Ok, I'm going off-topic... but I can't resist, it's really very interesting!
The game proposed by Albert E.Lamorisse in his patent of 1954 was supposed to be played on a kind of chessboard representing the world, with 13 x 5 = 65 cases (including lands and also seas). Battles was determinated by dice, 1 die the attacker, 1 die the defender, with re-rolls in case of tie. Very long game! Reinforcements was determinating by special cards.
The first French release was in 1957 (3 years later) by the Myro Company. Jean-Rene Vernes was commissioned to improve the game. Maybe Lamorisse had already maken some improvements in those 3 years, we don't know that. Surely Vernes changed the dice battle to 3 dice to the attacker and defender both and decided that defender wins the ties. He also invented the increasing sets (4,6,8,...). Map and reinforcement were like they are nowaday. Setup was absolutely unfair determinated by dice!
The first American release was in 1959 by Parker Brothers. They adjusted the setup determinating it with the cards deal, they reduced the defender to 2 dice and introduced the "5-cards forced turn-in". In 1963 they adjusted the setup again, introducing the starting amount of armies (35, 30, 25, 20) and the free choise of territories.
In the years '60 and '70 United Kingdom adopted the American version but they liked better the random setup. France and German maintained the 3 dice to the defender. But there was something new. They introduced the secret missions (another idea by Vernes). Later the sets were changed in this way: 4 armies for turning in 3 cannons, 6 armies for 3 infantry, 8 for 3 cavallery, 10 for 3 different cards (various but not increasing).
That was the European version of the game. In Italy nowaday we are still playing in that way. It's a nice game, very similar in tools but very different in strategy! The difference more or less is like basketball and football. Who know how to play the American Risk doesn't know how to play the Italian Risiko and vice versa. I guess maybe who likes the "fixed game" may have a nice surprise to discover the "Italian game".
For complete the story. Kenner-Parker took the supremacy in Europe and made a unification of the European game in 1975-76 with all the rules above, but reducing the defender's dice to 2. So nowaday we have 3 "Risks": American, European and Italian.
Ok, I'm going off-topic... but I can't resist, it's really very interesting!
The game proposed by Albert E.Lamorisse in his patent of 1954 was supposed to be played on a kind of chessboard representing the world, with 13 x 5 = 65 cases (including lands and also seas). Battles was determinated by dice, 1 die the attacker, 1 die the defender, with re-rolls in case of tie. Very long game! Reinforcements was determinating by special cards.
The first French release was in 1957 (3 years later) by the Myro Company. Jean-Rene Vernes was commissioned to improve the game. Maybe Lamorisse had already maken some improvements in those 3 years, we don't know that. Surely Vernes changed the dice battle to [u]3 dice to the attacker and defender both[/u] and decided that defender wins the ties. He also invented the increasing sets (4,6,8,...). Map and reinforcement were like they are nowaday. Setup was absolutely unfair determinated by dice!
The first American release was in 1959 by Parker Brothers. They adjusted the setup determinating it with the cards deal, [u]they reduced the defender to 2 dice[/u] and introduced the "5-cards forced turn-in". In 1963 they adjusted the setup again, introducing the starting amount of armies (35, 30, 25, 20) and the free choise of territories.
In the years '60 and '70 United Kingdom adopted the American version but they liked better the random setup. France and German [u]maintained the 3 dice to the defender.[/u] But there was something new. They introduced the secret missions (another idea by Vernes). Later the sets were changed in this way: 4 armies for turning in 3 cannons, 6 armies for 3 infantry, 8 for 3 cavallery, 10 for 3 different cards (various but not increasing).
That was the European version of the game. In Italy nowaday we are still playing in that way. It's a nice game, very similar in tools but very different in strategy! The difference more or less is like basketball and football. Who know how to play the American Risk doesn't know how to play the Italian Risiko and vice versa. I guess maybe who likes the "fixed game" may have a nice surprise to discover the "Italian game".
For complete the story. Kenner-Parker took the supremacy in Europe and made a unification of the European game in 1975-76 with all the rules above, but [u]reducing the defender's dice to 2.[/u] So nowaday we have 3 "Risks": American, European and Italian.
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein