Advanced Tactics & Strategies
Play Risk Advanced Tactics & Strategies
Introduction
In war games like Risk, strategies that gain you advantage on the battlefield are the keys to winning. As strategies are hidden and abstract, you need corresponding scenarios and criteria to be able to execute strategies at their full potential. Therefore, the participants in a battle must identify the needs of the war, and through that determine a sequence of strategies, to lay a smooth path for the way to victory.
The following section outlines the objectives of each setting, and the team options possible. These variables do affect the way you should deploy, reinforce and assault.
Objectives
Standard
- Only the winner of the game gains points, all other players/teams loses points.
Mercenary
- Players gain points for every player they eliminate. In team war games, points are awarded for eliminating gamers, rather than teams.
Assassin
- Each gamer is randomly assigned a target, who is highlighted in the Intel tab and noted privately in the Chatter tab. The winner is the player whose target is eliminated, even if by a third party. In team games, each team member is assigned a gamer on another team as a target, when one of the targets is eliminated, the team wins.
Teams
Teams are arranged when the players join the game, two players are in a team, gamers can choose which team to join if they click on different colored "Join" buttons. For more information see Join a Game and basic strategy of team games.
Doubles
- Team war games, have the turns in the same way like in singles, but the teams are spread evenly (example, Team1Player1, T2P1, T1P2, T2P2).
Triples
- Same way as a Doubles game is played, three gamers are in a team, the teams are also arranged by the "Join" button, the turns are also spread evenly.
Quads
- Same as above, four players as a team, the teams are also arranged by the "Join" button, the turns are (still) spread evenly.
War is Deceptive
To master the Art of War, you need to learn about deception, as war itself is deceptive. In learning how to be deceptive, you must be able to achieve the following:
- To seem unable when you are able to fight, and otherwise
- To seem defensive when wanting to attack, and otherwise
- To seem targeting further targets when targeting close targets, and otherwise.
- To seem fighting when allying
The historic experiences had shown that deception is always included in battle. During a war, countries cover up any of their own intentions and targets; create fake clues which in turn project illusions to the opponent on what their purposes are. This is a mind game after all. In war, there is no trust - if an opponent wants to gain an advantage and achieve victory against you, they could use the most devastating blow (even if it meant breaking an agreement). If you do not know deception, your chance of falling into a trap is higher; if you do not learn to be deceptive, it will be difficult to be the one who controls the tide of the game.
To seem unable when you are able to fight and otherwise
If you are strong, try to appear weak. If you are weak, try to appear strong. As a strong gamer, people will want to attack you because they fear of losing. Therefore, your best form defense would be to organize your armies in such a way that you would seem less formidable while without losing any actual strategic advantage. If however you are a weak gamer, you may be seen as an easy target. You would then need to use all means necessary to not be picked out of the game. Experienced users know that attacking a weak gamer is often a fatal move as, while weak gamers may not be able to win the game, they may hold the balance of power. The balance of power is usually the only defense a weak player has left. So, use the chat if you must. Let the other users know that while you're a nice guy, being bullied won't be tolerated. Delivering this in the right tone is the art of the game. Sometimes you might be attacked or eliminated just for speaking up... but if you were to be annihilated anyway, at least, you tried.
AAFitz, who is one of our top players, had said that he will do this even on 1v1 games to varying degrees though usually he is trying to act in a way to completely discourage his opponent from trying their hardest. If he is winning, he would demolish them in any way possible in order to break their spirit as well as their bonuses. If he is losing, he would let them think they have the game won, and have no reason to pay attention to what they are doing. He would post "gg" in the chat very often when he had lost hopes of winning, only hoping that that one little act may very well, make them sloppy enough to give him the one opening he needs to crawl back from certain death.
Now, in any individual game, this may very well be a waste of time; but as an overall strategy, it may increase your win rate by a few percentage points... and who knows, in say a massive tourney, you may use it, and win 700 points....
Creating your starting scenario
As mentioned before, strategies are used to create a winning situation for you. Yet a winning situation does not necessarily mean just taking a command - it is more than that.
Patience
Rushing into the game, blitzing through the people and trying to get a command in your first turn? Stop! Slow down, think, and act. Have patience, you must, my young apprentice. A mistake, you must not make, there is. The following paragraph, read, you must. When you are trying to take over a command, make sure that you have enough troops to defend it - even if it means waiting patiently for one or two more turns until the occupation. Waiting is way better than you having captured the command, and then immediately being overrun by your neighbors. Make sure that you can fortify your borders with enough men, you must. An extra turn or two, wait and build your forces you shall.
Double Base
Do you find yourself easily knocked out during big war games like Risk that have an escalate setting? People will try to take down others to get more reserves. So in order to prevent that, you must establish a second base on the other side of the map. Having two different bases far away will make it way harder to take you out, as usually doing so will mean passing through other regions.
Securing a Command with Many Borders
Consider this situation: You have a command which has 5 regions and 4 of them border regions of other commands held by enemies while the remaining being in the center. You have only 8 movable troops to defend this command, and 1 base troop on each region. You can choose to put 2 extra troops on the four regions that border the hostile regions, but it is sometimes better to place the 8 troops in the center region, leaving the only 1s on the border regions. When the enemy breaks your command, you can easily complete it again with those 8 troops in the center. Along with that, players may also hesitate on breaking your command, because of the route they would open up for your 8 troops to attack by doing so.
