Risk (game)

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risk
Parker edition where territories were still "conquered"
Parker edition where territories were still "conquered"
Game data
author Albert Lamorisse
publishing company Miro Company (France) 1957
Parker Brothers (USA) 1959
Schmidt Spiele (Germany) 1961
Grow Jogos (Brazil) 1972
Hasbro (Worldwide) Today
Publishing year 1957
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 6
Duration from 90 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Awards

The Golden Pöppel 1980: 2nd place

Risk is a board game invented by the French film director Albert Lamorisse , which simulates armed conflicts between countries on an abstract level. It is considered a classic among strategy games and is one of the world's most famous board games. It has been translated into numerous languages ​​and is still being published 60 years after it was first published in most countries, despite strong competition from newer games. The abundance of imitations and expansions shows the defining role of the game for the genre of board games.

Despite the primary theme of war , Risk is not a typical conflict simulation game that focuses on realism or challenging tactical challenges. Instead, risk is similar to today's author's games that emphasize simple strategic decisions, diplomatic action, and luck .

history

Risk was invented by the French film director Albert Lamorisse in the early 1950s. The first version was probably published by the author himself in 1955. In 1957 the Miro Company published it under the title La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World) . After that it was from the game developers and Bridge experts Jean-René Vernes made playable and was named Risk (risk) . In 1959 the first US version was published by Parker . In 1961 Schmidt Spiele brought out the first German version. In the 1970s, Parker brought out a German version. Both the Miro Company and Parker Brothers are now owned by Hasbro .

Because of the militaristic language used in the description of the game for the first version of the game in Germany, the game was to be indexed in 1982 . Only a legal dispute averted this. As a consequence, the manufacturer changed the wording of the game description and instructions. Whereas in older versions there was talk of “conquering” certain areas and “destroying” the enemy, in newer versions areas are “liberated” and the opposing armies “disbanded”. Attack and defense are also described as “diplomatic negotiations”.

The game

description

Risk gambler

The world map of the risk game consists of the six continents North America , South America , Europe , Africa , Asia and Australia . 42 areas are distributed among these, which are named either according to geographic location (e.g. Southern Europe), regions (e.g. Kamchatka ) or real states (e.g. Great Britain ). Two to six players take turns trying to get territories and continents into their possession. The aim of the game is to conquer one or more continents, a certain number of areas or the whole world, or to completely destroy a certain opponent, depending on the mission. The players decide on the placement and deployment of their armies from a strategic point of view. The size of the armies and the luck of the dice determine the success of the battles.

regulate

Game preparation

Before the game, the participants must agree on the goal of the game. Either this is the conquest of the whole world or it results from the task card that the players receive and have to fulfill the task described there, i.e. That is, they try to conquer individual continents or areas against the interests of the other players. As the game progresses, the same rules apply to both game variants.

Troops in the classic risk game

At the beginning of a game, the area cards are dealt face down to the other players. The other players each position an army in the areas for which they have received an area card. Then in turn a fixed number of armies (2 × total number of areas / number of players) are distributed to their own areas by placing exactly one unit on exactly one own country with each round. Afterwards, all territory cards are returned to the game and held on a pile of cards, from where a player receives them as a reward for successfully conquering a country.

After the areas and armies have been distributed, the real game begins. Every move made by a player consists of four successive phases, the order of which must be carefully observed:

Phase 1 - reinforcement
At the beginning of a round, the player in turn receives reinforcements according to certain criteria (number of own areas, occupation of a continent or exchange of area cards), which he can distribute to his areas.
Phase 2 - Liberation Actions
Attack and defense dice
After distributing the reinforcements, the player can conquer areas that are owned by fellow players. The conquest action is carried out with the help of the dice. Ideally, the attacker may use three dice, the defender may use a maximum of two. It should be noted that the highest and the second highest throw result from the attacker and the defender are compared. If two throws to be compared show the same number, the defending player wins and the attacker must take one unit off the board. In the case of larger troop contingents, the dice are rolled until the defender or the attacker has no more troops and the attacker has taken possession of this land or the defender has successfully defended the country, the attacker breaks off the attack prematurely or has no more troops to attack .
Phase 3 - Troop Movements
After all conquest moves allow players to any number of units of a country according to certain rules in a different country move. At least one army must remain behind in each area to secure the land.
Phase 4 - draw area card
If at least one country has been successfully conquered, the player receives a territory card.

Chances in battles

The chances of a single attack can be calculated using combinatorics :

Probabilities of winning in risk
Attacking
armies
Defender
armies
Attackers
total victory
Defender
total victory
Tie a favorable
combinations
possible
combinations
1 1 41.7% 58.3% - 15th 36
1 2 25.5% 74.6% - 55 216
2 1 57.9% 42.1% - 125 216
2 2 22.8% 44.8% 32.4% 295 1296
3 1 66.0% 34.0% - 855 1296
3 2 37.2% 29.3% 33.6% 2890 7776
a Tie: attacker and defender each lose an army.

With three attackers against two defenders, the expected losses per single attack are 0.92 for the attacker and 1.08 for the defender. The standard deviation is 0.81.

So it is always an advantage to attack with the greatest possible superiority. The probabilities of winning the overall attack on a country can be calculated recursively or with an approximation based on the central limit theorem using the normal distribution .

