Risk - Tips & Strategies

When you would like to begin a planned conflict with another player attacking them directly can give you the appearance of being an “aggressor” to the others at the table. Players may band together to defeat you simply based on this impression of your gameplay style. Instead, try to leave a “soft spot” in your defensive lines by gradually building up other territories instead. The key here is GRADUALLY. Then (hopefully) the opponent you wish to engage with will attack what they perceive to be a misstep on your part. You will then draw sympathy from the other players at the table, and possible treaties so you may “defend yourself” from the invading force. When you then crush your enemy without mercy, the other players will view this as a justified action against an aggressive opponent. This has been a standard practice in real life diplomacy for centuries.

Perhaps the most popular variation or house rule (that I haven’t seen on here already) is to distribute countries randomly in the beginning instead of letting players choose in order.

Simple deal out the country cards and each player must place an army on their dealt countries. Then distribute the remaining armies as you normally would, in order.

This is a variation that can allow for some explosive action. Basically, players can put 1 army each turn into a reserve pool instead of playing it on the board.

At any time on their turn when they could normally play armies, they may take armies from their reserve to distribute as well.

An additional variation for this is that a player may take an army from their reserve pool (but just 1) to place on a country that is being attacked.

There are a lot of variations on this variation, so to speak – feel free to experiment in your own group!

Always try to start off in either Australia or South America at the beginning of the game. Fortify your borders as much as possible and start gaining your bonus for owning an entire continent early in the game.

When playing Risk there are many strategies that one may use to achieve world domination, the following works more times than not for me.
1.After placing armies (either by choice or randomly) make a plan on what areas you want to concentrate on. Do you have several countries linked together on one continent? Are the other players focusing on Australia but leaving North America wide open? What countries are you willing to sacrifice so you can strengthen other countries.
2.Do what you can to win a card. If that means placing your 3 armies in an area you were willing to give up because your chances of taking a country where your main force is is nigh impossible, do it! The card will be worth it when you turn in for extra armies.
3.Choose carefully when you turn in your set of cards. You must turn in when you have five cards, this gives you more cards to possibly occupy giving your 2 extra armies plus if others have cashed in before you, your cards will be worth more.
4.Don’t overestimate psychological warfare. If you can get someone else to do your dirty work, all the better. For instance if convincing someone to attack another to break up them owning a continent you can then use your precious armies on a different goal. They will then both be weakening their armies not yours.
5.Your troop move is critical. You only get one so make sure you use it to your advantage. Make sure that the continent you just struggled to take over remains yours.
6.If possible take out the player with lots of cards. If you succeed you receive the cards and if you have six you have to cash in and can keep on rolling.

In Risk, you have just as much to gain by convincing other players to attack each other instead of you as you do through your own combat victories. When they fight each other, they both take casualties. You can’t just let them run the board, but if you can maintain the unassuming underdog status you might be able to rush in after most of the fighting is done and take the game in the later wars.

Bonus armies are gained by owning full continents. Focus your energies on gaining a complete continent first. Those like Australia or South America only have few fronts and are easier to defend, so start there… and for goodness sake, NEVER GET IN A LAND WAR IN ASIA!

The biggest tip I’ve learned about Risk is to know the people you’re playing with. This game goes long and not everyone enjoys marathoning an eight hour Risk game. If you love Risk and want to have fun playing it, make sure the people you play with can handle the long haul and won’t be quitting after two hours. Making sure the other players will have fun is how making sure you’ll have fun.
Otherwise, find something shorter.

Morpheus said “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” That may be true living in the Matrix, but in Risk you’ll never win unless you Know. The. Path.

When you turn in for that Big Cha-ching, the Great Horde, the Sweeping Arm of Justice that will take over the entire WORLD, you can very easily be defeated by a single army if you do not know your path.

Before you roll a single die or place a single army down – LOOK at the board. Figure out the exact path you will need to take. I cannot count the number of failed attempts at winning that were all because the player turning in cards went from Kamchatka to Mongolia instead of Japan or South Africa to East Africa instead of Madagascar and left one lone survivor to laugh with impunity as they turned in for THEIR enormous set and the board went from (almost) all green to all purple in a flash.

Know that path. Sear it into your memory. Writing it down would be cheating IMO but do your best to keep it in your head while you do the rolls.

Morpheus never won a Risk game in his life.

the instructions usually have incremental increase of bonus armies everytime you turn in a set of cards. But a more balanced interesting game uses the “fixed” bonus armies for turning in a set of cards. The bonus is based on the type of cards you turn in:
4 for a set of artillery
6 for a set of infantry
8 for a set of cavalry
10 for a set containing 1 of each