If Poker were the game of Risk...

[disjunction]

If poker were the game of Risk, the loose passives would be the people who scatter a few armies here and there, the weak-tights would be the people who know they should be trying to support a continent, but they wait until they have overwhelming force to take their shot, and it's too late. But even if they are successful they just build armies on their borders and never take a shot at winning the game.

LAGs are obvious. But I should remark that when I've gotten bored I've tried a "Roving Hordes" strategy, continuously putting all my armies on a country with no intention of taking over a continent right away, but rather looking around until someone looks weak, and snatching it.

BTW, I know very little about Risk, or if anyone's developed theory behind it, and I'm sure there are much better players than me around here, so if someone wants to enlighten me feel free.

[memphis57]

Risk ain't hard, i think you got the basic strategy, and a pretty good analogy too. To extend it - TAGs are the ones who wait until they have a slight edge, just enough, to be the first to launch their drive for world domination. And when the weakest guy on the board, who you naturally attack first, has a run of the dice and decimates your armies in the first country so as to make the planned next stage impossible for now, that's a fishy suck out.

[mostsmooth]

go for australia and south amercia first

[disjunction]

Yeah but the problem is if anyone else is decent they will do the same thing. So you have a coin flip to wind up vulnerable to someone to chooses to hover outside (another coin flip). Talk about game theory! That's why I tried the roving hordes once. I went 2-for-2 when I tried it, but got the feeling it only worked because of the surprise factor.

[disjunction]

Yes, I hate the fishy suckouts! My superior strategy is supposed to win every time. Maybe I should start playing trash...

[mostsmooth]

risk (http://www.missionrisk.com/hq.htm)

[PairTheBoard]

Far superior to the game of Risk is "Axis and Allies".

http://www.axisandalliesworldclub.com/

PairTheBoard

[Brom]

Where can I DL it?

[2ndGoat]

Certainly there are a variety of strategies that virtually assure defeat, perhaps even more so than at poker, but it seems among mediocre-to-excellent players, the luck factor in one multi-hour game of risk is about the same as a single hand of poker. In any case, it can be quite frustrating.

Just my directionless two cents.

2nd

[PairTheBoard]

Ask on the Main Message Board of the Club linked to. I'm not sure what the latest is. You might have to buy a copy of the CD on ebay or from another player. Or there might be other sources these days. The guys at A&A World Club will know. It was a friend in that club that convinced me to try online poker a few years ago.

It's a great WWII strategy game. Enough more complexity than Risk to give a feel of realism and provide lots of strategic potential, but still simple enough that the rules can be learned fairly easily.

PairTheBoard

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
Far superior to the game of Risk is "Axis and Allies".

http://www.axisandalliesworldclub.com/

PairTheBoard

[/ QUOTE ]


Agreed. But if you follow this line of finding the progressively better and better games, you start to wander towards Magic: The Gathering, WWE Raw Deal, Puerto Rico, Chess, and ...

... wait for it ...

poker.

Neverending circle of samsara ahoy.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[Goodnews]

don't go after australia or south america... just hold a single country in each continent to make sure noone gets the bonus, then when you got the cards, make a run at the weaker continent.

[Shoe]

I always take Europe, and that seems to work well.

[Brom]

North America! It only has 3 points that need to be defended and it is worth a lot of points. Also you can take South America with it and hold two whole continents with the same 3 defense points.

[edge]

[ QUOTE ]
don't go after australia or south america... just hold a single country in each continent to make sure noone gets the bonus, then when you got the cards, make a run at the weaker continent.

[/ QUOTE ]

Australia is the best. Only one entry point.

[philnewall]

Australia and South America are great to go for if you can snatch them within your first turn. The real skill in this game is deploying your armies, don't mindlessly follow your mission, instead go for the continents which are being left for everyone. Avoid full-on arms races, where two players stick all their troops battling for one continent, it'll wipe you out.

Afterwards, you want to get your empire so it has as few entry points as possible. The americas is a good combo, with 3 points and a total bonus of 7. Europe is lousy, 5 bonus, 5 entry points. Australia and Asia is a good combo, if you take Ukraine aswell you have 3 border countries with a bonus of 9. Middle East/Ukraine is a brilliant place to block off at. Africa suffers from the same problems as Europe.

Don't go for Asia striaght away, it's just too bloody big.
As other posters said Australia is a great place to start off, but don't get completely hung up about it.

Knocking players out is also very important, as you get their risk cards.

That's all I can think of for now.

----

Also, keep all your men on your borders, to dissuade people from attacking you, if you can slowly build an empire without ever being attacked you can rule the world! Also make sure you take a country and a risk card every turn.

