Risk Strategy is a lot simpler than you might expect. They can be broken into three rough ideas: what to attack – and why you’re attacking it; how to attack, and how to defend. While there are many advanced strategies, the following article will give you a firm grounding in the basics.
Table of Contents
- Risk Strategy I: What to Attack
- Risk Strategy II: How to Attack
- Risk Strategy III: How to Defend
- Flexibility in Risk Strategy
- Additional Resources for Risk Strategies
- Is Risk a Game of Luck or Skill?
Risk Strategy I: What to Attack
The main aim of risk is to achieve world domination. The more territory you control the more troops you may place at the beginning of your turn. As such, it pays to take and conquer more territory. But you shouldn’t just take territory for the sake of it. Instead, it’s better to have a clear aim of what you want to take.
It is much better to take and control continents because you get additional troop bonuses at the beginning of your turn. Beginners might make a beeline straight for Australia. It’s secluded, so hard for opponents to attack; small, so easy to conquer, and does offer guaranteed troops. However, it does have some equally negative points: Secluded also makes it hard for you to mount offences; its popular among beginners, so often many people will fight over it in the early game; it doesn’t scale well late into the game as it only gives 2 troops per turn; and well, its covered in spiders.
What is the Best Territory to Start in Risk?
When considering which continent is best we need to consider a few factors that we just mentioned with Australia:
- How big is it? Are there many territories to control and therefore will take a lot of turns and resources?
- How easy is it to defend? Are there many or fewer border territories?
- What expansion opportunities are there? How will you grow?
- What is the troop bonus? After you consider all the above, is it even worth it?
The following table answers some of these questions as well as ranking the continents from strong to weak.
| Continent | # of Territories | # of Borders territories | Troop Bonus |
| North America | 9 | 3 | 5 |
| Africa | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Europe | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| South America | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Australia | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Asia | 12 | 5 | 7 |
The general consensus is that if you can take North America, it is easily the best continent to control. The troop bonus of 5 is the joint second highest in the game, it has few boarders to manage and it has an easy expansion route into South America.
Africa comes second as you only need 2 more territories than South America and Australia to hold, but it gives you 50% extra troops. While harder to defend it also offers more expansion opportunities and synergises great with South America to give a +5.
Europe can be tricky to hold effectively, but the troop bonus cannot be overlooked. A 2 point defensive position in Iceland and Northern Europe can be a great way to exert influence on your border territories.
South America ranks slightly higher than Australia, being the same size and troop bonus, but is slightly better, having more expansion opportunities. Australia players shortly run into the wall that is Asia and don’t have an easy second continent to attack.
Asia comes dead last in our ranking, as the famous saying goes “never fight a land war in Asia”. There are simply too many territories to take and too many boarders to defend. By the time a player has a secure hold on Asia the game is almost over, giving this continent very little utility in the early game. Additionally, the Australia player will attack you 100% of the time as they have nowhere else to expand into.
Risk Strategy II: How to Attack
Now that we’ve established what is the best territory to start in Risk, we need to understand how and why attacking is so beneficial.
Attackers Have the Advantage
Garret Robinson at MIT worked out the probability percentages of various attackers vs defenders. It is always best to use your full advantage as an attacker, i.e. attacking with 3 troops because the defenders have the advantage of winning ties.
If you attack 1 defender there is a 66% chance that the defender loses a troops, while only 34% an attacker loses a soldier. If you attack 2 defenders the chance of 2 defenders dying is 37.2%, while the chance of 2 attackers dying is 29.2%.
It is clear in any scenarios that statistically attackers have the most advantage and therefore being aggressive forms the basis of many Risk strategies.
How many Attackers should I use?
Typically you will always want to attack with all 3 troops and for the best chance of success a general rule of thumb is attacking with twice as many troops as your opponents have defending. For example, if an opponent is defending with 3x troops you should attack with at least 6x troops. Nothing is worse than attack, failing, and then weakening your own position.