Rules and map changes

Risk has experienced numerous major and minor rule changes over the years. Hasbro's American website alone lists eight different rules of the game. In addition, some rules only exist in some country editions. Older rules sometimes continue to exist as rule variants. These variants and changes made to the rules often mean that players have to agree on a rule variant before the start of a game in order to avoid conflicts during the game. The players should also come to an understanding about processes that are not specified in the regulations. For example, the German game instructions do not explain exactly whether the players involved in a battle both roll the dice at the same time or the defender only rolls the dice after the attacker in order to decide on the basis of the dice result whether to defend with one or both dice.

Representation of the connections between the territories on the risk plan
  • In the first version, the mission for all players was to conquer the world. Since this resulted in a long playing time, order cards were introduced later. Possible missions were the conquest of two or three continents, any 24 areas or the destruction of a specific enemy. In the book format edition published in 2007, the order cards have been removed, so the only goal here is to conquer the world again.
  • In the first versions, the number of armies that you receive when you exchange cards increased. This made the game unplayable and the pawns ran out. Fixed exchange values ​​were therefore introduced in the Risk Deluxe version , so that you get four armies for a soldier series, six for a rider series, eight for a cannon series and ten armies for a mixed series.
  • The most important change was the reduction of the defense strength from three to only two dice. This strengthens the strategic importance of the attack and makes the game much more dynamic. In the English edition since 1999 it has been clearly regulated that both players have to roll the dice at the same time. In previous editions, this point was not exactly described and could therefore lead to possible variations that could definitely influence the course of the game.
  • Due to the different design of the world map, it was temporarily unclear whether there was a connection between the areas of Middle East and East Africa. This ambiguity has been resolved in the latest version of the board game by drawing a clear connecting line between the two areas.
  • In the current and commercially available version of the game, several of the versions are combined. This allows players to decide whether to play with mission cards or for world domination, as well as whether the exchange values ​​of the units increase (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 , 55, 60) or whether three identical or different cards can be exchanged for the values ​​mentioned above. In addition, the rule was introduced for the two-player version that unused units can be used as neutral units. These either do not take part in the game themselves and only have to be defeated, or they can be bribed with area cards, making them allies.
  • Formerly real states exist in older versions, e.g. B. Rhodesia , which meanwhile no longer exist and have been replaced by other names.

variants

Board game variants

In some Canadian games, the names Alberta, Ontario and Quebeck have been replaced by Western Canada, Central Canada and Eastern Canada .

In the new edition of Risk Deluxe , published in 2008 with the addition of adults, there are additional tactical elements such as capitals, cities and rewards for completed tasks.

There is also a variant of Risk Evolution , whose rules and card elements, such as area names, only emerge through repeated play, since the winner of a given game receives the right to use these (additional) rules and card elements.

In addition to the largely rule-identical variants, there are also some expansions or sequels to the game around the world that use the common name for risk in the respective countries . These include WAR II , which is available in Brazil, and Castle Risk, which is produced in the USA .

Themed board games

There are thematic variants of the board game that have slightly modified rules and figure extensions, e.g. B. a military leader included.

Computer games

The game is now also available as a computer game in different versions. You can play alone against the computer, against other players in hot seat mode , over the network and on the Internet (see web links ). In a variant, the players can make their moves at the same time, whereby restrictions must be accepted.

Trivia

Traditionally, the easternmost Canadian province is incorrectly spelled Quebeck .

literature

  • Roberto Convenevole, Francesco Bottone: La Storia di Risk - e l'anello mancante. Novecento GeC, Rome 2002, ISBN 88-88423-09-5 .

Web links

Commons : Risk (game)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Parlett: Oxford History of Board Games , Oxford University Press, USA 1999, ISBN 978-0-19-212998-7
  2. Overview of the various international risk issues at the Europäische Spielesammler Gilde
  3. ^ VG Cologne, Az. 10 K 6287/82
  4. Oliver Rezec: New "risk" version. Off to Stalingrad! TAZ , March 20, 2010, accessed January 28, 2018 .
  5. Risk - the great Stragie game, instructions for the classic version ( Memento from May 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  6. a b Jörg Bewersdorff : Luck, Logic and Bluff: Mathematics in Play - Methods, Results and Limits , Vieweg + Teubner Verlag, 5th edition 2010, ISBN 3-8348-0775-3 , doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-8348 -9696-4 , pp. 58-59.
  7. Jason A. Osborne: Markov chains for the RISK board game revisited , Mathematics Magazine, Volume 76, Issue 2, April 2003, pp. 129-135, JSTOR 3219306 , preprint (PDF file; 163 kB)
  8. Risk FAQ - See under 2.6.2
  9. Risk Deluxe. (PDF; 1.5 MB) Instructions for the new edition. Hasbro, archived from the original on November 25, 2011 ; Retrieved January 29, 2013 .
  10. Domination on Sourceforge
  11. RISK: Global Domination - Android apps on Google Play. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
  12. RISK: Global Domination on the App Store. Accessed August 7, 2017 .
  13. RISK: Global Domination - Steam. Retrieved June 8, 2020 .
  14. Impera Online. Retrieved April 2, 2019 .