Risk Strategies

by admin on March 17th, 2009

There are various ways on how you could win a game of Risk. You don’t have to limit yourself into following just one strategy or just by performing the same tactics over and over again. If you do, and you are playing with the same group of people every time, they will eventually figure you out and you’ll most likely lose every time after they figure your strategy out.

What should be consistent though is your attitude during the game. Be objective when you are playing. Do not let your emotions get the better of you. If you lose a territory from an opponent’s attack and you know that you don’t have enough armies or if your forces are not strong enough to take it back, it would be best to let it go for the time being until you are strong enough to take it back.

Also, you must always be aware of situations that you could take advantage of. Do not always attack and don’t always hold back. You must learn to identify situations when you should attack and when you should wait it out.

Initial Placement of Armies

Even before the game starts, when everyone is still deploying the initial armies around the map, you should already be thinking of your strategy. There are different ways to going about this. If you want to play defensively, then the best positions to place your armies are territories with less adjacent territories. The edges of the continents may be advisable since you only have to worry about attacks coming from one or two sides of your territory. The problem with this position though is that you will be sacrificing your armies’ mobility.

If you want to play aggressively, you could place your forces on territories in the middle of the map. By doing so, you have access to multiple sides of your territory. This will allow you versatility during your turn to attack. The problem with this strategy though is that since you are in the middle of the map, you will be under constant attacks from adjacent players. You must either have a formidable defense or are very lucky at rolling dice.

Keep in mind that controlling a continent will provide you with additional armies at the start of every turn. You could take advantage of this by placing your armies on one continent to completely fill it up. But you also have to remember that the other players could be thinking the same thing. So what you have to do is to discreetly occupy the majority of the territories of one continent while not allowing the other players to completely occupy other continents.

If ever one of the other players succeed in occupying a continent, it is good to form an alliance with other players to attack the territories of that player to prevent him from gaining an advantage with having more forces that everybody else.

Consider this as well. If you did control one continent, the other players will attack your territories within that continent to deprive you of controlling it and gaining more additional forces. So if you intend to control a continent early in the game, consider controlling one that has the least amount of attack points or adjacent enemy territories.

The best continent to control early in the game is Australia. It has only one attack point. If you control this continent early in the game, you will definitely have an advantage with the number of your armies. The next best continent to control is South America with only two attack points.

Remember to secure your continents once you have control over them. The best way to do this is put a massive defensive line on the borders of the continent or the attack points. This way, even when your enemies attack you, you have a chance to survive the round.

When your territories are clustered, it is a good idea to concentrate your forces on the borders and the territories behind the borders, which will act as your second line of defense or your counter attack group. The deployment of the armies on your inner territories will not really help you much since they won’t be able to support you when you decide to attack or when your borders are invaded.

Don’t attempt to control a continent if you are not confident enough to defend it against all the other players for one turn. Remember that the other players will try to stop you with gaining an advantage over them with regards to the number of forces you have. This means that if you have control over a continent, they will try to take over some of your territories within it. So be sure that when you already own a continent, you have enough forces to defend it.

Learn also not to allow your emotions to control or decide for you during the game. When someone attacks you, don’t just attack him back, especially if he didn’t succeed in taking over that territory. If you do, you will only lose more forces making that territory weaker for defense or attack. You can always consider attacking other enemy territories from other parts of your borders.

Don’t spread your armies too thinly. If your territory has a weak defense, it is easier for an enemy with a massive invading force to run over your territories and gain it for himself instantly. It is advisable to have a defensive line with a massive number if armies on your border instead of deploying small amounts of armies on all your territories.

When you attack, it is best to attack with a huge force as compared to a small to medium force. A more massive attack force will guarantee you a higher chance of victory as compared to a small invading force.

When you earn a set of Risk cards, try not to trade them in as long as possible. Let the other players trade the first few sets. The reason for this is that the more times any of you trade in sets of Risk cards, the number of armies it corresponds to increases. Try to hold on to your cards until the trade equivalent is relatively higher or when you already intend to attack an opponent.

There might be a time when you will not have confidence with the strength of your army during some moments in a game. If you do, chances are, your army really is weak at the moment. What you should do is keep under everybody’s radar. If they sense that you are the weakest player, you could expect an unending attack to your border territories from all the other players. Try to make your forces look strong by creating a strong defensive line. This way, they will not consider attacking you.

If you feel that you are the strongest player in the group, chances are, your opponents also feel the same way. If they are smart enough, they will not hesitate to attack you so you better make your forces look weak a bit.

The most helpful tactic or strategy is to form an alliance with other players. You could form an agreement that you do not attack each other until only the two are left playing. If that player is a trustworthy person, you’ll have one less enemy. If not, you’ll be in grave danger. So if you do plan to form an alliance, make sure that person won’t break that alliance.

If, in case, that person is just waiting for the right time to attack, and you are not ready when he does, you are in great danger. Don’t forget to fortify your border territories especially if they are adjacent to your ally, but be discreet about this. You don’t want to offend your ally with this.

While you are still in alliance with this other player, gain advantage by occupying more territories than him. This way, you’d get more army forces at every start of the turn and it would be easier for you to control the game at the end.

These are just a few things that you could do to gain an advantage when playing Risk. There are more strategies that you could read and learn when playing Risk. But to be able to truly become a force to reckon with, play the game a couple of times and get yourself used to playing the game then you can come up with better and more efficient strategies and tactics.