Risk 2: Better than Civ3

[yin26]

It's true. I just played Risk 2 over the weekend and found something actually fun about it. Of course, it's a far more simple game, but it entertains, which is the point.

Beyond that, they added two simply outstanding twists to the board game:

1) A simultaneous moves version and
2) A tournament mode.

I can't tell you how much more interesting the simultaneous moves option is! You *really* have to consider a great number of factors when deciding where next to attack. Pull all your troops out of the wrong place at the wrong time just as the AI is gunning for you there ... and you're in big trouble.

The other nice thing is the tournament mode, which puts you in a tournament against increasingly more difficult opponents in a series of 'classic' and 'simultaneous' games. And the AI is GOOD! Of course, it's kind of like chess in that the AI has so little to think about, but the result is you can and I did get wiped off the map if you don't concentrate your forces carefully and take calculated risks. Yes, I lost in my first round of the tournament because I tried to maintain a two-front war with a split empire. Awesome.

Of course, the length of a typical Risk game allows for some of this more than would be feasible for Civ3, but simultaneous moves ABSOLUTELY could have been in Civ3 along with the stacked combat that Risk always had.

So if you want to see a game that actually learned to do something fun and interesting within its narrow confines (and, I might add, is polished out of the box), toss Civ3 in the trash and pick up Risk 2.

You'll thank me.

[Trifna]

Thanks. I'll ply when I'll find this...

Meanwhile, I'm stil playing Dominate, which is similar to Risk, on www.dominategame.com

I stop playing Civ III for some reasons maybe I'll explain someday (I'm tired, have stuff to do and it'd be long. Last time I wrote my text to put it on the forum, it deleted because of some forum error or something. 3 hours in garbage)

[Imran Siddiqui]

LOL! Now if Yin said EU2, then ok, but Risk2? Now he's just searching. Risk2 was fun for all of... oh, 3 minutes. The AI is utter garbage (something pointed out by players of the game), and it gets repetitive fast if you don't have a human to play against you.

It does have pretty colors, but that seems to be it .

[yin26]

The AI on tournament mode beats Civ3. Sorry, but it's true. Civ3 can have all the excuses it wants for being worse than 'lowly' Risk 2. But there you have it.

[Urban Ranger]

You mean it cheats worse, yes?

I played the tournament in <em>Risk 2</em> before, and the computer players do cheat like dogs on speed.

The more luck there is the better the computer players play. I wonder if that's yet another case of them playing with loaded dice.

When I played simultaneous turns with land auctions, they had zero chance.

[Libertarian]

Cheat? What do you mean? How can you cheat at Risk?

[Adagio]

I can both agree and disagree here. Risk 2 is a fun game, if you only have less than 30 minutes to play in it is much better than Civ3 (In 30 minutes you can't make many moves in Civ3), but if you have more time then nothing beats Civ3.

[Dauphin]

The original Risk is better than Risk 2.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Libertarian
Cheat? What do you mean? How can you cheat at Risk?

Loaded Dice, like UR explained.

[yin26]

Loaded dice? If you can provide proof of that, I'll quickly rack up another uninstall. One wonders, however, if people aren't just *****ing. You know, 'random' sometimes yields odd results.

[Urban Ranger]

Yes, randomness <em>sometimes</em> produces odd results. Since there's no way I can access the internal mechanisms of the game, I can't make it roll a million times and do statistical analysis on it. It's just a gut feeling, that's all.

One more thing. In the tournament the computer players gang up on you. They don't play to win, they just play to make you lose. It's not a whole lot of fun that way.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
One more thing. In the tournament the computer players gang up on you. They don't play to win, they just play to make you lose. It's not a whole lot of fun that way.

Ah, that explains why I hated tournament so much back then as I had the game installed

[yin26]

Hmmm, I guess tournament might do that the farther you go in the series of games, but I saw no evidence of that in my previous tournament. The comps attacked each other quite well.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Loaded dice? If you can provide proof of that

If you can provide proof of cheating in Civ3....

It is something you just know... After all, what is there to justify higher difficulty levels, if it is all randomness? As you go up the ladder, the dice get more and more loaded.

[yin26]

I never said Civ3 cheats. I said it sucks.

As for the 'It's just something you feel' argument: Sorry. I'm a bit more demanding than that. Sure, I've seen the comp have some amazing runs of luck against me at times, but I've had the same happen with me against the comp, too.

I think the difficulty level determines how much the other civs gang up on you, not how the dice are rolled. This makes far more sense to me.

If all you guys have are 'feelings,' save your breath.