by Neil Thomson
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.Summary
Game Type - Conflict Game
Play Time: 60-90 Minutes
Number of Players: 3-5
Mechanics - Dice Rolling Combat, Area Majority
Difficulty - Pick-up and Play (Can be learned in 10-20 minutes)
Components - Fair
Designer(s) - Rob Daviau (Betrayal at House on the Hill, Axis & Allies: Pacific, various Heroscape designs and Star Wars: Queen’s Gambit)
Image Courtesy ofdesertfox2004
Overview
Ok so why review a game that has been around since 1959 and everyone knows?
Well two reasons really. My two oldest boys are at a decent age to take Risk in being 9 and 12, so I taught them the game with a couple of mates several weekends ago. They loved it despite finding the downtime between turns a little painful (they are yet to appreciate how much fun following another player's turn can be).
Beyond that I also wanted to analyse how the Revised edition differs from classic Risk and bring that to the table in my first detailed Risk review.
For those that may have lived under a rock for the last 50 years or are not of the conflict persuasion...
Risk has always been about World Domination. It's about nations vying for supremacy of the globe, it’s about you being the General that must make the strategic decisions...deciding where to hold firm and where to expand your empire. Conceptually, picture War Generals in full uniform standing over a large map of the world as they push and pull troops with casino style croupier sticks and you pretty much have the idea.
Risk is classic 12 year old boy stuff (although some of us never grow up) that's all about rolling those dice and taking...well...Risks.
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The Components
I considered doing a comparison of Risk components over time but truth be told there are as many different versions of Risk floating around as there are have been boy bands through time. So I'll stick to what you get in the Revised edition.
Board – The board is a well done affair without being fantastic. Given the importance of the Continents, each is coloured differently to help quickly identify where each begins and ends (for those that are geographically challenged). Thankfully more pastel colours were chosen here so our eyes are not offended by garish hues.Other important details are also made obvious such as the Continent Troop Bonuses, the locations for Objectives and Rewards and the Bonus Troops Table relating to the 'cashing-in' of cards.
The board also features a background of lines coming from a central point, which I think is meant to make the board look more dynamic and perhaps subliminally encourage the players to be aggressive.
In trawling through the many hundreds of images for RISK, I did make one observation of the boards used over time. Whilst the map may have changed colours and relative sizes of provinces...every single board for RISK using the Earth as its only map, have maintained the exact same Province structure and locations where one Province connects to another. I wasn't expecting this.
Image Courtesy ofrukiosu
Troops, Cities and Capitals – The physical Troops are quite possibly the most disappointing component in the game. What is offered up are a series of arrows in the various player colours. One stripe on an arrow designates a single unit and 3 stripes designates 3 units. They feel quite nice and whilst some have complained that they are hard to pick up I had no such trouble. For me though they are just plain...well...plain. They almost rob the game of theme, of character. Is this another choice based on keeping costs down? Most likely and boo to that.
The Cities on the other hand are not too bad. Rectangular in shape they feature several buildings of various size to represent a city. When placed on the board they certainly stand out as key objectives and their grey colouring helps highlight that any player can try to take them.
Finally there are the Capital Cities. These are again less interesting as they are represented by a round thimble like shape with the top featuring a star (of course they also use come in the colours of the players to help identify who's is who's).
Image Courtesy ofanarchy
Objectives and Rewards – These are all about function and are printed on reasonably thick card stock. They are plain but do the job.
Image Courtesy oflaiernie
Dice – The standard dice are pretty typical RISK dice and come in red and black (the image below suggests some editions around the world may vary). The 2 extra dice provided and earned as rewards offer a really nice mottled effect, which imparts how valuable they are to an attacker or defender. The two in my box look much nicer than the image below suggests.
Image Courtesy ofmadcapmartini
Cards – If the miniatures weren't so important to a game of RISK the cards would be the worst component found in this edition. The cards found in Risk Revised fail miserably on two levels. One they offer the most bland and uninspired artwork I may ever have seen in a RISK game and two; they are printed on the most flimsy of card stock, making them feel cheap and nasty.
