Risk is one of the most famous board games in the world, you would struggle to meet someone who has an interest in tabletop games and has not heard of it. The game is a piece of board game heritage having first been published in 1957 as The Conquest of the World later to become the Risk we recognise in 1986. The game has been licensed to over 50 other franchises, such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. It is certainly loved, but the original can only go so far. Let’s talk about games like Risk.
Table of Contents
- What Makes Board Games Like Risk Special?
- Kemet
- 1775: Rebellion
- Rurik: Dawn of Kiev
- A Game of Thrones: The Board Game
- Small World
- Board Games like Risk: How hard are they to find?
What Makes Board Games Like Risk Special?
In order to find games like Risk, we’ve got to understand what makes Risk the game it is. We will do this in a similar way to our games like Catan article. The game can be separated into two key aspects:
- Area Control – In Risk when you control a whole continent you gain additional troops. This is a mechanic that encourages you to control certain areas of the map.
- Wargame – Players command opposing armed forces. In Risk, battles are resolved through dice throws,this in and of itself is not unique, but worth mentioning.
Additionally, one could give an honourable mention for the amount of time Risk takes to complete. Some people like longer games, it gives them more to get their teeth into and gives a greater sense of satisfaction when they win. It is the nature of wargames to be on the longer side, but it should not define the experience.
Kemet
Kemet is a wargame based in ancient Egypt. It adds a level of mysticism and mythology that Risk does not have. Games won through victory points. You can get these by winning battles, sacrificing to the Gods, controlling pyramids, and controlling temples. This is a link to the area control aspect of Risk.
Kemet’s gameplay is driven by a day and night mechanic:
- Day – the day sees the majority of meaningful gameplay, you can gather prayer points (the games currency), upgrade your pyramids, recruit troops, and move them across the board.
- Night acts as a more of a logistical upkeep step.
Many find the dice mechanics of Risk a bit frustrating, I know myself when I’ve lost hordes of troops to just two defenders. Kemet makes the battle more strategic by introducing battle cards. These cards have rating for strength, damage or defence. These stats can be further boosted by divine influence cards. Add up the damage and take it away from the sum of the opponents defence and that is the casualties of the engagement. It is nice to be able to put a bit of strategy into combat rather than crossing fingers and hoping for a six.
1775: Rebellion
1775 marks the beginning of the American Revolutionary war. In this game, one side plays as the Patriots, the other as Loyalists. Players can call on the Native Americans, German army, and French soldiers to try and sway the tide of battle to either spark the revolution or crush the rebellion.
Your aim is majority control over the 13 colonies. To control a colony it must be free of enemy or hostile third party forces. 13 is a handy number because it means no ties! Moving armies is managed by a movement deck and can vary by land type, for example, there are movement cards for bodies of water.
The battle mechanics is really where 1775 takes Risk’s gameplay and improves upon it. The dice rolls have odds to kill, flee or have demand decisions. The flee mechanic is most interesting, very rarely in war would armies smash into each other until it was last man standing. There were tactical retreats and some soldiers broke ranks and fled. When soldiers flee in 1775 they return to your reinforcements on the next turn.
Rurik: Dawn of Kiev
Rurik is an area control and resource management game set in 11th century Europe. The King, Vladimir the Great, has just died and now you are staking a claim to the Kingdom. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Points are made up of a combination of rule objectives, controlling regions; build objectives; trade objectives; and completing public and secret goals. There are a few different strategies to win given all the different ways you can gather points.
Rurik introduces a mechanic the publisher calls “auction planning”. In any given turn you may muster more troops, move, attack, tax, build or scheme. The way in which you do this is by placing your advisors, which we will call worker pieces for simplicity, on the action board. Workers have both a value and a sequence in which they resolve. Higher valued workers resolve later, lower valued workers resolve earlier. Higher valued workers will also push lower workers down the action board, where the actions are weaker, so it is all about tactically deciding when to place them.
A Game of Thrones: The Board Game
Game of Thrones: The Board Game takes us to George R.R. Martin’s immortal world. Players will take control of one of the Seven Kingdoms from the A Song of Ice and Fire series. This game is most similar to Risk in its area control mechanics, but it does deviate quite far from the theme. It has a far greater focus on negotiation and manipulation where Risk has little to none.
Rounds are made up of three phases, each with a different deck of cards to pull from:
- The Westeros Phase: Day to day activities and special events from the lore.
- The Planning Phase: You secretly assign moves to your troops, very much linking the theme of deceit and trickery from the books. This phase focuses on alliances and negotiation between players, but no promise is binding and like in the show, be wary of a knife in the back.
- The Action Phase: The orders from the planning phase are actioned which can lead to armies clashing. Player draw from the house deck to give their forces bonuses.
This game does a great job of fulfilling that War of the Roses feel that inspired Martin to write his books. You can never trust anyone and everyone has a hidden agenda. The only question is who will be left to sit on the Iron Throne?
Small World
Small World has been described as Risk without the fluff. It focuses on the world domination aspect of the original Risk. The game is based in a fantasy world, each of the 14 races are distinct and offer different special powers.
You spread your domain by placing tiles of your chosen race on adjacent territories. If the territory is empty it is easy to settle, if it is occupied you must battle. At the end of turns players receive gold based on how many territories they control. This is similar to Risk’s troop recruitment mechanism where you gain troops based on the amount of territory you control.
Small World plays a lot quicker than Risk, well, I suppose it is just a small world (pardon the pun) to play in. A game will take around an hour compared to Risk’s typical 3 hour plus game time.
Board Games like Risk: How hard are they to find?
To be honest most Board Games like Risk are better than Risk. Risk is a bit over bloated, towards the end game, turns can take a long time. Games in the 80s were noticeably lengthier than games from other decades. In the 21st century most gamers don’t want to play just one game for five hours, they want a bit of variety. The area control mechanisms of Risk have been handily adopted by many games over the years. It is quite possible to get the “Risk experience” without dusting the game off your shelf.
