One of the classic board games...we got our first copy of Risk back in the 3rd or 4th grade. It was a hand me down and did not have any rules. My brother and I made up our own rules and played it in the back of our family’s restaurant. For Christmas we got a new copy of Risk that actually had rules!
Risk was created and first produced in 1957 by French film director Albert Lamorisse. It was bought by Parker Brothers and re-released in 1959.
The iconic Risk map introduced many of us to a view of the world and the 42 Risk territories. I doubt if I would have known Kamchatka or Irkutsk without Risk! So Risk players have that going for them.
The 42 territories are divided into 6 continents. Each turn a player gains armies using a simple formula based on the number of territories controlled plus a bonus for any continents fully controlled plus another bonus if the player turns in any sets of Risk cards. The player distributes the armies on territories already controlled. Then battles start!
The player can attack from a territory if there is more than one army on that territory. Only adjacent enemy territories can be attacked. Battles are resolved using dice rolls by the attacker and defender. Depending on the roll one or two armies are destroyed by either player. The attacker can pause and make attacks from other territories. If the attacker destroys all of the defender’s armies in a territory then the attacker must move at least one army to the new territory and must leave at least one army on the territory that the attack was from. One of the keys of the game is deciding how many armies to move to newly acquired territories.
The player’s turn continues until he doesn’t want to fight any more battles. At the end of his turn he can 1) Move armies from one controlled territory to an adjacent controlled territory and 2) take a Risk card if he won a battle. Play passes to the next player.
This cycle continues until one player controls all the territories in the world!
The Good: Great entry level strategy game.
The Bad: Some of the new versions of the game are terrible such as Marvel Civil War: Captain America. So bad.
The Dastardly: Getting continents early is key...and good timing on turning in card sets.