Images Courtesy ofbinraix and shingoi
Rules – They tried to be a little creative with the rules and made them into a dossier like format...as if you were receiving sensitive government information when you bought the game. One side of each section offers rules for the Basic Game, whilst the reverse side offers more detail about the relevant section for the Advanced Game.The whole thing folds out but when left like that it can be maddening finding the right section during the game. But each section offers a perforated edge that allows the rules to be separated into individual double sided pages, which makes the whole thing far more useable.
On the whole I give Hasbro some credit for a novel idea here.
Image Courtesy ofanarchy
Insert/Tray – I thought the insert deserved mention here because it really does have a space for everything and ensures that the game is easy to both pack up and set up. 
Image Courtesy offabricefab
On the whole the components for Risk Revised are quite poor by modern standards. Actually I think many of the past Classic editions would beat this too. But we live in modern times and profit margins are all the rage...if it's cheap enough I guess you get what you pay for.
Image Courtesy ofDrGrayrock
The Set-Up
How Revised Risk is Set up is largely dependent on whether the Basic or Advanced format is being played. Essentially though the two formats use either a predetermined set-up or 'player placement'.
Then there are slight differences in the use of Objectives and Rewards.
Rather than cover it here though I think it best to cover the set-up for each format in the relevant sections below.
The Play
Risk Revised offers up two formats of the game; Basic and Command (read as Advanced). Then it offers the option to play classically with World Domination, so in truth there are 3 versions.
I'll cover the basic play of Revised Risk in brief here before outlining the Basic and Advanced formats and then cover how they help Risk Revised to differ from classic Risk.
The Flow of Risk Revised
Draft Troops – At the start of a player's turn they draft new units to add to their forces. Troops can be earned by holding Provinces, Cities and Capital Cities. Additional troops can also be earned by holding entire continents and cashing in cards.In more detail troops are earned in the following ways -
A player adds up all the Territories they control and the number of Cities. The total is divided by 3 to decide how many troops are drafted (a player always gets at least 3 from this process). An additional troop is drafted for every Capital City that is controlled. Each continent offers up bonus troops in the drafting phase should the entire continent be controlled by a single player. The size of the continent is linked to the size of the bonus. So controlling Asia offers up a massive 7 bonus troops whilst controlling Australia and the surrounding isles offers up only 2 extra troops. The final troop bonus can be earned by discarding cards. Each card earned in Revised Risk offers 1 or 2 stars. The total number of stars determines how many additional troops can be drafted. A small table in the bottom right of the game board outlines this, much like Ticket to Ride uses a table to outline how many points are earned by claiming routes of varying length. Once a player takes their drafted troops they can place them in any of their controlled Territories. New troops can be placed in multiple locations or in a single Province as a player sees fit.
Attack – A player can choose to attack any territory that is adjacent to one of their own. However the territory being attacked out of must have at least 2 units present as a single unit must always be left in a territory and thus cannot take part in an attack.A maximum of 3 units can attack a Territory in a single attack. For each attacking unit 1 dice is rolled.
The defender gets 1 dice per defensive unit, although a maximum of 2 dice can only be rolled in defence.
Once the size of both forces have been determined, both players must roll their dice and compare the values. The highest dice of each player are compared to one another with the higher value costing the losing player a casualty. If both sides rolled a second dice then those values are also compared with the higher result also inflicting a casualty.
The defender always wins ties.
After casualties are removed if the attacker has not defeated all units they must decide whether they will attack again or not. If they do attack again they must again decide how many units take part in the attack and the above is repeated.
If an attack is successful in killing all defending units, the attacker must move all attacking units that survived into the newly won Province. In addition they can move as many additional units from the original Territory in which the attack began into the newly won Province as they wish.
In this manner a player can make as many attacks as they like. Multiple attacks may originate from many different locations or a player may amass one big force, take a Territory, move in and then attack with the juggernaut again as the force surges forward. This is a very common tactic in a game of Risk.
Subtle Implications of Combat
One element that is not always discussed about Risk is the decision that is sometimes required during combat. Whilst it may seem sensible to attack with a huge horde that rolls across the world, at times a Territory may find itself placed in such a way that your force really needs to split into two or three columns in order to attack multiple Territories in order to secure Cities or to control an entire Continent.
When these moments occur a player needs to ask themselves, "How many units do I commit to this battle where the defender only has 1 unit?"
