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I was hoping to see what ideas people had for their starting strategies for each continent.  Say you want to start in Australia, what are the top three thing you need to do to be successful and what are the top three things you need to watch for? 

What about Europe?  How do hold your continent together given the risks?  What do you need to do to be successful everytime you start there?  What pitfalls must you avoid? 

And North America, Africa, South America and maybe even Asia? 

Having some starting strategies from each region will prove useful to our Risk community.  I hope to see people chime in with answers from their favorite continent and I hope people will let us know any stories they had about what they observed in game they played.   

Perhaps Europe is not so good in escalating games*, but in flat rate or no cards Europe using diplomacy** is a key to success***.

*Like most of you play. It's Classic.

**Provided they don't stab you in the back. So play against people you're playing repeatedly.

***If you have good dice. (Make sure they aren't loaded:))

A couple of interesting points.  First of all, feinting to take a continent other than Asia is one way to do it, but how often in a real game does that happen and we as the opponent really worry? I mean, Asia is not on the top of my list of places to start my empire so I would tend to not worry about someone starting off with an Asian strategy per se. In my mind, they will almost ALWAYS go somewhere else to get that continent after they establish themselves rather than try to take all of Asia (unless Australia is a part of the plan). So this isn't really breaking new ground. The trick is HOW to do it. Where would you place yourself in Asia to best take advantage of the ability to take another continent? How would you stage the attack so you don't bring too much attention to yourself before you launch the attack? Which continents are better to go after? What becomes your trigger point, that is, when do you leave Asia and go somewhere else?

Second, not going for continents and just trying to get territory is a really good idea. I think I need to try this strategy more often. So what do I need to keep in mind when formulating that type of strategy? Thanks.

I just looked up feint in Wiki and it's defined like this:

"A feint attack is designed to draw defensive action towards the point under assault. It is usually used as a diversion to force the enemy to concentrate more manpower in a given area so that the opposing force in another area is weaker. Unlike a related diversionary manoeuvre, the demonstration, a feint involves actual contact with the enemy."

So In Risk, you put lots of armies next to the border of a continent and pretend you are going to take it. That forces the other guy to put lots of armies next to you. So yes, Middle East is a fantastic place to put armies for a feint attack as it borders two continents.

"A feint retreat is performed by briefly engaging the enemy, then retreating. It is intended to draw the enemy pursuit into a prepared ambush, or to cause disarray."

Now, this one is a bit more tricky to do in Risk, though it happens. For example you attack a neighbour to reduce his armies just a bit at a time, or to simply get a territory of his continent and leave 1 army there. So then if he wants to retaliate he has to come back through your defences.

I prefer feint attack and I think it is very powerful for a player who doesn't have a continent and is stuck in Asia and doesn't know where to expand to.