Know the Rules

Many Risk sites offer team games, including Landgrab, Conquer Club, and Warlight, but each of them have slightly different rules as regards teams, so before starting any games, consult your preferred site’s rules and faqs and familiarize yourself with them. Also, there are different types of team games, differing both in size (doubles, triples, quads) and number of opponents (either head-to-head or with more than two teams competing). Starting off, you might want to stick with head-to-head doubles until you get the hang of working with a teammate, and then expand your horizons to triples/quads and multi-team games. For the sake of argument, the rest of this guide will assume you’ve done just that.

Pick a Good Teammate

I cannot stress enough how important your teammate is to your eventual success. This seems simple enough, but you’ll want to put some time and effort into finding a teammate, as playing with random people is the surest way to losses and frustration. Thankfully, finding a teammate isn’t very hard if you know where to look. First, look back on some of the games you’ve played. Perhaps there was an opponent that you played a few times (or maybe even once) who seemed particularly skilled. Also, look through the forums to see if your preferred site has a “team-up” or “callouts” forum and look to see if anyone has posted looking for new partners. As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to find someone who’s more experienced than you at team games. Once you have a few people in mind, do your homework: team experience, missed turns, communication ability.

Communicate Extensively

The second-most important element to team game success, behind your choice of teammate, is successful communication. Not only do you not want to be working at cross-purposed to your partner, but two heads are often better than one when it comes to devising and refining strategy, whether for a single turn or over several turns. Every site that offers team games offers a private “team chat” where you can post messages that only your teammate can read. Committed team players, however, often go well beyond team chat or even the site’s private messaging, using email, IMs, Skype, or even telephonic or in-person interaction to plan their moves. However you decide to communicate with your teammate, though, do so early and often, even if it’s something as simple as “I think I should attack Territory X and fortify Territory Y, what do you think?” If you find yourself with a teammate who, despite your vetting, does not communicate very well, then it might be time to find a new teammate for future games.

Use Your Skills

Much of what you’ve learned playing single-player games applies perfectly well to team games: attacking intelligently, defending stoutly, defending and breaking bonuses, analyzing the cost of success, having a plan, etc. In a head-to-head situation, you can be even more aggressive, since there is no third party to swoop in and exploit your weakened condition.

Keep Learning

It takes a little time to get used to team games, particularly for people experienced at classic Risk. If you play against experienced opponents, likely as not they’ll defeat you. But every loss should teach you something, and don’t be afraid to private message the people who beat you and ask for some insight or tips. Oftentimes an experienced team player may even offer to team up for a few games and show you the ropes. This is an opportunity not to be passed up.

Know Your Enemy

Whether you’re playing in a multi-player free for all, or head to head, it helps to know the skill levels and tendencies of the opposition. A quick look at each opponent’s profile is a good place to start, as many sites will list information such as number of games played, overall score, date joined, and win percentage. If possible, it’s also a good idea to look through the opponent’s history of games played that are similar to the game you’re playing. For instance, if you’re playing a six-player escalating cards game on the classic Risk map, then knowing that one of your opponents has only ever played three games with those settings can be an advantage.

Attack Intelligently

Risk is a game of luck, but as the saying goes, chance favors the prepared mind. Always try to have a plan that extends over the next several turns, with fallback plans in case the opposition does something that you were not expecting. Every attack you make should be in service of the larger plan, but you need to remain flexible and try and anticipate your opponent’s moves as well. Never attack just to attack; instead you should be attacking weak spots for cards, breaking bonuses, eliminating pockets, and hoarding troops for the final killshot. Also, in most cases, if your plans involve getting amazing dice, then it’s time for a new plan. A good rule of thumb is that if an attack cannot succeed with average dice (meaning a relatively even one-for-one), it’s not an attack worth pursuing, save in direst need.

Defend Stoutly

One of the great strategic divides in Risk is between attacking a single defender vs. attacking a defender that can use both defense dice. In the former case, an attacker with all 3 attacking dice will win roughly 65% of the time. In comparison, in a given attack, three attacking dice against two defending dice will kill the two defenders a third of the time, split 1-1 a third of the time, and lose two attackers a third of the time. This divide becomes more pronounced over more attacks. Furthermore, if you have to defend two territories with 4 armies, then you’re better off with a 2-2 than with a 3-1, as you require an attacker to roll against two defender dice at least twice instead of at least once.

Analyze the Cost of Success

Imagine you’re playing a six-player game on the classic Risk board with escalating card rules, where card sets become more and more valuable as each set is turned in. While some sites have exotic card cash-in rates, the basic Risk formula goes 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, etc. The upshot is that, after all six players have turned in a set of cards, the next set will be worth 20 armies. Now, consider the continent bonuses on the Risk map. The two main targets for players are Australia/Oceania and South America, each worth a two-army bonus, but these small bonuses pale in significance compared to the ever-higher cash-in value of cards. Often, two inexperienced players will engage in a bloody war for one of the small bonuses, forgetting that they might each sacrifice ten or more armies for a two-army-per-turn bonus, and by the time the player who “won” the conflict has held the bonus for enough turns to recoup their losses, other players might be cashing in cards for forty or fifty armies. In short, only take a bonus if you can do so quickly and easily, with a minimum of bloodshed. However, that might not always be to your benefit, especially in Australia/Oceania, as we’ll see in the advanced guide.

