If Poker were the game of Risk...

[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]

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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.

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

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

[BarronVangorToth]

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

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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

[Iceman]

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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.

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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]

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

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


--Zetack

[SeattleJake]

Excellent Post

[poker-penguin]

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

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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]

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Australia and Asia is a good combo,

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Let's call this the Royal Flush of Risk.

Do you see why?

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

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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.