Monday, August 17, 2015

Overview Of Strategic Game Risk

By Cheryll Tefera


A board game is a game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games can be based on pure strategy, chance (e.g. rolling dice), or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal that a player aims to achieve. Early board games represented a battle between two armies, and most modern board games are still based on defeating opposing players in terms of counters, winning position, or accrual of points (often expressed as in-game currency). 'Risk' is a complex board game produced by Hasbro that involves both luck and skill. The goal is simple: take over the world. Despite this simple goal, the game is very complicated and dynamic. Players attempt to take over the world by eliminating all other players. 'Risk' can be an immensely enjoyable pastime. Children and adults can spend hours in the glorious splendor of their imaginary empires. An aspect of 'Risk' that has made it so popular over the years is its realism. It mimics actual geopolitical maneuverings in the diplomatic world.

The time required to learn to play or master a game varies greatly from game to game. Learning time does not necessarily correlate with the number or complexity of rules; some games having profound strategies (e.g. chess or Go) possess relatively simple rule sets. The key to winning is fairly simple and goes along the lines of a famous ungrammatical and pithy quote from the Civil War General, Nathan Bedford Forrest, "Get the first with the most" (with emphasis on most). The strategies in Risk rely on fundamental ideas around human relations and the national use of force.

The game board is a map of the world divided into six continents comprised of 42 territories. Players may only move between adjacent territories, with the exception of few territories over water. Additionally, Alaska connects to Kamchatka, which is the easternmost territory in Asia. The official rule book gives three basic strategy: Players should control entire continents to get the bonus reinforcement armies. Secondly, players should watch their borders for buildups of armies that could imply an upcoming attack. Finally, players should build up armies on their own borders for better defense.

There are three main phases to a player's turn: getting and placing new armies, attacking, and fortifying. The board can be simplified by turning it into a graph where the territories are the nodes and the lines between nodes are the potential paths that can be taken from territory to territory. One key to victory is control over continents. Players that hold continents at the beginning of a turn get bonus reinforcements in an amount roughly proportional to the size of the continent. Thus, the key positions on the board are the territories on the borders of continents.

It is also important to know how to deal with the game board, as path efficiency is a key to success. It makes no sense to leave troops in the center of an area controlled by a player, and choosing the quickest path from end to end of a continent is of the utmost importance.

The rules of Risk neither endorse nor prohibit alliances or truces. Thus players often form unofficial treaties for various reasons, such as safeguarding themselves from attacks on one border while they concentrate their forces elsewhere, or eliminating a player who has grown too strong. It looks bad to leave troops in the focal point of a territory controlled by a player, and picking the fastest way from end to end of a mainland is absolutely critical. It is additionally vital to know how to manage the amusement board, as way effectiveness is a key to achievement.

Second way is to Deal out the deck of cards (Alternate Rules). Entire deck of card is used minus the two Wild cards and then each player needs to place one of their army pieces in each territory according to the cards they are holding. Turns should be taken to do this. The key disadvantage to attacking is that you usually lose armies as you gain territories; and even if you are lucky enough to not lose any armies in your battles, in a sense you become weaker with each territory you win since your armies are now dispersed over a larger number of territories. This gives the opponent more territories to attack with a greater chance of success.

Once all territories have been claimed, players proceed to place the remainder of their initial troop allotments one by one in a clockwise fashion. It's good to note that: the term 'Turtling' was popularized in Real-time Strategy games where a player creates a defensive perimeter or a Turtle Shell" around the base of operations. Solutions to counteract this strategy using cooperation have been proposed by Ehsan Honary. The initial troop allotment per player is dependent on the number of players participating in the game and can be found in the game's rule book. Taking risk is the element that gives 'Risk' its name. If you decide to take over the world in one turn, and fail, you will usually be so scattered that it would be easy for the next player to eliminate you.

'Risk' is very easy to understand, that's what makes it so popular throughout the world. It is tough for beginners to understand the game quickly, but that's even the rule of life, nothing comes easy. Practice and constant use of aptitude will surely open the new arenas to be won, literally! Today the game is popular all over the world and has many versions including Risk 2210, a computer version, Risk II and Lord of the Rings Risk, all of which are widely available in toy stores or computer stores.




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