I got saved from getting totally demolished while playing Risk tonight. The only thing that stopped someone else’s control of my Europe was the clock, otherwise, down I’d have gone. It didn’t take too long to get to that point and I had no game plan whatsoever, so I’m looking for advice for the next time I venture on to the board.
(thanks in advance 
)
Best advice in a four player game is to wait until the victim leaves the room, then make plans to covertly gangup on him. See how long it takes him to figure it out.
I’m also one of those people that go for Europe, it’s fun and bloody good if you can pull it off. Try to cause a few skirmishes near the boarders to thin out the numbers, then fake a North American or African conquest. Push deep into the territories, but make a beeline for Europe. Push as many units through to Europe and fortify with the units left after the skirmishes.
Don’t go for Australiasia. It’s nice if you can get it in the first few turns, but it’s easy to get stuck there. People end up piling units into Thailand out of spite.
South America is a good one to have. Only a few territories and two exits. Also good for controlling North American land grabs.
I’m a fan of a South American Strategy. I like emphasizing South America while the other players fight amongst themselves, conquering it and fortifying it, then expanding outwards as need be. You can use Central America/Mexico as either an outpost/buffer or as a big, fortified area, depending on your needs. I usually wind up pushing into Africa and securing it. Usually, I take a Northern kinda route there. Enter from that Western African territory–and you can use all the troops you stocked in Brazil, then send shoots out into weaker African territories, shifting armies as need be. I usually try to take the African territories in the north, to cut them off from Europe/Asia, then wear down whoever’s still standing in Africa as time/armies allow.
One thing I always try to consider is defense. I like territories/continents that are relatively easy to defend, like South America, where you can expand into Africa and leave (relatively) few armies to defend, since you don’t have to worry about 10 other countries being around you.
I’m a big fan of the quicker game, with mission cards. I find the game moves more quickly (taking over the world is an enormous task!) and is more fun for everyone. Missions are things like “destroy all the red troops” or “take over Africa and Asia” - achievable, and they keep your opponents on your toes.
I just don’t have the attention span for endless Risk marathons.
Just thought I’d throw in that you should try Castle Risk. It’s MUCH more exciting and strategic.
Old school Risk fan here.
Early in the game, Australia is quick to conquer and easily defended. Having it early can give you a foothold in places on the board where your armies are widely scattered.
South America, then North America is next in ability to conquer & defend.
Europe is hardest to defend. It is the battlefield-not the defensible homeland.
I’m a big South America fan too. If you can catch South America early, move into Africa slowly to pick up your cards. You can go unnoticed while the other fight bloody, army-wasting battles in Europe and Asia. Then when you get a nice big blob of armies for cards, smash their weakened forces.
Remember; the key to the game is assembling a mighty blob of armies late in the game.
North America is the key. Five armies for a land that can only be attacked from three directions. Who ever owns NA in our games usually wins.
As for other hints:
Live longer by limiting troop deployment to one country per turn (classic rules).
Defenders have better odds
Try to keep at least one buffer state between you and your neighbor. This will also stop them from owning a continent.
Other than that, you can use my father’s trick. Attack Attack Attack. Don’t know why it works for him, but if he can, he will attack. Blows everyone else away. I tried it, and died on the second turn.
Oh, I love Castle Risk. It’s also not as conducive to marathons as the original.
Another reason I like the South America/Africa strategy is that it’s conducive to what I call “drives” (some people may call it “throwing away your armies”). When Europe/Asia is in danger of being controlled by someone, I like to round up my armies and drive them into that continent, taking as much as I can and securing it reasonably well. Because the defender has better odds, it’ll be a pain for the would-be Europe/Asia conquerer to retake the territories you’ve taken, while you’re rolling in the continent armies from holding SA/Africa.
Oh, I love Castle Risk. It’s also not as conducive to marathons as the original.
Another reason I like the South America/Africa strategy is that it’s conducive to what I call “drives” (some people may call it “throwing away your armies”). When Europe/Asia is in danger of being controlled by someone, I like to round up my armies and drive them into that continent, taking as much as I can and securing it reasonably well. Because the defender has better odds, it’ll be a pain for the would-be Europe/Asia conquerer to retake the territories you’ve taken, while you’re rolling in the continent armies from holding SA/Africa.
This usually works for me, because I’ve found that there tends to be one player who gets fixated on taking Asia/Europe for all those armies.
Way back in the dark ages, when I was in high school, I was the King of Risk. I always won. Literally. I played with a large group of guys when we did service weekends at a local camp. We played various games like Risk during almost all hours without daylight. I won fiftysomething games in a row, before a group ganged up on me an made sure I lost first, and then they stalemated.
All of these strategies are good, and some others work, also. A tricky one that lets you sneak up on people is to conguer a large portion of Asia. You don’t get continent points, but everyone knows you can’t conquer the whole thing, and leaves you alone for the most part, plus you can get a whole of armies just for having lots of countries. Then, after you’ve turned in for a reasonable number of armies, blitzkreig either North America or Australia, whichever is easier. This works really well when you’ve got a wild card, but don’t turn in until you have five and don’t need the wild card, because of the inevitable backlash.
