Risk

[Dauphin]

Am I allowed to lay off the bets? Which was my first instinct.

[KrazyHorse]

Am I allowed to lay off the bets? Which was my first instinct.

No. This is about risk preferences, not pricing hedges.

[Dauphin]

In that case my preference is very low - if I was to have to take a hit to my income in the event of loss. Probably go at evens up to $2k and then cap it.

If it was a gameshow scenario, whereby I had "won" $X and was able to put that up as my betting money, I would go higher (close to but not quite at evens), as it would all be unanticipated money I could happily continue to live without.

[OzzyKP]

Australia is the key. From that base you can sweep Asia, and then the world. Once I tried an African start, but then this Ethiopian I was playing with got all agitated that I was in his homeland, so he built a huge force in South America before I could consolidate and wiped me quick. I suck at Risk. Shouldn't this be in the Other Games forum?

Australia is definitely key, but it can get too hotly contested sometimes. I've seen 2-3 players stockpile all their initial armies in and around Australia to fight for it. While they fight with each other you can grab something else. The Americas can be a nice alternative since it only takes 3 territories to hold both north & south america (7 bonus armies total). Basically you have to weigh the value of the spot vs. the competition for it.

[MikeH]

I wonder how many girls prefer the crackhead district to someone who lives with their parents.

Crack whores?

Actually, probably more to steal from the parents house.

[N35t0r]

Australia is definitely key, but it can get too hotly contested sometimes. I've seen 2-3 players stockpile all their initial armies in and around Australia to fight for it.

This. The local version of RISK (called TEG) has a different map though.

[OzzyKP]

I looked it up, wow, it is much different. Australia connects to three other territories, that's a shame. I play a knock-off of Risk on my ipod touch while i'm on the train. It has a number of different maps. USA, Russia, Final Fantasy, Europe, Africa, and lots of fantasy maps, it is pretty cool.

[N35t0r]

There are several versions. I use 'La Revancha', with 72 countries.

There's a major rule change though: the turn order is divided into two phases: first, everyone adds armies for that phase, in turn order, and after everyone has done so, actual play begins, also in turn order. Turn order rotates, with whoever went first on one phase going second on the following one, and so on.

[OzzyKP]

Very interesting. I wonder if they make an English version.

[N35t0r]

Not that I know of.

There's also 'situation cards', which can add some random element to a turn, like the attacker rolling an extra dice, the defender rolling an extra dice, no inter-continent attacks allowed, and a couple of extra ones.

[OzzyKP]

Very cool.