Forum

     Nearly every RISK player has their favorite starting spot in a 3,4,5, or 6 player game. But do you have a preferred ending continent? Say you're playing a 5 or 6 player game and decide to start out of Australia, do you always end on the same continent? I was wondering because of the strategy that joeb1990 suggested ended on North America, and I have never ended on North America. I usually find myself eliminating Australia last. I didn't know if there was a best ending spot or if this was totally determined by the gameplay.

~G.I. Joe~

You say that "it doesn't matter which one you end up with as long as you can eliminate all." But the same can be said about the entire board, as in, "it doesn't matter where you fight from, where you expand to, or where you end up on, as long as you eliminate all." By saying that it almost implies that no strategy needs to be thought about before a game. (Obviously, I know that you don't think that, but I'm trying to prove a point.) I'm just saying that I think that there must be some defining factor that leads you to eliminate one continent before another if you have two left to choose from. And maybe it isn't a specific continent, but a specific type of player. Either way, I think that there must be some sort of logic behind choosing your final moves. I could be wrong, and if I am, please tell me (nicely please ), and explain why. Thanks.

~G.I. Joe~

Ok, here is the nice explanation.

You hinted on it yourself. Here  are some parameters that I think are critical to think of before making moves towards the end:

• History between you and the other players. If they are hostile, you need to take care of them.
• Army count and total cards in possession of a player. This is critical so you can eliminate a weak player and cash his cards. Important because you don't want your opponents to get the cards
• Strategic position. If other players have already broken your borders or pushed you to one side, you may like to reposition yourself so that you end up with less number of borders.
• Any more anyone?

As you can see, there are so many critical parameters to think of that the choice of continent you end up with is almost irrelevant.

I hope this explained it.

Thanks a lot and I plan to, Dan. I'm going over to a friend's house this weekend for game night and we always play RISK. Hopefully I can get a win against these guys (They're pretty good). I will let you guys know how I did after we play (if you want...I don't want to bore you all with my life :-) ). Thanks for all of the advice.


~G.I. Joe~