The latest edition (the plastic figures version) has some rules changes intended to address that; most of my playing time is on the old edition --I’d only played the plastic-figures version a couple times when my daughter went off to college, deep-sixing my game-playing-- and so I can’t say whether the new rules are effective.
In my defense I should say that it was a long time ago since I played HotW. What I do remember is that whoever was on top in the middle of the game would definitely be stuck with the Khmers in that era. 
It was still a very fun game though.
I remember playing Britannia a lot, but I can’t recall any of the game mechanics.
Britannia basically entails occupying various parts of the country with at least one army every so many turns. Your population grows naturally according to how much land you have, but each faction has an upper limit that it can’t exceed. Additionally, most factions get a kick-start with an initial invasion force, and a few get off-board reinforcements depending on the state of the game.
Each faction gets points for different parts of the country, which naturally overlap - so the Picts, Scots, Caledonians and Norsemen will violently disagree over who should own the highlands and islands, for example - and sometimes get points for killing specific enemies (indigenous Britons get points for killing Romans and burning down Roman forts, f’rinstance). Many factions can receive a historical Leader in some turn, which gives enhanced movement and combat capabilities. Most armies are equal, but some (Romans; Norman cavalry) are more equal than others.
It can be hard to tell who’s winning, but in general, if you’re fulfilling the conditions on your factions’ cards, you’re doing all right.
Oh, it’s Risk, the game of world domination being played by two guys who can barely run their own lives – Jerry Seinfeld commenting on Kramer and Newman
On the subway…
Kramer: Ha ha, the Ukraine. Do you know what the Ukraine is? It’s a sitting
duck. A road apple, Newman. The Ukraine is weak. It’s feeble. I think it’s
time to put the hurt on the Ukraine.
Ukrainian: I come from Ukraine. You not say Ukraine weak.
Kramer: Yeah, well we’re playing a game here, pal.
Ukrainian: Ukraine is game to you?! How 'bout I take your little board and smash
it!! ::SMASHES IT::
challenge is on if there is enough interested dopers to fill a 6-8 player game.
note that these are free browser games (no downloads) designed for you to take a turn a day, so games can last for many days, if not weeks.
Yeah, I second the idea of trying Go. It has nothing, really, to do with Risk or geometry but if he’s into chess and Othello he should love it.
I disagree that it might be too much for a child to pick up. I find Go to be full of strategy but sort of “gut feeling” type of strategy. You know, the kind that a kid has naturally that could humble most intelligent adults. It’s pretty fast paced and super satisfying to look at the finished board when the game is over. Come to think of it, I haven’t broken out my Go set in awhile now. Perhaps it’s time to revisit it.
By the way, I got my set at a run of the mill game store. The kind with poker chips, a hundred monopoly versions, role-playing games and the like. I love the movie “pi” and decided I needed to find out what Go was all about. I scoured the cities toy stores and made numerous phone calls. Eventually found my set at the kind of place I described above.
I’m in, I’m trying to get signed up for Conquer Club, waiting on the confirming email.
Now, the variation where you start with territories distributed by cards is better for two people. (I think it’s even called ‘the two player option’ in some versions.) We took it a step further, and introduced ‘Indigenous Peoples’ That was a third color, distributed randomly, and we took turns placing their reinforcements, initially. After that, they didn’t reinforce, and never attacked, but you had to conquer them to get the territory.
well that’s 3 of us
when you have 6 players, it depends on the type of game you want to play. distributed territories means an initial hustle to stake your own continent, whereas choosing your own territories usually means you skip that step and everyone ends up with their own continent much earlier on.
OP: imo if he can play Chess i don’t see why not? Risk is a simpler game. more important are the social aspects, as Risk is not a 2 player game and is only fun with the full complement. while Chess rewards your own ability to play, Risk is all about a group of friends dickering around the board. no matter how good you are technically, it’s just as fun to convince everyone else not to attack you and go attack someone else.
I’m in. I just signed up on Conquer Club.
Bring it on, fellow Dopers!