Committing 2 or 3 units seems wise as it gives the attacker more dice to roll and therefore a greater chance of winning the battle. But should they (the attacker) win it also means they will have to move those units into the new Territory, which in turn means that the horde is reduced in number and potentially moves away from a target Province located in another direction. Should this be required a couple of times in a turn to secure an Objective or a Continent, it can make for big implications.
In this way I think that Risk offers a little more thought than some people might give it credit for. At this point I'd also comment that the dice resolution of Risk is pretty fantastic as it always makes for hilarious moments.
There is nothing more funny than watching a defender roll a 2 or double 2, only to see the attacker roll a double or triple 1.
It's those moments in critical situations that can make Risk memorable.
Objectives and Rewards – Revised Risk introduces the concept of Objectives. These are put in plain view at the start of the game and a player needs to acquire any 3 whilst in possession of their Capital to win the game.An Objective may require a player to control a particular Continent, conquer ten Territories in a single turn or be in control of two player's Capitals to name but a few.
Whilst Objectives may be new to many players, I have seen these as Missions in the 40th Anniversary Edition. In fact I believe that many of the Objectives found in Revised Risk are taken straight from that Anniversary Edition or modified slightly.
Rewards however are new and they are offered when an Objective is completed. These can be very powerful indeed offering benefits such as; earning 2 bonus troops per turn, gaining an Airfield which offers defensive combat bonuses or earning bonus dice in attack or defence.
The final bonus to be taken in this phase is to take a card from the draw deck. This is made possible by winning at least 1 successful attack. The concept of cards as a bonus were always to encourage players to be aggressive.
However in Revised Risk, a card is not taken if an Objective was won in a turn.
Maneuver – Sometimes known as friendly movement, this phase allows a player to move units from any one controlled Province to any other controlled Province. These two locations do not need to be adjacent however and can be any length apart provided that there is an uninterrupted chain of controlled Territories between the two. In this way the game simulates the importance of supply lines and chain of command.Moving units from deep locations that are safe from attack to the front lines of a player's territory is crucial to help set up future attacks.
Likewise sometimes it is crucial to move units to key locations that serve as buffer zones. These buffer zones are most often Territories that protect an entry point to a Continent that is offering a player a troop drafting bonus.
Winning the Game
Risk Revised is won by claiming 3 Objectives whilst still being in control of your Capital City. The only time this is not true is if the players choose to play the World Domination format...which is not really playing Risk Revised at all - it is Classic Risk with a few tweaks.
Basic Training - The Basic Game
How the Basic Training format of Revised Risk differs from the above summary is mainly in the set-up.
Rather than placing troops, the game offers preset configurations of starting positions. This includes the placement of Cities too and each colour is pretty well balanced and generally each colour has a dominant position somewhere on the globe.
The other major difference is that the Objectives are also preset and no Rewards are available.
The Basic Game is really there to teach newcomers to Risk the very basics. Surprisingly in the first game that we played to teach my boys, the game length clocked in at 1hr 30 minutes. In the second game using the Advanced Game we took 10 minutes less. I think the reason for this unusual occurrence is that the preset set-up balances the positions of players a little too much, which results in a little more time being required to form a strong central core and weed out the enemy in certain locations in order to gain Continental troop bonuses.
Whereas in the Advanced Game, players have a greater potential to form a stronger starting position from which to attack from.
Of course my boys picking up the basics would also have added 10-15 minutes to the play.
The Command Room - Advanced Game
The Command Room format is really how Revised Risk is meant to be played.
The Set-up first requires that the deck is shuffled and in turn 15 cards are drawn. Each card drawn will determine where a City is placed, thus making those important strategic points variable with each play.
Next the Objectives and Rewards are selected. All but 4 Objectives are used but all rewards are put into play, however they are randomly placed onto each of the Minor and Major Objectives (rewards are also categorised as Minor and Major) thus making for another variable.
Then the turn order is decided via dice rolls. The number of starting troops each player receives is based on the number of players (30/25/20 for a 3, 4 or 5 player game).
In turn each player places 1 unit on an empty Territory. The first unit placed is also accompanied by a player's Capital. Once all Territories have been claimed, remaining troops can be allocated to a controlled territory to reinforce positions (one at a time). Once all players have placed all of their starting allocation of forces the game is ready to begin.
