History TabletopGame / Risk

Risk is a classic board game centred around commanding armies on a map of the world. The game starts with the random division of the world among up to eight players. Armies are gained according to how much territory each player has, whether they control entire continents, and special cards drawn from a deck. The object of the game is to control the entire world. ''Risk'' has been around for a long time and has many, many spinoffs and expansions. See ThemedStockBoardGame.

* HoldTheLine: Players on the receiving end of attacks roll their (up to) 2 dice to see how 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.

* 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. 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).

* RecycledInSpace: ''Risk 2210''
** Also ''Risk: Film/LordOfTheRings''
** And ''Risk: Film/{{Transformers}}''
** And ''Risk: VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''
** And ''Risk: VideoGame/{{Halo}}'', ''LordOfTheRings'', ''Godstorm'' (a generic fantasy flavored version)... it will likely never end.
** ''Franchise/MassEffect'' Risk has since become available for preorder.
** Risk: ''Walking Dead'' is now out.

* CurbStompBattle: Usually after a player has turned in their cards for a massive number of reinforcements.

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

* RiskStyleMap: Risk uses an area-based map rather than a hex-base or grid map. It is the TropeNamer.

* RecycledINSPACE: ''Risk 2210''

* 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). Many areas named after countries 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).

* 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). Many areas named after countries don't correspond to any historical borders of that country.

* 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 Scandinavia but does include a large chunk of Central Europe. Many areas named after countries don't correspond to any historical borders of that country.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The "Afghanistan" region doesn't even contain Afghanistan. The "Middle East" is one nation. Russia is required to hold Europe.

* HoldTheLine: Players on the receiving end of attacks roll their (up to) 2 dice to see how 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]].

* 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 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 and who thinks they've already won.

* PyrrhicVictory: Extremely common. Players that expend large numbers of troops to take territories or to finish taking control of continents often find themselves unable to actually hold it before reinforcements arrive.

* 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.
** You can get attacked through ''6'' different provinces.

** ''MassEffect'' Risk has since become available for preorder.

* 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.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: It's not hard to find rules for combining Risk with {{Monopoly}}. It's only slightly harder to find the rules for Risk/Monopoly/Trivial Pursuit/Clue. No, seriously.

** And ''Risk: VideoGame/Halo'', ''LordOfTheRings'', ''Godstorm'' (a generic fantasy flavored version)... it will likely never end.

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

* EverythingsWorseWithBears: One of the ''Risk: Legacy'' factions is the Enclave of the Bear, whose soldiers, um, [[{{CrazyAwesome}} ride on bears.]]