Risk

Sorry if this has already been made...I couldn't find a topic in Search for it.

One of my gripes about Risk is how imbalanced Australia is. Only one point of entry? I prefer that one alternate map where you can reach it from South America.

I like to add routes across the South Atlantic and Indian ocean. Also the middle Atlantic. Columbus could do it after all!

I hate the edition of Risk where they weren't too clear on the colors and borders, and managed to get some of the territories in North America messed up.

What if Antarctica had territories?

Lose all but one army per turn in each territory in Antarica. They also yield no new troops per turn since there's nothing there.

Not if you train the Penguins to perform suicide attacks.

^Risk Disgaea?

How is Australia imbalanced?

If anyone captures it, unless they have footholds in Asia as well they're basically trapped. And chances are they won't have many forces anywhere else. They get 3 soldiers per turn and no cards if they are there without armies elsewhere.

While everyone else is duking it out, chances are, you'll be taking your sweet time building up an army of two hundred on the entry space and maybe capturing a few other territories elsewhere in the world. If whoever's in Asia doesn't wipe you out immediately, the problem only stacks on itself.

200? Be realistic.

Anyone who goes for Australia is going to be weak anywhere else in the world, and if they get crushed out there, they'll be stuck with 3 units a round. Assuming they even have a card set, they'll have to wait until so many rounds to get enough benefit of it that it will be close to the end game where only 2 or 3 people are still around and each has their own continent as well, only they have more cards and units.

Australia is not a game breaker by a long shot.

edited 23rd May '11 11:16:21 PM by CommandoDude

Depends on the player level, with beginner games, the person who takes Australia first can use it very effectively.

What about South America? Also easy to defend, but you also get to make raids to prevent North America from completing its continent.

Yeah, but it's vulnerable to attack from Africa.

So just fortify Brazil, and build up, build up, build up...

South america is nice, and the weakness (two access points rather than one) is offset by the ability to raid two continents (Africa and NA)

Australia is definitely the best way to beat beginning players, by quietly building up there while the others fight and then making a bid for Asia with the right timing. With advanced players, well, if they let you sit quietly in Australia then they deserve to lose.

I'm a fan of North America myself, because it can easily strike most of the map without overextending itself.

I remember once taking over the entire Americas in Risk.

I remember a game where me and this other guy both needed South America for our mission. I managed to beat him almost off the continent, leaving him only one stronghold at the end of my turn, but that left my troops pretty thin spread as well.

And then he revealed that he had a set of cards consisting of an artillery, infantry and cavalry. Meaning that he got a whole lot of bonus troops to spread.

Before he set those troops, a stopped him for a second, and showed him that I had the very same set of cards. His choices were either giving up on South America (for now) and build up somewhere else, or try to kick me off the continent within a single turn which would result in mutual destruction if he didn't succeed.

Too bad that he wasn't a smarter player then he was, really. He set all his bonus troops on his last land in SA, and tried to beat all my thinly spread troops. Thanks to some (un)lucky die rolls, he failed barely, and I spend my bonus troops kicking him off SA. Or at least, I wanted to, but he once again managed to stay on with only one land.

Since we both wasted so many resources on this whole thing, we both got taken out pretty soon after.

That happened to me once. The worst part was that I could have won if I hadn't been so arrogant and finished the job on my turn.

I use to play the game and love it but now it is only on clone games for the iPhone.

Against AI you capture either Australia or South America and then build from there. In rare sitations you might claim Africa or even North Ameica over a card cash cycle. Then you capture one territory per turn until you get the Perfect Storm or 3-card holders that you can kill, cash, and continue your campaign to dominate the world.

Otherwise, it is a completely unrealistic game but it challeges you about the logical connectioins to get (and hold) point B from point A.

Has anyone else every played Conquest?

I played the one for DOS.

I don't think Australia is gamebreaking by any means, it's very easy to wall someone in and offset their ability to build up an army by attacking them every once in a while with your own huge army in Siam, if you have the presence of mind to occupy it. Someone who focuses on Australia almost always ends up having meaningless, spread out territories elsewhere. I like to use a strategy based on compact expansion and control of choke points, while denying continental control for someone else. At the beginning of the game, I try to position my armies in a way where I can easily take a continent within a few moves, usually by focusing near a smaller continent (South America, Africa, or Europe...I don't care for Australia myself because you're only able to attack in one direction from your established power base). I've also never had a problem ceding territory if I find the position increasingly untenable, and I have no problem using defense in depth near my own power base.

I find it's possible to start a winning campaign from Asia, but this hinges on controlling Siam and Kamchatka and making them impregnable to attacks from Australia or North America. You have to start compact, otherwise it's very easy to get overextended in Asia.

Otherwise, I think the cardinal rule for this game is to find a sound strategy based on your initial positions and stick to it, all the while not becoming too committed to a particular plan and becoming overzealous on the attack. It's far too easy to become intoxicated by conquest, especially in one turn.

With more than 3 players, 95% of the game is about how well you manipulate the other players. With 3 players, 100% is.

Anyone given any of the spinoff themed games a try? I own LOTR risk, but have never found anyone else who was willing to learn all the rules to it.

I've seen it played, but it just seemed more complicated than fun.

Of course, it wasn't a patch on the Lord of the Rings boxed set I had.

I have played the future one, but I'm sure we ignored or misplayed half the rules. Also the one with Atlantis and set in Europe. That wasn't much fun for some reason.

edited 24th Jul '11 8:07:42 PM by blueharp

Godstorm? I love that one!

With multiple human players you won't have a formulaic strategy because there is always a counter, especially if you gang up on the leader or are good at playing "let's you and him fight".

A way to make a variation is to take a large hex grid about 6x7. Then for each hex side, roll 1d6: on a 1-3 the hex side is passable, on a 4-6 it is blocked. Each hex is assigned one of three resources. In my space version I used food, fuel and steel. Or you use an actual Risk deck to randomly assign territory names to each hex as well as the infantry, cavalry or artillery on the territory's card, which is then recorded on the hexes. During the muster phase, instead of worrying about controlling complete continents, you want to control contiguous territories that contain sets of resources (one of each). For each set you get two extra armies. For each set you get two extra armies. So if you controlled 9 territories that had four artillery, three cavalry and two infantry, then that is only two complete sets for four bonus armies. You consider each group of contiguous (connected) territories separately, so if we look at the actual Risk map, Africa and Australia could not add their extra resources together to make more sets unless you controlled some Asian territories to connwct them together. Otherwise, you use the standard Risk rules to muster armies, attack, and such. However, this allows you to design new maps of virtually any size.