The Remainder of the Command Room advanced format plays out almost exactly the same as the Basic Game with the first player to claim 3 Objectives and hold their Capital winning the day. The only difference is that claiming an Objective also earns a player the associated Reward. These can be quite powerful but I'll cover those in a moment.
Comparing Revised Risk to Classic Risk
Ok so let's get down to business as it was really the comparison that I wanted to focus on with this review.
Change for the Better - The Good
Play Length - Without a doubt the biggest change to Risk with the Revised edition is that the play length is reduced dramatically and experienced players should be completing a game of Revised Risk in about 60-70 minutes tops. This is largely because Global Domination is no longer the end goal, as that could really take some time if players bunkered down, held critical lines and neither player wanted to take that final 'Risk' that would win or lose the war. Classic Risk also suffered badly from the issue of 'Turtling', which in brief is the concept of amassing a big single force, attacking a territory or two but then stopping because the player was too afraid of thinning out their forces. What resulted was a bogged down, drag it out affair.
But the game also plays much faster and the issue of Turtling is also overcome thanks to a few other changes...
Introduction of Cities and Capitals - Cities and Capitals were never a feature of Classic Risk but they are an excellent addition to Risk Revised. Effectively Cities do two things. First they create new locations of strategic importance which may see players extend themselves just that little bit further than normal. But more importantly Cities and Capitals alter the traditional formula for earning new Troops at the start of a player's turn. This makes them far more valuable and in turn it can mean that Territories that may never have had much importance in Classic Risk suddenly have meaning...they really alter how players have to adapt to the 'World' they find themselves in. Of course because Cities are placed randomly at the start of the game (Command Room format) each game of Risk Revised has the potential to be quite different, which was a major failing of Classic Risk where so many games could feel like a carbon copy of the last.
Then there is the consideration of Capitals. A player may be close to victory but they must ensure that it does not fall or else holding 3 Objectives will mean nothing. Again this adds another strategic consideration to the game. One player may be dogged in their quest to complete Objectives whilst someone else may focus their attention on Capital Cities and thus maintain the balance of power if they can win then and defend them successfully.
More Forces means more Daring - That leads nicely into the next major change. In Revised Risk the players generally have greater access to larger pools of reinforcements and that means something. It means that players are more likely to push for victories in key locations, it allows the game to flow more freely than in Classic Risk as even failure may not be the end of the world because earning 4-7+ units per turn is pretty common place in Risk Revised. This is a subtle but important change from Classic Risk, where a player on the receiving end of a few solid defeats could find themselves with the basic 3 units for some time, which only made it harder to come-back. The result was more careful play...more 'Turtling' as a dominant strategy.
Objectives & Rewards - But without a doubt this is the biggest change from Classic Risk and the one that makes the most difference in relation to 'playtime' and the way players will approach a game of Risk 'Revised'.And that is simply because the 'goal posts' have been shifted here. With only 3 Objectives required for victory (provided a player holds their Capital) players are far more willing to over extend themselves in order to capture one of them. Once an Objective is earned it is kept forever unless the player is eliminated from the game, in which case the conqueror takes them.
Players will calculate carefully how close an Objective is from completion and if the odds are reasonable they will likely drop their reinforcements in a key location and go for it.
This is quite different from the mentality required for Classic Risk.
Then there are the Rewards (Advanced form of the game). They are massive! Some offer the ability to earn an extra dice in attack or defense, others give a player an airfield that offers a defensive bonus to a Territory and all those that are adjacent, thus allowing a player to better hold a Continent to earn those valuable bonus troops. Another offers 2 bonus units per turn...a huge advantage to be sure.
The intention of the Rewards is simple - the game rewards a 'who dares wins' approach and the impact is that Risks really do offer great reward if they 'pay off'. In this way I think Risk has been purposefully altered to better reflect stronger titles in the Genre such as Nexus Ops.
So players will find themselves being very aggressive in Risk Revised. In turn the positive impact on game play is twofold. A shorter time frame will result and the game is open to greater swings of fortune as players are more likely to leave themselves exposed as they push for Objectives.
On the balance of play I regard these outcomes as 'positive' for the franchise that is Risk.
