Risk Strategy - Knowing yourself and knowing your opponents

Dear All, This is a Risk strategy guide titled "Knowing Yourself and Knowing Your Opponents" in addition to many risk strategies which mostly focus on the battlefield techniques. If you have played Risk long enough, you may realize that this game also involves human factor. For example, you may have involved in a game in which you had many advantages (some people called it 'luck') during the initial random game set up. You thought you were going to win the game. Unfortunately you did not due to a newbie mistake another player made. Should you blame on that player? or Should you blame on bad luck that you met this newbie? In my opinion, none of these reasons are true, you lost because you didn't know your opponents. This guide focus on analyzing Risk players' skill levels with their associated behaviors. I am hoping that it will help you to increase the chance of winning in your future Risk games. There is an old saying: "He who knows himself but not the enemy has only an even chance of winning. He who knows not the enemy and himself is bound to perish in all battles. He who has a thorough knowledge of the enemy and himself is bound to win in all battles." To know yourself and your enemies: first we need to divide players into several categories and list out how each group of players behave in general. Next you need to analyze these behaviors and develop strategies for each behavior. Finally, of course, applying the strategies you developed in the battlefield to increase your chance of winning. Player Categories: Level 0: Beginner Level 1: Intermediate Level 2: Advance Level 3: Veteran Level 0 players: They are new to the game and therefore they are still in the learning phase. Several behaviors characterized this group of players: [list type=decimal] [*]They tends to attack everyone (non biasedly) until all their attackable troops disappeared from the map. [*]They do not tend to know how they should move when their turn ends if they still have troops. [*]When other players attacked them, revenges are most likely guaranteed with all their might. [*]The purpose (goal) of the game - '[b][u]To Win[/u][/b]' does not seems to be their first priority. [/list] Level 1 players: This group of players has accumulated some experience with the game: [list type=decimal] [*]They tends to blame when the random assignments (initial territorial assignments) of the computer are not fair. Note: it is true sometimes! [*]They also tends to blame when the random roll is against them. [*]They try to be the world police. [*]They sometimes try to persuade other people or recommend other people how they should move to achieve their goals. [*]Sometimes they tend to lost track of the purpose of the game. [/list] Level 2 players: They have played many games and learnt many techniques: [list type=decimal] [*]Their moves are relatively conservative to some and other players find it harder to 'find a reason' to attack them [*]They tend to think strategically rather than trying to be the strongest player all the time or killing the weakest player. [*]They try to persuade other people or recommend other people how they should move when they could or necessary (the difference between this group and level 1 players is that Level 2 players' recommendations 'sounds' more neutral, but of course they are not!) [*]They try to understand who the other players are (what levels are other players) [*]They pretend to be friends with everyone or at least not actively start a war with others or keep very low profile in the beginning of the game [*]They are clear of the purpose of the game and try to keep it as their first priority [/list] Level 3 players: After numerous game play, they are truly the enemy of all: [list type=decimal] [*]They mastered many strategic techniques to cope with different game setups such as Increasing, Fix, Deathmatch, Fog, etc. [*]They can easily distinct beginners from advanced players and apply different strategies for each level of players. [*]These players tend to perform better in a more difficult set up (e.g Fog game) and a prolonged game so that strategy plays a more important role than the 'Luck'. [*]When planning their next move, they tend to think through all possible options; analyze opponents possible next moves with each option and then determine their best next move. [*]They always keep their first priority right. [/list] If I miss any, please feel free to provide your feedbacks and comments!

Yes I agree and F.Y.I....Fendi is the best Level #3 player! Another thing about the first level is in reg games they tend not to play and get kicked out of the game.

"Another thing about the first level is in reg games they tend not to play and get kicked out of the game." This is not an in-game behavior, however, good point!

Thanks k_w_cheng for posting on the forums...we get to know you better because of them!

I moved this topic to the strategy tips thread. k_w_cheng is gone for a while, but he was an awesome player (don't be fooled by his rank) and this is a pretty good guide It doesn't help you directly in how to improve your game, but it helps you to look at what you can improve.

Yeah, i've found this article to be extremely helpful.

Great post! I can think of several times this post would have been handy to link to for players that fit the description of your 'Level 1, point 4.' I personally find that kind of player the most difficult to explain to that we are not all playing for the sole purpose of helping them win.

in what catagory would you put someone who's main intention is clearly to cause you as much suffering as possible to make you lose that game? on some occasions in 3 player games i lost because of that, and no i didnt necessarily break their region if i had found it more balanced... Yet on the next turn of that player he used all his resources to break my region i had >.< he didnt even think of trying to defend his North america in that game xD And ofcourse the third player was stacking his australia bonus + card bonusses on siam untill he had like 50+ troops and then swept the board (kinda which i would have done in his position though)

Usually they are just stupid. Sometimes smart ppl also do this, for example in capital games, to learn you not to build a huge force right next to their capital. In some cases there is obvious no reason at all and they just have the intention of bullying you wherever they can (mind you again, usualy this is not the case and they just don't realize what they do). If that's the case, report the player to an admin and he will receive the warning, as that is against the rules (http://www.dominating12.com/?cmd=tutorial&act=rules#6 )

Helpful post, good explanation too. Gives me a better picture of the right path to enlightenment :-)