Fastest Game of Risk Ever

[Bullgrit]

I love the board game Risk. I don't get to play it nearly enough to satisfy me, or to let me get good at it, but recently I had an amazing experience with it. I posted this on my blog a couple weeks ago, but a conversation this morning made me think to post it here, where all the gamers hang out.

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My game group played some Risk tonight. We used the Mission cards that give each player a secret goal, rather than each fighting for full control of the world. Fighting for total domination takes too long to complete, especially with 3 or 4 players.

In one game, I got the Mission card to control North America and Australia. At game set up, I randomly started with two of the four territories in Australia, and four of the nine territories in North America. In setting out my extra armies, I put everything in NA and Oz, leaving everything else pretty defenseless. Surprisingly, neither of the other two players intended to contest NA. They both stocked their armies in South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Asia was left pretty open by all of us.

I won the die roll to take my turn first. I had to work a bit to take Australia from one player who wanted it for himself, but I got it all and moved into Siam. I then started work on North America. The single defenders in each NA territory put up a lucky fight, causing me to use up almost all of my attacking armies, but I eventually captured every territory in NA. I then ended my turn.

I had captured a total of nine territories in my opening move, taking both North America and Australia. I had a solid hold on Oz, with a strong force in Siam. But North America was only held by one army in each territory. There was no way I was going to hold it for even one round, what with enemy armies in Iceland and Venezuela. I took my Risk card for completing my turn, and the next player started counting his territories to determine how many armies he could place.

Then I remembered my Mission card. "Hey, I just won!" I showed my Mission card to the other players.

That was the quickest game of Risk I have ever witnessed, much less won. Victory in the first round, first turn. It had been 15 minutes from the end of the last game to the end of this game.

It was great. But it was also a Hail Mary play, because had the game gone for even one more player turn, I wouldn't have had anything but Australia to show for my effort. I lost the other two games of Risk we played tonight, but I won the Hell out of that one.

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I'm interested in hearing your Risk war stories, and learning some really good game strategies. Help me improve my game so that when my group plays, I can totally dominate and become the master Risker in my group.

Bullgrit

Total Bullgrit

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ... not a risk player Bullgrit ... but I like your website (just had to say that).

And now ... back to your regularly scheduled thread....

 

[Deset Gled]

IMNSHO, that's why the mission cards in the more recent versions of Risk kinda suck. I had a game night a couple of years ago where I did the exact same thing, twice in a row. Got to go first, and managed to succeed on my missions on the first turn. The first time it happened, we started the game over again. The second time it happened, we official swore off the mission cards, and went on with the game. We haven't done mission cards with the stardard Risk boards since.

As a slight asside, I really really love some of the alternate versions of Risk out there. After a enough games with the standard board, you do literally run though all of the good strategies on the board. The alternate boards really spice things up. I am particularly fond of the full sized LotR board, which is even bigger than the normal Risk board and has a ton more strategic options.

 

[Bullgrit]

Hmm ... not a risk player Bullgrit ... but I like your website (just had to say that).

Thanks for saying it. It's always nice to know that someone has seen your work, and it's even nicer when they give feedback.

Bullgrit

Total Bullgrit

 

[Richards]

Whenever anyone asks to hear about Risk stories, I'm always reminded about the episode of "Red Dwarf" where Rimmer goes on and on about a particular Risk game he played, down to what each player rolled....

Johnathan

 

[Bullgrit]

Is it strategically wise to grab and hold Austrailia early in the game, if you can?

Is Asia really worth the effort to conquer it and hold it?

Is it strategically wise to always try to also grab South America when you get North America?

Bullgrit

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Is it strategically wise to grab and hold Austrailia early in the game, if you can?

I would always grab Australia early in the game and put a ton of defense on it. I would have like four or more cannons on the only island that you can enter it on.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I hate the mission cards... but then again, my RISK game still has the Roman Numeral pieces.

As for strategy, take Australia and Siam... Fortify Siam and break your opponents wills.
I usually try to take Australia regardless of where my greatest concentration of troops is, once you have it, it takes alot to wrench control and if you have forces elsewhere, it forces them to divide their attention. Once you have it fortified, it isn't worth the effort to go after for your enemies, they tend to ignore it and you have a solid base of operations to strike out of if the rest of the game goes South.

And speaking of South, South America is a similar game plan, but not nearly as easy to defend, but once you have it solidly fortified you can go North or East and pretty much cause general havoc at your leisure.

 

[Jdvn1]

The way we played it, you had to start a round with those territories in your possession. Meaning that you have to be able to hold your territory for at least a round.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

The way we played it, you had to start a round with those territories in your possession. Meaning that you have to be able to hold your territory for at least a round.

I would have thought that everyone would have to have the same amount of turns in order to claim a victory. For example, if you went first, everyone would have to have a turn after you in order and you still hold the required territories in order to win. On the other hand, if you went last, you might be able to do exactly what the OP did since everyone has had a turn.

Olaf the Stout