Reinforcements Via Cards - Revised Risk also speeds up the play by making access to troops easier via the 'Card Cash-in' mechanic. In Classic Risk players had to collect cards and those cards featured a territory and an icon (infantry, cavalry or cannon). To cash cards in for troops a player had to have a set of 3 identical icons or 3 unique icons.
In Risk Revised the icon system is done away with and replaced with stars, with each card offering 1 or 2 stars. Now card sets can be cashed in based on the total number of stars and the troops earned is the same each time based on the number of stars. In Classic Risk the number of Troops earned was based on whether it was the 1st set of cards to be exchanged with each subsequent set earning more Troops. This was a ridiculous system as it rewarded players that held their cards back and if all players did that then fewer Troops were available and thus the game bogged down.
Risk Revised has both simplified the card cash-in mechanic, made it fairer to all players and helped to speed up the play in the process. It really is a clever bit of game design.
As You Were - This is not so much a change for the better as it is a good solid inclusion and that is that those who still want to play World Domination can still do so if they want to. Change - The Not so Great
In truth there are not too many changes in Revised Risk that have not been for the better. But there are one or two that may give some cause for a little...'Damn I liked that.'
Components - Compared to most earlier versions of Risk, the pieces used for Troops in Risk Revised are really quite ordinary. I get that the use of an arrow symbol helps to reflect where an attack is being made, they represent battle plans and they even include little military styled stripes on them. But for me they take some of the theme out of the game. In this day and age we want to see infantry, cavalry and cannons as opposed to Euro-esque styled arrows. I see this as purely a cost cutting measure to ensure that the game was priced low enough to hit the Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Toys 'R' Us shelves.Card Changes - Not only are the cards more bland looking than ever before but now some of the more subtle uses for cards are no longer present. Whilst I like how they have done away with the, 'First set of cards earns 4 troops, next set earns 7 etc' concept, cards had a few other tricks that are now gone. For example a player could 'cash in' a single card if they owned the Territory listed and that would pay out a 2 Troop bonus. This was cool as it meant cards had multiple uses rather than the single use found in Risk Revised, but it also meant that little surprises could be played on the enemy, which I liked.
Lack of Balance in Objectives and Rewards - Whilst this does not worry me greatly I may be in the minority. Some Objectives are ridiculously easy such as capturing 4 cities in 1 turn whilst others are damn hard such as Controlling Asia.The same can be said for Rewards. Gaining a bonus dice to be used in attack or defense is so much more powerful than earning an extra Maneuver each turn.
Of course the game can be defended by stating that it improves the play simply because the players must be aware of those disparities and fight hard to gain the easier Objectives or the more powerful Rewards first.
Randomised Cities - The final concern some may have is that randomly placing 15 Cities has the potential to create some real concentrated points of power that could lead to a player creating a defensive stronghold so powerful that their number of bonus troops each turn is a game breaker. Whilst I hold this concern myself I think there are enough paths to managing this easily enough. Firstly all players get to see where those Cities are located before selecting starting positions so it should balance out fairly well. Second, if a player really does create a little fortress of Cities it simply means that other players may need to form some alliances to break it up quick and proper.
The Final Word
So what does it all mean? In short Risk Revised is a much more fluid form of Risk and one that I think is actually better than Classic Risk ever was.
Revised Risk is essentially a re-implementation for a more modern time. Playing a game inside 90 minutes and much closer to 60 is so much better than a dragged out 2.5-3 hour affair where you may have no real prospect of winning for some length of time.
But as a game playing experience when compared to the competition...this is still Risk. There are still much better options out there like Nexus Ops, History of the World, Shogun (Ikusa) and more complex designs such as A Game of Thrones, Warrior Knights, and Runewars. Heck even better versions of Risk are out there such as Risk 2210 A.D.
I'm glad I have played Risk Revised to see what it had to offer and I know my boys liked this but would have hated the dragged out Classic Format. Now I can move them onto 2210 A.D. as I continue to train them and hone their skills ready for Risk Legacy.
Till next we meet, may you control the Cities of the World and Annex your way to military domination!
(we need a 'Military General' emoticon!)Review Links
For a full list of my 300+ reviews in a search-able Geeklist -
My Review Geeklist for Easy Reference
Other Links
Following is a list of other Risk styled conflict games that I have reviewed to date -
History of the World - A Detailed Review
Nexus Ops - A Light Review