Bonus snatching is also critical, don't let them have it, while at the same time protecting your bonus. Then just grind em down.

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
Australia and Asia is a good combo,

[/ QUOTE ]


Let's call this the Royal Flush of Risk.

Do you see why?

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Australia and Asia is a good combo,

[/ QUOTE ]


Let's call this the Royal Flush of Risk.

Do you see why?

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[/ QUOTE ]
can we call it the nut Ace high royal straight flush?

[CurryLover]

Great game Risk, but the main skill is in the diplomacy involved - according to the serious players anyway (of which I am not one). Making the right alliance at the right time is what separates the excellent player from the average player, since apart from that the general overall strategy is relatively simple.

I can't think of any way to equate this with poker except for maybe the cooperative betting strategies in some high/low split games when the lock low and lock high trap another player in the middle for numerous bets.

I suppose that those players who love holding Australia because it is so easy to defend could be said to be weak-tight.

No-one mentioned one of the best known starting strategies which is to go for both Africa and South America. If you can hold these two early on and fend off attacks you often win the game.

[poker-penguin]

Then there's Diplomacy itself, no frustrating dice rolls - and in many ways far more fun.

[Iceman]

The way to win at risk is to hoard armies and expand very slowly. You should usually conquer only one territory per turn and that's just for the Risk card. Your short-term goal is to have a safe base (either Australia or South America) where you only need to put lots of armies on 1-2 spaces to hold a lot of spaces. Then you expand slowly from there - from South America into North America, from Australia into Asia, or from Africa into Europe. With any of those pairs, you can hold the entire thing with 3-4 spaces, and then you're in good shape to go for the win. The only exception is when one other player is expanding very quickly, in which case your strategy of slow expansion would lead to you being outgunned by his sheer number of armies, and you need to do an all-out attack to weaken him.

[housenuts]

Risk is great. i usually try to start off in South America. once you get a firm hold on there you can make a push into Africa. I have never been the dude that camps out in Australia.

for a good variation play with Airborne rules. this means at the end of your turn take a card and drop 3 troops into whatever country it is. If it is your country just leave them there. If it is someone else's then you start your airborne assault. You have to attack and you fight to the death or victory. Also you get to roll all 3 dice because all of your troops are attacking. If you take it, and still have men left you can move on to the next country but you still have to leave someone back in the newly occupied territory.

i like this variation because it forces people to fortify all their countries, not just the borders.

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
No-one mentioned one of the best known starting strategies which is to go for both Africa and South America. If you can hold these two early on and fend off attacks you often win the game.

[/ QUOTE ]


Let's call this the Aces-full of Risk....

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
i like this variation because it forces people to fortify all their countries, not just the borders.

[/ QUOTE ]


But that's not necessary, because, as we know from real life, the #1 spot in our country we must defend is Alaska as those pesky Russians can leap from one side to the other and hop on in. Hence why most American troops are stationed there.

Or not.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[Iceman]

[ QUOTE ]
Risk is great. i usually try to start off in South America. once you get a firm hold on there you can make a push into Africa. I have never been the dude that camps out in Australia.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you're playing against strong opponents, they won't let anyone grab Australia or South America to start, not without a major fight at least. During the placing armies phase, if someone starts putting loads of armies on an Australian or South American territory, someone else will stop whatever he's doing elsewhere and put loads of armies there to counter him. Either of those is too strong a base, and the extra two armies per turn really do add up. Africa is much harder to conquer and keep because you need three strong territories to hold it and because it's easily attacked from Europe or Asia.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
Then there's Diplomacy itself, no frustrating dice rolls - and in many ways far more fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ya gotta love a game where cheating is an acceptable part of the game.


--Zetack

[SeattleJake]

Excellent Post

[poker-penguin]

[ QUOTE ]

Ya gotta love a game where cheating is an acceptable part of the game.
--Zetack

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep.

I've always wondered what a game full of decent poker players would be like. My theory is that it would be of a high standard, even with little / no experience.

[ErrantNight]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Australia and Asia is a good combo,

[/ QUOTE ]


Let's call this the Royal Flush of Risk.

Do you see why?

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll let others elaborate.

[Pepsquad]

Oh my God! You all just made me realize how I must sound to people who know nothing about poker.

[JoeyJoJo Shabadu]

http://www.hasbro.com/pl/page.viewproduct/product_id.9615/dn/games/default.cfm

Try "Risk 2210". It's awesome fun. Plain risk just sucks..

[Aytumious]

Europa Universalis II is another top notch risk style game.