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

[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