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How to Maintain the Balance of Power (Part 3 of 4)

By Ehsan Honary - Sunday, December 06, 2009
:: 3 Comments ::

:: Strategy, Online Risk Games, Series

In the last part you saw how you managed the balance of power by weakening the strong players and letting weaker players to become strong. You found yourself in the following position and were wondering what to do next.

Risk Game Balance

Move 8.

Your efforts have paid off. However, now you need to shift strategies. Yellow has lost all his momentum, but Purple is growing exceptionally fast. Just the same as before, you need to control the balance. A good move is to let Yellow loose. He already has a border with Purple. Setting these two players against each other will allow you to grow quietly without much cost. When the right time comes you can make your move.

Your move is to pull back your armies from the pined territory in Yellow’s continent and allow Yellow to quickly regain his continent. This way, you also remove your armies out of harm’s way.

Risk Game Balance

Move 9.

Next, as predicted, Purple attacks Yellow and conquers one of his continents.

Risk Game Balance

Purple is now becoming too strong. What is the best move now? Think about this a few minutes before reading on.

[THINKING]...

Move 10.

A great strategy in Risk is to wait for others to fight each other and then pick on the weakest player. It will cost you a lot less to conquer them directly but you still get all the rewards. Here, this is an ideal strategy. First, you set Yellow and Purple against each other. Next, Purple conquers half of Yellow’s territories.

Your best move now is to go for the new weak player, Yellow, and eliminate him.

Risk Game Balance

You attacked Yellow, got his cards and continent and only increased the number of your borders by one. You are now in a good position to compete with Purple.

For Purple, the situation seems to have changed significantly. He is now a power with three continents and seems invincible. Remember, this was all your making to begin with. It is up to you to control what you unleashed.

The card distribution is:

Red	Purple
4	3

Next cards cashed will give you 12.

Suppose you were Purple now, what can you do to take advantage of your good fortune? Remember, there is no room for error and you have to get it right. You cannot afford to risk too much or get the timing of your moves wrong or you will miss your chances of winning the game entirely. What can Purple do?

How to Maintain the Balance of Power - Part 1

How to Maintain the Balance of Power - Part 2

How to Maintain the Balance of Power - Part 3

How to Maintain the Balance of Power - Part 4

Post Rating

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Comments

By Dan12 @ Friday, December 11, 2009 8:16 PM

This game developed in an entirely different direction than I thought. Red's moves have been good but he has also been very fortunate (which is what Risk is all about). I quite like the placement of 8 red armies at the top left corner of the map in preparation to eliminate Brown. That's a very clever move. The obvious choice at this point in the game is to remove Brown and get the cards. Purple cant do it without huge cost because of that 3 armies at the far top-left corner of the map. Red however has anticipated this and piled up armies there waiting for his turn next time.

If I was Purple, knowing that I cant get Brown, then I would simply concentrate to make as much damage to Red as possible. If I have cards, I will cash them in. I will attack the green continent on the right, remove the 9 armies, and then go upwards all the way until I can get one country from the blue continent at the top as well. This way Red will be deprived of both continent bonuses. I know at this stage of the game it's not that important, but it is all I can do.

Then I simply fortify back to expect a massive counter attack. I will try to defend my own continents at strategic borders. Although Red may simply go for Brown next turn and this can give me another opportunity to exploit his momentary weakness. I will attack him even more to weaken Red further.

I think Purple has a chance but it all depends on the dice and who holds strategic points.

By Beaner @ Friday, December 11, 2009 8:35 PM

The positions are pretty much even. But as purple, I would concentrate alot of armies in the pink country. Attack. And steal reds bonus for the blue country and, if your lucky, the green country. Red then cant counter attack and cause much damage. I cant give much advice for red.

By Ehsan Honary @ Saturday, December 12, 2009 10:31 AM

Good analysis Dan12. Indeed a defence against Red's counter attack would be a must if you take both continents. It all depends on what Red does after getting Brown. To know what Purple should so, you need to see what's Red's best move after eliminating Brown.

Beaner, you are right. The game is quite balanced at this point and that's probably only in the surface. When you say you cant give much advice to Red, do you mean Red is doomed?