We all know the basic three strats of risk: build up on continent edges, attack with 3 dice, and control Australia. Boring. What bizarre non-obvious strats have you tried out? Did you win?
Everyone I play with will usually put all their troops on the edges of a continent in order to hold a bonus. The theory is that no one will want to smash into an army of 8 in order to stop one from getting a bonus of two. This works well in Australia for many players, and I think people transfer this strategy over to other continents for that reason. I am finding that this strat only works in Austrlia (and Maybe S.A), but is an utter failure everywhere else.
I have found that having any one place with over 4 units summons other players to smash you. Building up on edges is not a good strategy in the longrun. If anyone ever gets past you, then you are completely ruined as they claim as much land as possible in order to raise their "divide by" recruitment bonus. So what I do is distribute my units over all the connected territory I own. I slowly creep out over a larger continent (Asia, N.A), and look like a very weak player. Once I can cash in, then I am able to build up on border. Players seem less likely to smash into me because they can't cruise through my lands and rout me. Also, this leaves me with fewer "easy grab" spots, so I find I lose fewer insignificant troops each round, which may not sound like much, but might add up to 2 troops per turn which is the same as holding a small continent bonus.
I also find that my odds of survival are larger with units spread out over many territories. If I have all my units on one space then if I lose that fight, then the enemy can cruise into my base. But if i am spread out, then the enemy must lose 1 unit per territory and fight my defender '2 defender dice'. SO basically I know that the enemy is losing 1 troop per invade, and then has to fight a 2 dice defense. The fewer times I can roll one dice in defense, the better.
The downside to this stat is that I am less able to bust the bonuses of other players. I need to depend on player 3 to break player 2, and if player 3 plays too passively then I am in a bind.
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What strategies have you tried out that might not be terribly obvious? How did they work?
Everyone I play with will usually put all their troops on the edges of a continent in order to hold a bonus. The theory is that no one will want to smash into an army of 8 in order to stop one from getting a bonus of two. This works well in Australia for many players, and I think people transfer this strategy over to other continents for that reason. I am finding that this strat only works in Austrlia (and Maybe S.A), but is an utter failure everywhere else.
I have found that having any one place with over 4 units summons other players to smash you. Building up on edges is not a good strategy in the longrun. If anyone ever gets past you, then you are completely ruined as they claim as much land as possible in order to raise their "divide by" recruitment bonus. So what I do is distribute my units over all the connected territory I own. I slowly creep out over a larger continent (Asia, N.A), and look like a very weak player. Once I can cash in, then I am able to build up on border. Players seem less likely to smash into me because they can't cruise through my lands and rout me. Also, this leaves me with fewer "easy grab" spots, so I find I lose fewer insignificant troops each round, which may not sound like much, but might add up to 2 troops per turn which is the same as holding a small continent bonus.
I also find that my odds of survival are larger with units spread out over many territories. If I have all my units on one space then if I lose that fight, then the enemy can cruise into my base. But if i am spread out, then the enemy must lose 1 unit per territory and fight my defender '2 defender dice'. SO basically I know that the enemy is losing 1 troop per invade, and then has to fight a 2 dice defense. The fewer times I can roll one dice in defense, the better.
The downside to this stat is that I am less able to bust the bonuses of other players. I need to depend on player 3 to break player 2, and if player 3 plays too passively then I am in a bind.
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What strategies have you tried out that might not be terribly obvious? How did they work?