Use your different tabs effectively
Chat and Diplomacy
The chat and the diplomacy bar could be used to socialize, but they are there also for you to create strategical alliances and border lockdown.
Examine the Effects of an Agreement
People use the agreement feature to lock down borders, with a mindset that thinks the agreement will only benefit themselves. But is that really the case? There are a lot of users who make deals that guarantee an opponent too much space to build, and, in turn, letting them dominate the game. It is obvious that you must check the effects of the agreement, not just for yourself, but how it affects the board as well. Don't make a deal that lets a gamer, in control of North America, have only one vulnerable border to the south, with a very weak south America player. It's a bad idea and the other users in the game will hate you for it as you are sending the victory straight to somebody! Remember, making poor diplomatic decisions will cost you a lot of war games.
Diplomatic Agreement Turn Order Advantage
When two people agree on a diplomatic agreement, given that the reinforcement type allows for flexibility (path or anywhere reinforce), the first person in the turn order almost always gets the better end of the deal. Because the treaties end at the start of a round, player 3 could be forced to guard his border against a potential threat from player 1 at the start of the next round, whereas player 1 would be able to leave that border unguarded for the round before the treaty ends. The last round of the treaty is one-way in that the second gamer in the turn rotation must guard his borders whereas the first is free to pillage as he so pleases without fear of any border incursions. The earlier person in the turn order gets a full extra turn of protection and freed up armies. They also have easier renewal options if the time comes to do so, whereas gamers following them do not have the option to renew on the last turn, they must plan two turns ahead of time if they believe that the treaty is advantageous in the turns to come, and even then Player 1 can deny them and decide for himself on the next turn, adding that aspect of continued uncertainty for the following player in the turn order.
Intel
The Intel tab contains vital information about the balance of the map. Troop counts and troops due for each user can be checked and compared, along with other info.
Start a turn by checking Intel tab
Total troops and troops due to a player the coming turn may make a difference to your move in that turn. If a player holds a command, you may want to break his command to reduce his troops due; if a user has a lot of troops, you might want to avoid attacking him. Also, look for any opponent with a number of regions that is multiple of three. If you just take one region from them, they will lose one extra troop next turn. This may not be a big deal in a turn, but in ten turns, that's ten troops.
Team War Games Like Risk
Team war games like Risk usually require special tactics and strategies in order to win, as you have sworn allies, and you can even reinforce them, or otherwise. That's why it is very important to understand the way team strategy games work.
Turn Sequence
The turn sequence (ie. who's turn is after who's) is very significant in team war games like Risk. Based on the sequence, you can gain an advantage by using the following tactics while taking your turn.
The 3x-1 Rule of Bonus Reduction
When everybody starts with 12 regions and 4 reinforcements, but you can’t complete a command in the first round, keep in mind that you only need to conquer 1 region to drop the troop due of an enemy. The same applies when your teammate is taking his turn - he can do the same with the enemy who is playing a turn after him. This will result in reduced troop bonuses of the opposing team by 2. While playing the game, focus on breaking commands and reducing deployment of the gamer who is after you.
Maximizing the troops' use
If you have a region with a whole stack of troops that borders another player, but your teammate has to play before him, you can send those troops to your teammate for that turn. When he is done he can return them. That way you are using the same troops on 2 locations. But pay attention for doing this - if the reinforcement is a path, and the gamer behind you breaks the path, your teammate won’t be able to reinforce you again.
Lowering the troop supply
When you’re playing 4 against 4 on a small map, almost no one has the chance to take and secure a command. So you might want to try focusing on killing one of the enemy players by assaulting him with the entire team. If you do so and succeed, your opponent team loses 3 troops due. Make sure the enemy can’t do the same to your team.
1v1 war games like Risk
The 1v1 setting is sometimes regarded as the hardest setting to play on, as the margins are too small for any user to make any mistake at all. This section records the tactics and strategies that may be used by players on this setting.
Breaking a Command or Reducing the Region Count?
A lot of players are too focused on completing a command. They would take a command that gives them 2 bonus troops. In order to secure it they put 10s on each entrance and by doing so they leave many regions with only 1 troop defending them. At this situation, you could try and break that command, or sometimes you can do more damage taking a series of regions defended with 1. The chance of breaking the command which is secured with 10 is rather small, but the change of being able to take over 6 to 9 regions with your 12 troops is much larger.
Reinforcing in an Unlimited Anywhere Setting
When you play a game with unlimited anywhere reinforcement setting, you may have an urge to reinforce all your troops to one region and attack at once... Now think again! It is a better choice to leave two behind in every region. Consider this: You reinforce out of every place of the map, leaving a lot of 1s behind, and now you have 1 region with all your troops. Then, the opponent takes all the 1's with his 3's without much effort, leaving you with a lot of commands to break. How about this: You reinforce out of most regions, but leaving some "2" s behind. This may not seem much, but to most people, they would not want to risk the dice taking down 2 with 3 troops (you know, the dices are somehow usually bad on the high-rankers). This way, you will be left with 2s that the enemy would not be attacking as much as the scenario above. It will still give you a stack of troops somewhere, but will help you by not needing you to break as many commands and dealing with an enemy with a lot of regions.
Players who contributed in making this page possible: AAFitz, StayPuft, psupat11, MTR, thone, theycallmesquirtle, Avitray