it's possible to move 10 units all the way from Alaska to the Middle East in the time it took for an enemy to move 2 units from New Guinea to Siam, details like rations and supplies be damned.

* FailedASpotCheck: Woe betide the holder of North America who doesn't notice his enemy slowly adding units to Japan and/or Kamchatka.

** Now imagine attacking Siam, holding 2 men, from Papua New Guinea with over 40 men, and losing all but 2.

* EasyLogistics; Players are allowed to "fortify" one territory per round by moving forces from one territory to another as long as there's a direct path through friendly territory. Yes, it's possible to move 10 units all the way from Alaska to the Middle East in the time it took for an enemy to move 2 units to New Guinea to Siam, details like rations and supplies be damned.

** A common tactic is to take over Australia, hoard its bonus armies, and defend Australia's one access point with everything until you have an unstoppable army that can easily rampage through everyone else's weakened territories. On the flipside, an opponent can just as easily StoneWall the one or two countries with access to Australia, effectively cutting that player off from ''the rest of the map'', possibly for the entire game.\\

-->''"[[WorldWarII Second world war]], Russian front, not a good idea... Hitler never played ''Risk'' when he was a kid... because, you know, playing ''Risk'', you could never hold onto Asia--that Asia / Eastern European area? You could never hold it, could you? [[{{WeHaveReserves}} Seven extra men]] at the beginning of every go, but you couldn't fucking [[{{HoldTheLine}} hold it.]] [[GameBreaker Australasia, that was the one, all the purples]], [[ShinyNewAustralia get everyone on Papua New Guinea and just]] [[{{ConstructAdditionalPylons}} build up, build up, build up...]]"''
-->--'''EddieIzzard'''

* StoneWall: A common tactic is to take over Australia, hoard its bonus armies, and defend Australia's one access point with everything until you have an unstoppable army that can easily rampage through everyone else's weakened territories. On the flipside, an opponent can just as easily StoneWall the one or two countries with access to Australia, effectively cutting that player off from ''the rest of the map'', possibly for the entire game.\\
\\
In ''Risk 2210'', it becomes significantly easier to StoneWall any continent depending on the radiation tokens. South America can become just as troublesome when one of the two entry points are blocked by a nuclear wasteland. And then there is the issue when [[{{Unwinnable}} both entry points become uncrossable]].
** It's not technically {{Unwinnable}}, it just requires that the invading player a) hire a space commander, b) set up a space port, c) ship an army to the moon, c2) CONQUER THE MOON (optional), d) spend potentially copious amounts of energy cycling through the space commander deck until they come across one of the two "Invade Earth" cards, e) play said card and f) manage the lucky task of flipping over one of the two chosen countries' land cards. Otherwise, start all over from item d and hope the smug jerk holding South America doesn't decide to invade the moon in the meantime.

* BoringButPractical: Australia. Only one way in or out (and the owner of Asia likely has bigger concerns at the start) and a total of 3 reinforcements each round (assuming that's all the player owns) means it's possible to amass an enormous army then conquer once everyone else has depleted themselves fighting each other. A good way to tell veterans from beginners is who thinks they got screwed over by getting 3 out of 4 Australia territories doled out to them and who thinks they've already won.