RISK Strategy Guide - Top 10 Tips

One of the best ways to improve at the board game Risk is to apply mathematics to the game. But you also need to be aware of tactics and player management. Today I’ll share with you 10 of the best strategies from cold hard calculation to timing your big moves. We'll look at the highest yield and most defensible continents, early game strategies, when to attack, the continental drift strategy, how to use cards, balance player power, position and make your big move.
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=CHAPTERS=
0:00 Top 10 Risk Strategies
0:24 10 - Highest Yield
1:12 9 - Defensibility
2:49 8 - Early Game
3:20 7 - When to Attack
4:07 6 - Continental Drift
4:55 5 - Cards
5:40 4 - Balance of Power
6:16 3 - Positioning
7:08 2 - Know the Players
7:56 1 - The Big Risk

#risk
#riskboardgame
#strategyguide
@hasbroOfficial

Possibly the most popular, mass market war game. The goal is conquest of the world.

Each player's turn consists of:
- gaining reinforcements through number of territories held, control of every territory on each continent, and turning sets of bonus cards.
- Attacking other players using a simple combat rule of comparing the highest dice rolled for each side. Players may attack as often as desired. If one enemy territory is successfully taken, the player is awarded with a bonus card.
- Moving a group of armies to another adjacent territory.

[OliveXC]

What an excellent video. I am a professional risk player and have a channel focused exclusively on risk. Some things to consider not mentioned in this video include 1) when to eliminate players for their cards. You get 1 card per turn when attacking a territory. Getting a lot of cards for trade-ins can be valuable. 2) Diplomacy between players. While it may seem intuitive to keep your armies spread out to defend continents, it may be better to just keep 1s on your border and keep your main army back ready to counter attack. 3) remember the balance of the game. You win if you have more troops than the other players or are getting more troops than all other players.

[Citizen-pgeu]

When I was a B-52 crew member, on alert a week at a time, sitting in the alert facility, ready to run to our aircraft and fly into oblivion when the ball dropped, we played a lot of risk. We added a rule that whenever someone pulled the wild card, they turned it over the next card and that territory was nuked. All troops vaporized, the territory uninhabitable. Changed the strategy somewhat….

[heyguysitsmallorie]

The best continent is the one you can get and hold!

Great video!

[davidcook]

Risk was my introductory game to get my elementary school buddies to later play Afrika Korps, Battle of the Bulge, or War at Sea in the mid 70s. Many a summer vacation day was spent with the neighborhood kids gathered around Risk in my basement.

[LCCWPresents]

One thing I’ve seen a grandmaster do is not defend the borders directly, but 1 territory back in most continents in order to not create a Cold War situation with bordering players were troops just keep piling up and indirectly threatening that player if they invade you land.

[Sepulchrayve]

It's never a bad idea to have at least two well-fortified territories that are far apart from each other on the map. This makes it harder to take you out because you're not only in one region of the map and also makes it easier to switch strategies on the fly.

Also conquering and lightly fortifying small and out of the way territories in continents that no one is actively trying to take can help you get a few extra reinforcements on the territory count.

[MW-nOttawa]

You forgot to talk about "the stalemate" where any of the 3 remaining players who makes a move determines the winner (which isn't them).. you basically sacrifice yourself as soon as you commit to ending the game. Holding out on that stalemate for someone else to give up can sometimes take an hour lol

[elmarko]

Somebody programmed an Apple Macintosh Risk game in the 80's. You could set it up for all 6 players to be AI. It was pretty bonkers watching all AI go against each other, as the turns were lightning fast. One key, though, it seems that the first AI to consistently hold South America always won. Always.

[codygolden]

Nobody ever lets me have Australia online

[owdeezstrauz]

There is only 1 tactic... Australia at all costs.

[stevecooper]

Been playing for 42 years everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face. It's tough when you are getting double teamed.
Some times you have to throw in the towel and take someone down even if you go down.
When your down to 3 players of equal strength you have to entice one of them to pick on the other player and when he does you have to be ready to pounce on them and steal their cards.

[Voltar]

My two propositions:
1. Sometimes just destroying an opponent for his cards is unprofitable. Lose 50 units to gain say 10? Lets our opponents do it.
2. Sometimes it's better not to attack to gain cards, especially when the map gets dense and each attack causes heavy losses. Losing 20 or more units to gain 10 doesn't make sense.

[mrpoopoohead]

All of this is quite understandable. Searching the internet ( you tube included) and reading a lot of players opinions, I made my own Risk game. Greenland is a continent unto itself. ( 5 territories) added one territory to South America( 5 territories). added New Zealand to Australia (5 territories) added 6 territories to Asia (10 bonus armies) in all I added a total of 18 territories from the original 42. But now we use Monopoly $$ as currency. you can build factories, naval bases, air bases, airfields, carriers, troop transports, air defense, radar stations, nuclear research, desalinization plants, plant crops, pump oil from existing oil fields...and even special forces units. The classic Risk game was just missing something and getting boring...

[RobertJordan]

Especially in games with lots of players: When the cards become worth 30 or more it is often worth it to kill another player for their cards.
Similarly, if you are stuck with 4 or 5 cards at the end of the turn others will be incentivized to wipe you out. Also if you fail to wipe someone out or you end the turn with few armies after overextending you become a prime target.
Try to eliminate players to bring your total cards in turn to 5 or more so you are forced to turn them in and immediately get your spent armies back.
Compared to cards, continents are gravy but aren’t what will win the game for you. It can be a valid strategy to ignore continents entirely when playing with a progressive card bonus structure.

[QuizmasterLaw]

Depends on how many players. But in all cases you want Australia first.
And if you can't get it you want South America first.
Thereafter your goal should be North America. Basically you want Australia the Americas and the east coast of asia. The other continents have unfavorable ratios of perimeter to territories. Asia plus Ukraine is defensible, but getting there is usually impossible.

[juliocubilloe]

With my group of friends who played almost every week, a lot of times you would see the board left alone and everyone huddled to discuss possible treaties or alliances. By far my favorite game.

[RiskEver]

Forget the strategy and tactics... No Australia - no win! Get it no matter what or lose the game 😎 (the motto of all low ranked players)

Jokes aside, well made video, sir!

[niwempleh]

The max is 5 cards at the start of your turn, you cannot have 6 cards ever, you must trade down to 4 max. In addition, the online version has a set troop option, 4, 6 or 10 for the cards.

[miguelbrea]

The best version is the online capture the fort games. The tactics reguarding siege warefare apply to these games. Also the forts are 2 to 4 times as hard to capture as a regular territory.

[frenchy]

Great vid! Reminds me of the three day battles my friends and I would have in my garage growing up. Then they turned into week long battles once we started playing Axis & Allies 😂