If you would like your site added, please email Risk (@) PlayRiskOnline.net (no overtly commercial sites)

Places to play Risk online

• The Good
  • Conquerclub
  • Warlight
  • LandGab
  • Attack!
• The Bad
  • Grand Strategy
  • WarGear
  • Strategery
  • Strategy Game Network
• The Ugly
  • Fellowship of Luca
  • Risk Attack
  • Lets Play Risk
  • Generals Gambit
  • Warlords of Gilmoria
  • World at War
  • Global Combat
• The Betas
  • Warfish
  • Dominating12
  • Art of War

Risk Strategy

• Total Diplomacy (the most comprehensive guide to Risk on the net)
• How to Win at Risk (old articles on basic Risk strategy)
• About.com Risk Strategy (basic strategies)

Additional Resources

• Dice Odds in the Board Game Risk (in depth discussion of odds)
• Risk resources at BoardGameBeast
• Risk on Wikipedia (tons of great and comprehensive info)
• Risk at BoardGameGeek (tons of user submitted info, images, forums)
• Risk Tournament of Champions (yearly Risk tournament)
• Risk Dice odds calculator

I started PlayRiskOnline.net in order to catalog and review all the different Risk playing sites that seemed to be popping up all the time.  My hope is that players do not have to waste their time with inferior sites and that site owners can use the ratings to improve their sites.

I plan to review every Risk playing site I come across and periodically re-review these sites to see if there is improvement.  If you would like a re-review, just let me know.

You can contact me at Risk@PlayRiskOnline.net

A really complicated map

Keep It Simple (Maps)

Anyone who’s played the boardgame is familiar with the “classic” Risk map, and some people may have played the variant editions that presented different maps. But those maps are but a mote in a storm compared to the vast number of maps available across various sites. Every site has a variant of the classic map, but most sites have a library of additional maps, either site- or user-created, that range from the simple to the fiendishly complex. There are also players on those sites that prey upon newcomers unfamiliar with the more complex maps. So to begin with, you might want to stick to the classic Risk map, or similar basic-gameplay maps, until you get your feet wet.

Keep It Simple (Settings)

The most variance in game settings you’re likely to see in a tabletop game of Risk are glorified house rules, like different card values or random allocation of starting territories. Online Risk allows for settings that would be impossible in a boardgame, such as fog of war or simultaneous play. Some sites allow so much customization of the game experience that there are literally thousands of different permutations. While these advanced settings can be a great deal of fun, they also present a trap for the newcomer, in much the same way that complex maps do, so I’d advise playing with the most basic (i.e. most boardgame-like settings) available, which for most people would be 3-6 players, sequential play, escalating cards, and chained fortification.

Know The Site

Every site puts its own spin on Risk, certainly, but every site has its own iconography and jargon. It’s worth spending a little time between turns looking around the site and familiarizing yourself with its various aspects. In particular, learn how ranks work, so you’ll know if your opponents are newcomers like yourself or highly-ranked veterans looking for an easy meal. Also, every site has a slightly different interface for dealing with the game board, so make sure you know how it works so that you can eliminate easy mistakes, like attacking the wrong territory or accidentally advancing armies.

Attack Intelligently

Even as an online Risk newcomer, you don’t want to make it easy for opponents to defeat you. Always have a plan, even if it’s something as sketchy as “in a few turns, I’ll be able to kill that opponent and steal his cards” or “I’m going to lay low and let those two guys fight over South America, and then sweep in when they’re weak”. Every move you make should serve as a means to an end. Don’t attack foolishly, especially if you have 3 armies or fewer to attack with, since you won’t be able to attack with full force.

Never Give Up

Even when things look darkest, there may be a play you can make to turn the tide. Don’t let opponents intimidate you, regardless of how highly they might be ranked or how many games they’ve played. And always try and learn something from every game, win or lose. Even the best online Risk players started right where you are, as a newcomer, and who’s to say that with smart play, you won’t become one of them?

1. There are numerous places to play Risk online, some of them offer a rich experience, but many are poorly designed and not worth the time it takes to get started. You can find reviews and ratings to most of the Risk playing sites at Play Risk Online. Keep in mind, each site has different benefits which are suited to different types of players.

2. While playing online, there is a great chance that you will never see your opponent in real life or even online again. This can lead to some abusive behavior, especially if the game does not go one players way. Try to ignore or disregard rude remarks and if possible, leave feed back or ban that player from playing with you again.

3. Diplomacy is a huge part of table-top Risk. Negotiating, or strong arming your friends is a key to success. In online Risk, diplomacy isn’t as important since some sites lack the ability to communicate with other players. Also it is much easier to break a diplomatic agreement with your friends than it is with a stranger online. Try not to rely on diplomatic agreements unless they can be enforced

4. Traditional games of Risk would last hours, often well into the night. This is certainly not possible for many people which is why they turn to playing online. Most sites have a system where a player takes one turn, then another player has 12-24 hours to take their turn etc. This can lead to a player taking only 1 turn per day, or ever 2-3 turns per week. While this may seem agonizingly slow, players often have more than one game going at once, and turns can be taking in a few minutes over morning coffee. Some sites offer real time play, but be prepared to reserve a chunk of time if you need it.

5. Playing Risk online will often lead to a broader strategy gaming experience as many sites have new maps and features that do not exist with the table top version. It is often best to get comfortable with the classic game board and default rules before engaging with some of the new and innovative features. Keep in mind that many players have mastered some of the expert features and playing against a new player with little to no experience will almost certainly result in a loss.

Playing Risk online can be quite fun and a good extension for adults who loved the game when they were younger but are too busy to sit down for hours a night. Follow the 5 rules above and you will be having a great and rewarding experience in no time.