Using Territory Cards Effectively
Territory Cards are like goldilocks and the three bears. It is important to not use them too late or too early, but just right. The risk of using them too early is that you might not get enough troops, plus you’ll let your opponents get more troops, by moving the marker up the bonus tracker. Use them too late and you might be in an unwinnable position already.
I’d advise using them to achieve specific goals. If you need to use a territory card to get a few extra troops to secure a continent, do it. If you need the bonus troops to stop an opponent securing a continent, do it. Risk Strategy is as much improving your own position as damaging your opponents.
Lastly, it is important to always get a territory card every turn, even if you don’t plan on holding that territory. By doing this you’ll have a steady stream of territory cards and hopefully a few in the bank too!
The Divide and Conquer Strategy
Famously, a house divided cannot stand. You must target your opponents where they are weak. If you attack an opponent’s stronghold, say a 10 man strong territory, even if you have 20 men, you’ll still take heavy casualties, being likely to lose 8-9 troops. Additionally, this loss of troops will leave you vulnerable to counter attacks. Therefore, you should attack your opponents where they are weakest. Attack those one and two manned territories, secure those territory cards and get out!
Head on battles are bad for both parties!
Using Straight Lines of March
Before you begin attacking you should plan out a route to be able to conquer as many territories as possible. You typically want to add +1 troop to the army you play on using to conquer, for each new territory you plan to capture. For example, you want to take Siam and India in Asia and they are each defended by 2 troops. You would need 8 troops, +2, to make 10, as you have to leave troops behind.
It is also best to attack in a straight line, at no point do you want to divide your troops.
Risk Strategy III: How to Defend
While offence is the best form of defence, you can’t just attack all the time, and of course you are vulnerable to other players after you end your turn when they’ll implement their own strategy.
Alliances and Communication
Alliances are especially important in over the board Risk. The most important part of an Alliance is that it is mutually beneficial for both parties. The idea of an alliance is that both players grow stronger together. A classic example might be between the North and South America players. If both agree not to attack each other then they both are defending one less border, making it easier to defend their empire, but also freeing up resources to attack.
Negotiate with other players. The early game is all about trying to secure continents, say “I want to take Africa” for example, then give players concessions in other continents. Take the path of least resistance to securing a continent, other players will take this approach too.
Risk is a game of communication, but at the same time there is only one winner. All Alliances will shatter at some point, just make sure you’re in a position to benefit from it!
Managing Your Borders
Defence of your borders is most important, the internal territories are not under threat because opponents can’t reach there yet – so this means all internal territories should only have one troop stationed there, with the rest protecting the borders.
Second, you should try and keep your borders as small as possible. This has two benefits: (a) There is less for you to defend, so your troops are less stretched (b) you are able to concentrate your troops on the border. This makes your border harder to break down, but also gives you better attacking options.
The Buffer Zone Theory
Buffer Zone theory is an idea that became popularised in Europe the post WW2 geopolitical climate and as surprised as you might be this can also be applied to Risk. The idea of having a buffer state is having territories that can be lost without losing any of your important territory.
Effectively you want to have your borders outside of a secured continents so that if you lose this territory, you don’t also lose your continent bonus.
Flexibility in Risk Strategy
Expect the unexpected should be your mantra. No two games of risk play the same. For example, in one game multiple players may be fighting over North America, after all, it is the strongest continent. Well in this case, focus your sights on Africa.
Rarely will you be able to implement all pieces of advice in this article to their fullest. You need to pick and choose. Maybe you can’t get an effective buffer state. Then in that case make an alliance to secure your empire.
The beauty of Risk is all the varied experience and outcomes you can have in any game.
Additional Resources for Risk Strategies
The best way to improve at Risk is by playing more and learning from the best. Don’t just listen to me, check out the Kill Pete Strategy, a Risk Grandmaster with over 30 years experience:
Is Risk a Game of Luck or Skill?
Risk is a combination of luck, skill, strategy and tactics. Yes, sometimes you might get a lucky roll, but if you follow the tips listed here, strategy will carry you against even the luckiest players. Attacking is a great example, be aggressive and attack your opponents where they’re weak. When you attack in a 3:1 scenario you have a 66% of winning that battle with no casualties.