However, the real strategies in Risk involve people manipulation. Always arrange things so that you are not perceived as “the” real threat. Most people are relatively clueless about the reality they can see, body language and patter are far more important. Make honest deals with people and keep them, so that they trust you. (You know, “I’ll won’t attack Australia, if you leave me along in China and points north.”) Only break the deals when you are making your move to win. Honest duplicity is the key.
And attack, attack, attack - but only when you have men, men men, or can’t afford to lose, lose, lose.
Never play with a spouse.
I usually pick from NA, SA, Africa or Aus depending on where other people go. I try not to spend my entire army slapping people around. Conquering the continent you choose is key. When you do that and you’ve got your extra armies, I usually go for slow buildup and attacking 1 or 2 territories at a time. Once I have a fairly massive army I usually blitzkrieg a continent and take as much, if not all of it, as I can. I agree that you need to try and stay as far under the radar as possible. If you explode onto the map the very first turn and begin crushing people all over you’re setting yourself up for failure. I avoid Europe and Asia if I can, it’s messy and there’s way too many places to get attacked from and even more importantly WAY too many places a person can attack one territory and mess up your continent army.
Which brings me to point two. Harass your enemies by taking pieces of their continent, so when their turn comes they don’t get their bonus.
When you have two big continents like Africa and NA, but a direction, drop your armies and start crushing your opponents. It’s key you don’t spread yourself too think. I usually via overkill: throw in cards, collect a total of 30 armies, drop them on the map and start eating up territory.
For those of you who love Risk, if you don’t own Risk 2 for your computer, you should. Lots of fun 
Sanscour
I also go for South America. Always centralize your army, if its spread out you’ll be attacked on to many fronts and get killed.
Fotify first, then attack. If a country gets surronded, let it go, its not worth it to keep supplying it with soliders until it is inevitably taken.
As for invasion stratigies, take S.America and fortify, then switch between moving up through N.America and East through Africa. When you have N.America fortify Greenland and Alaska transfer troops from the south if you need. Then work on Africa. Invade south first, and then sweep back up north. Invading all of the north first is a bad idea because it puts enemies on either side of you and you can get cut off from the rest of your troops. When you have africa, fortify and start taking Europe from northern Africa and Greenland. Pincer in, start in the west and move east. When and if you take Europe, once again fortify. At which point, attack Asia from Alaska and Europe. Take north first and move down. Push your troops down through Asia, wiping the scourge that is your opponent off the map. At this point it is a simple matter of taking Austrailia.
I never start trying to take Austrailia, the bonus is only 2 troops and it drains more trying to defend it.
Indeed. They also involve not letting yourself get manipulated. I’ve found a lot of people fixate, whether it’s on a territory or a continent or a player, and will stop at NOTHING to control/destroy it. The key is to know when you’ve been beaten, so you put up enough of a fight so it looks good while building up elsewhere to stab them in the back.
The real trick is to turn in sets of cards, not occupying continents.
So keep your armies in one large group, and avoid unecessary losses to look like easy meat. Conquer a region each turn to get a card.
If you can get Australia early without losing too many troops, go for it. It’s an easily defensible base and let you slowly expand elsewhere.
One of the key rules is areas with easily defensible borders – that open on to a small number of places you can attack from. That’s why S. America looks good, and all of Asia is poor – but sections of it work OK.
I was a big fan of Risk in my youth, and now my son’s developed an interest in it – we just gave him the LOTR edition for Christmas, and he’s been going to town on that with his friends.
cowgirl, what are the mission cards you mention?
I prefer to start with NA. Neither Europe nor Asia is owned usually, so Greenland and Alaska don’t need too many armies. I’ve found I can usually take SA fairly easily. Australia is a nice to have, mostly for the end game, when the bored hordes can strike towards Europe or the Asian heartland. Free moving into Siam every once in a while takes care of Asia.
For me, continents beat cards. Unless you’re playing with a lot of people, it takes forever to get a reasonable number of armies from cards, while the 7 from NA/SA arrive every turn.
I thought they came with the game.
At the beginning of the game everyone draws a card. They say things like “Destroy all the red troops. Or, if you are red, conquer 24 countries” or “Occupy Africa or Asia” or “Get two armies in 18 countries” or something.
The goal is then much more achievable than “trying to take over the world” (which can take ages, and means you have to leave the board set up somewhere and trust everyone not to muck about with it, a la Seinfeld) and it’s still fun because no-one knows what the others’ missions are (although you can usually narrow it down to two or three possibilities). And, it means that anyone can win. I won my first time playing because one opponent had the ‘destroy all red troops’ card, and since he was really the only one who could stop me getting Asia and he was concerned with the red troops and not with my green ones, I snuck in before anyone noticed ! Very cool. It really changes the dynamic of the game.
I’ve never seen the mission cards, personally.
Unless you play with novices, nobody is going to let you have NA. At least one another person will put a large horde in there. Unless, everybody else has another continent to go after (that’s for 4 or less players), which means you are in trouble anyway.