Placement of armies: As with many board games, the way that Risk is played depends largely on the participants. I will stick to the standard methods. At the begining of the game the cards are distributed eaqually between the participants. Then comes the ever important decision of where to place your armies. When doing so, I suggest the following.
Put all of your eggs in one basket. Find the continent that you have the most territories in and focus your power there.
Avoid going after a continent where another player has placed a large number of armies. This will just spread you thin early.
Selecting a continent:
Whenever possible it is smarter to start with a continent that does not have to many fronts to defend. Europe and North America are usually fairly hard to start out with but certainly not impossible. If you are in good possition for them early, go for it. However, it is suicidal to start in Asia.
The easiest continents to conquer are South America and Australia. Although you will only receive two additional armies each turn for having one of these, either can easily be captured
on your first turn. This will give you an advantage over those who wait serveral turns to obtain there first continent.
It is crutial, no matter what continent that you first go for, that you secure a continent within the first few turns. The sonner, the better.
When securing your continent, make sure to save enough armies to defend it's borders. If not, another player will invade to prevent you from obtaining the extra armies on your next turn.
Fortifying:
Always place all of your extra armies on your boarders and fronts. Armies that are placed within a continent will not do you any good. Move them all to the outside.
Keep an adequate number of armies on your boarders to deter invasion.
Keep an extra high amount of armies on boaders where you aponent is building up forces.
Some boarders can be gaurded with fewer armies so that more armies can be placed on boarders that are more of a threat. Use careful planning when desiding where to do this.
Cards:
Trading in cards is crutial to your success. To take a card at the end of a turn you must invade at least one territory. You should try to get a card every turn.
If you have no immediate agenda, attack a country with one or two armies to obtain a card and minimize losses.
It is a good idea to leave a place available to get cards as described above.
Avoid being the first person to trade in your cards. The longer that you wait, the more armies you will receive.
Never let another player see your cards. Even if you do not have a trade in pretend that you do. This is called bluffing.
Attacking:
A common mistake that is made by many is to try to conquer the world in the first three turns only to find themselves spread too thin and ripe for destruction. Always aviod large conflicts early.
When planning a large attack, plan it carefully. Think about what could go wrong and have a plan to cover yourself if things do not go as planned.
As a rule of the thumb, whenever I plan an attack I plan on losing as many armies as I need to defeat.
Make sure that you have enough armies to adequately defend both your old and new territories once your turn is over.
When another player has a continent with a weak border, it is always a good idea to attack it for the purpose of preventing them from obtaining their extra armies on their next turn.
Strategies
Go for cards:
In planning a strategy, one of the most important things to include is a plan to acumulate other players cards. As you know, if you are the person to knock another player out of the game you get to keep that players cards. When I play, I position myself so that I am always within striking distance of players who are inexperienced or spread thin early. I also observe
the number of cards that they have. When they have at least three cards I move in and wipe them out before they have a chance to trade the cards in. An extra three cards, especially later on in the game, can often times determine the outcome.
Laying low:
Another helpful strategy is to lay low. Usualy in a game of Risk, any player who comes across as a tyrant or a super power is imediately teamed up on. The best way to avoid an alliance against you is to keep a low profile. Quickly conquer you base continent and then spread outward stepping on as few toes as possible. The fewer large battles waged early on the better. Not being dubed "The bad guy" will help you to aviod large battles.
The thorn:
One thing that used to frustrate me was when somebody would invade my continent early on and refuse to move out. This made it impossible for me to have any hope of winning. Then I came up with the thorn in the side strategy. When I see that some one is about to invade I let them know that if they proceed, the whole purpose of my game will be to make sure that they lose. It is crutial that after you make this threat you carry through and focus all of your energy on destroying that player.
After a couple of times no one will prematurely attack you again.
The last stand:
Often times at the end of a game you may find your self in a corner. The other remaining oponent has just made a massive trade in. They try to end the game only to find that they do not have enough armies to cut through your fairly large stock pile. The enemy now not only poseses several continents, they also have more cards from players that they have just knocked out of the game. What should you do? Should you declare you oponent the victor and call it quits? No, Never!
Although the enemy may occupy most of the board, all of their armies will most likley be in one lump with the rest of the board fairly ungaurded. Instead of taking on the lump, find the easiest way through or around the bulk. Trade in every thing that you have and abandon your position. Now that you are through the main army, look at the board and select the easiest and shortest path through all of the continents. Note that the point is not to occupy these continents, but only to take out at least one territory in each
to prevent the enemy from collecting the extra armies that they will need to finish you off on thier next turn. Of course this strategy is not always effective. But I have seen games that were turned around by doing this. When all else seems to have failed, why not?
