Risk: Legacy - Tips & Strategies

OK… so, Risk isn’t traditionally an “alliancy (not a word?)” type game… at least not intentionally. However, my friends are very much into manipulating and conniving each other in-game, as well as pregame… so Ururam Tururam might not like playing with my group (or love it… who knows). Whatever the case, once one of the guys got too far ahead, we decided that something had to be done. Two of us are taking turns invading Australia, weakening the current leader, and giving the other at least a fighting chance to win the game against the 4th player. Is this cheating? Well, alliances exist in the real world… so, I say NO. Find someone you “trust”, and form a shaky alliance that will get you some extra games… until you are both tied… Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahah~

Strategic Tip ~ Form an Alliance and Take Turns Weakening the Leader

Never let a player play a faction twice in a row.

This is a rule we implemented in game 1. This will alleviate a lot of the power building people can do to one faction, thereby ignoring the others. You want to try and make the factions all playable and winnable otherwise you are loosing that much of your game.

Using a technique I call the turtle has won me 3 out of my first 4 games of Risk Legacy (all but the one loss were 5 player games).

The turtle is a slow build-up leaving the center relatively weak, but always keeping strong outer territories. If an opponent does break through the shell, they are often too weakened to do much internal damage. For the turtle, starting in an “edge” territory is key, demanding that only 2-3 territories form the hard shell.

One major advantage of the turtle is that it is slow. You tend to battle only single players each turn, while others are fighting back and forth over territories, you slowly ooze across the map and before you know it, you’ve got 1 or 2 continents.

Selecting mercenary sites, or factions with bonus troop counts helps the turtle technique just as much as the faction bonus giving +1 to dice rolls on the first attack each turn, as you’ll likely only attack 1 or 2 territories per turn.

Imperial Balkania’s ability to get cards for expanding into 4 or more territories is a powerhouse early game, especially in three player games! Since victory points can be acquired by cashing in four cards, your first two turns can get you halfway to your third vistory point. Or, it will give you assets to cash in for more troops. It’s my top pick among the factions’ base powers.

For power gamers it’s hard to play a game of incomplete information if complete information could possibly be obtained. So if you are a part of group pf power gamers you may decide Risk Legacy is not a game for you.

But there is a workaround! You may open all the secret envelopes before you start playing the first game. In fact giving each player a day or two to fully comprehend all the ramification is a good idea here. Then start playing with all the knowledge in your minds.

This ruling may also be used for non-power gamers if they want to play through the whole campaign again (however it may be hard because of all those stickers).