I have often seen that players can be confused about the differences between tactics and strategy. So, here is a short summary of the differences.

Strategy is timeless. It is literally immutable. The success of  The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition is a confirmation that strategies written thousands of years ago are still applicable today to a wide variety of competitive environments. Strategy is there to help you to get to your main objective.

Tactics depend on the environment. Tactics are specifically created to support the main strategy. They are the specific means to get you to the end. Historically, new technologies have always affected tactics.

The right strategy makes tactics work better. On the other hand, if your strategy is wrong from the outset, no matter which clever tactics you use, you are inevitably doomed. Tactics without a good strategy are a waste of resources.

You can look at it another way. The concept of strategy is sometimes wrongly confused with that of a move. A move is an action taken by a player at some point during the play of a game (e.g., in Risk you may attack your neighbour). A strategy on the other hand is a complete algorithm for playing the game, implicitly listing all moves and counter- moves for every possible situation throughout the game.

Here is a classic situation that you may have experienced. Suppose you try everything you can with no success. You attempt to examine your situation and try a variety of solutions, hoping to get out of your dilemma. The result however is only frustration since you feel everything you do fails. You then start to feel that you are not good enough and that no matter what you do, your situation keeps getting worst. This is applicable to any domain. Be it warfare, getting a good negotiation in a job, turning your date into your girlfriend, winning in a computer game or winning a game of Risk, its always the same. 

If you think you are not good enough in one of these, it doesn't mean you are a total failure. It only means you have used a wrong strategy. You have to think about your goal and pick a different strategy.

In short, the right strategy makes any tactic work better. The wrong strategy can't be rescued by any clever tactic. A good tactic may give you short term benefit, but you are ultimately doomed. The right strategy will always put less pressure on executing your tactics efficiently.

For example, in Risk, your goal is usually to get the whole world. Your overall Risk strategy may be as follows:

• Eliminate the strongest player.

• Start from small continents and work upwards.
  

• Do not break deals unless someone else breaks them.

• Use propaganda and diplomacy to negotiate as many deals with other players as possible.
  

• Grow your empire one country at a time
  

Your tactics are there to support your main strategies. The following tactics are a few examples:

• Place your armies effectively in your empire (your formation)

• Know when to cash cards for armies.

• Distribute your armies efficiently on your borders.
  

• Calculate the number of armies required to initiate an attack on a series of territories. 
  

The distinction between tactics and strategies are quite critical. Players with different views usually agree on what best tactics are for a particular situation. However, their view on strategies can be quite different.

It is all about your mind and how you manage to look at everything. Everyone should know the tactics and there are well-established tactics to use for different situations. However, strategy is specific to your own circumstances. Every player needs to find a strategy that they can most identify with. The more natural the strategy is for you, the more natural its execution. This is why there has always been a debate on what are the best strategies for different problems. As always there can be more than one good solution. Which solution proves to be the best is what everyone is looking for.