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Subject: Printing Error on Risk Board: East Africa and Middle East?
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cdstephensUser is Offline


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Posts:2

18 Apr 2010 1:04 PM  

Hey, I'm new to the forums, and I have a question about my board and edition. The board my dormates and I are using has been in the dorm for quite a while, and as such some of the boxes and the rules are missing, so I cannot identify the edition nor the year it was published.

Here's the pictures so that someone may help identify it.

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3568/20100418133612.jpg

http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/6039/20100418133638.jpg

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/12/20100418133701.jpg

 Edit: After comparing pictures online, I have concluded that this is the 1998/1999 edition.

As you guys may or may not have realized, East Africa and the Middle East aren't connected. My friends and I have played quite a few full games with this set up, and just last night after one game one of my friends realized that there may be a printing error; I think in most games, East Africa and the Middle East are connected. I was hoping I could get a definitive answer on this.

 

My friend and I have also realized that Africa seems to be very powerful. My analyzing the board, we concluded that Africa now would by far be the most powerful continent, for it only has 2 territories to defend, has 3 bonus troops, and has gateways into South America, Europe, and Asia all at the same time, thus making it much more superior to South America, and Europe is now essentially a bad starting place due to the power of Africa. Are our conclusions correct?

Also, in case I don't convince the rest of my dorm to play with a dotted line between the two countries (we do have varying rules; for example, defender rolls after the attacker, you only put 1 guy on territories you control when you turn in risk cards with your territory, you can do that multiple times, you can turn in multiple times when you are 6 cards or more, etc.), what would the ramifications be? Would it utterly destroy the balance of the game?

Thanks for any help given to me. :D

 

 

Ehsan HonaryUser is Offline


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King
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Posts:268


20 Apr 2010 1:31 AM  
hi cdstephens, welcome to the forum.

I can only see the third image, the first two don't work.

There was a discussion elsewhere on the east africa connection with middle east and it seems that this has been a misprint in some editions. Technically the two should be connected. Africa should have three borders to defend though. Perhaps this is why africa is too powerful for you with two defending borders. It gets three bonuses and with 3 border it is much more balanced in the world.

As for your local rules, they all make sense and some are standard anyway. For example cashing multiple times when you have more than 6 cards is standard and in fact an important part of the game as an incentive for elimination of others as opposed to prolonged gameplay.

Overall, there are tons of variations in Risk. The best way to test the variations is to play the game several times while using them. Each game allows player to reflect on the rules and find loopholes and exploitations which you can then reflect on to improve the rules when necessary. As long as the game is strategic enough, and in my opinion short enough, any rule that works is good.


Ehsan Honary
cdstephensUser is Offline


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24 Apr 2010 5:06 PM  

Thanks for the quick response. I think some of my friends are going to change it, simply because it makes the game a little bit unbalanced by making Africa the best continent, thus making Europe an extremely subpar choice.

Edit: I fixed the links so you could view it if you were interested.

Ehsan HonaryUser is Offline


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Posts:268


25 Apr 2010 3:17 AM  
Yes, that map certainly needs a new dashed line connecting east Africa with middle east.

Ehsan Honary
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Forums > RISK > Risk Game Variations > Printing Error on Risk Board: East Africa and Middle East?