I always win.
I’ve started a thread to organize some DoperRisk in this thread
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9401042#post9401042
Thanks for the Idea Shijinn, I hope this flies.
And Thanks to Laughing Lagomorph for bringing it up.
Signed up at Conquer Club. Hope I can make it through a game against you Tasmanian devils.
Gotta agree with Just Some Guy here. I loved Risk in my youth, but that was before I played many better games. Risk 2210 is an improvement, but since it’s set in the future, the map is different and so may not scratch that Geography itch. (One of the good points of the original Risk is that I know where Kamchatca is). The downsides of Risk are many, but the major ones are: huge dependence on luck, long play time, and hurt feelings due to extreme conflict.
Here are some games that share some of the good points of Risk without the bad that I’d be happy to give a 9-year-old:
Geography related:
TransAmerica (and TransEuropa): Building train routes across the country (or Europe) to connect up your 5 cities faster than anyone else. (Plays fast (30 mins), simple rules, inexpensive)
Ticket To Ride (or Ticket to Ride Europe): Similarly, a train-based game, but longer and slightly more complex. Collect train cards Rummy-style and play them in sets to claim tracks on the board.
Battle/Conflict related:
Nexus Ops: Risk-like, but with a sci-fi theme, and better, more balanced rules and shorter play time. (Available for $10 or under in some Toys R’ Us and online stores. They are discontinued and clearancing out)
Vinci: This may be a bit advanced, or he may have no trouble with it. You conquer a map of Europe, like Risk, but without any luck. Empires rise and fall, as you abandon declining empires and restart elsewhere on the board with new powers. Play time is under 2 hours. (Sadly, it’s out of print, so Ebay may be the best place to find it.)
(And I do love HeroScape as well, but be warned, constant expansions make it either a great, reliable present idea, or a money-sink, depending on how you look at it.)
If he just likes rolling lots of dice:
Can’t Stop: classic push your luck game, recently republished. Plays in 30 minutes.
I definitely recommend checking out www.boardgamegeek.com. Post the same question there in the Recommendations forum and you’ll get ten times the options.
(Most of these games won’t be found at your local toy store. You may need to find a specialty Game store near you, or go online to: www.thoughthammer.com, www.funagain.com, or www.bouldergames.com, all of which I’ve ordered from in the past with no problems.)
Anyone else thinking about this quote?
"In the '30s, Hitler: Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Second World War… Russian front not a good idea… Hitler never played Risk when he was a kid. Cause, you know, playing Risk, you could never hold on to Asia. That Asian-Eastern European area, you could never hold it, could you? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn’t fucking hold it. Australasia, that was the one. Australasia. All the purples. Get everyone on Papua New Guinea and just build up and build up…
In my Risk-playing group, we evolved a shorthand for this argument: Civic Duty. As in, it’s to the common good of all players (with one exception, of course) that you spend this turn breaking up somebody else’s stranglehold on Europe. You must go Do Your Civic Duty.
It’s a great game. My nine year old loves it. It’s like chess in that you can play it for the rest of your life and never grow tired of it. My friends and I used to have all night Risk games in college.
Yes, but Australia’s only worth 2, Asia’s worth 7. And build up New Guinea all you want, who can you attack? India. Which is in Asia. The other players will get around to you eventually. As long as you lose more than two armies a round, you lose eventually.
Keeping North America is the key to victory. Worth 5, three entry points.
You’re forgetting the resource cards (the most problematic portion of Risk, IMO). Hole up in Australia and protect your gate. Take one territory a turn so you get your card and leave it protected by the minimum force since it makes no difference to you if it gets retaken (in fact, it’s better if it gets retaken). They can’t wall you in since in Asia you can protect your front much more easily than they can especially when they have to deal with multiple external threats while you’re only looking at one path. When you’ve got a sufficiently large mass of troops on the border start your long march.
but even before you can secure North America you’ll already have a war with whoever’s at South America, and possibly Europe. Australia is … relatively Civic Duty Safe, provided you can get it.