Total Diplomacy Risk game strategies
 
Register  |  Login

 

Your No 1. Resource Site for Tactics, Strategy and Diplomacy
Used in Risk Board Game and in Real Life

"Life is a Game but Risk is Serious!"

What's on This Site: Use the Site Index

Subscribe to receive updates by Email
 

Articles

Current Articles | Categories | Search | Syndication


Diplomacy

What can You Learn from the Mongol Invasion? (Part 2 of 2)

By Ehsan Honary - Sunday, November 01, 2009
:: 1 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Strategy, Real-world example, Series

On the outset, Genghis Khan had the fastest army on the planet. His genius was to take full advantage of his fast moving armies against well-established disciplined armies many times their armies. These armies were also backed by resources of an empire which made the task even more profound. Genghis Khan used the ancient Chinese Strategy of “Slow Slow Quick Quick” as his grand strategy. Let’s see how this worked in practice.

Read More..

What can You Learn from the Mongol Invasion? (Part 1 of 2)

By Ehsan Honary - Monday, October 12, 2009
:: 1 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Strategy, Real-world example, Series

History has many lessons to teach us and when it comes to strategy and you can get a lot of insight from it. In 1218, Khwarezm was a prosperous empire covering modern day Iran and Afghanistan. Shah Mohammad II ruled from his wealthy capital of Samarkand. At this time, the Mongols on his East approached him to make a deal on reopening the Silk Road. This would bring even more wealth, to the empire so Shah agreed to it.

Later, Mongols sent an envoy to buy expensive gifts for their court from the empire. Shah suspected the convoy as spies and killed them all. Genghis Khan, leader of Mongols responded by sending their ambassador to the Shah requesting an apology. Shah did not consider the Mongols as an equal power, so he was outraged by a request to apologise. He had the ambassador killed as a symbolic move to show that he was in charge of a superior empire. Naturally, this meant war.

Mongol Invasion

Read More..

Grand Startegy: Lose Battles But Win the War

By Ehsan Honary - Wednesday, September 23, 2009
:: 0 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Strategy

The classic definition of grand strategy is “purposeful employment of all instruments of power available to secure a community”. In other words, it is your ultimate plan to win. In Risk, this can boil down to the following:

“What is it you want to do and how do you want to do it?”

The ultimate goal in a classic Risk game is always very clear; conquer the whole world. This makes it relatively easy at first look, but is it that simple? Remember, in real life if you ever come to conquer the whole known world, you may not be too bothered about what happens the next time the world in conquered. You will not live to see it because these events happen so rarely (if at all) and last for a long time when they do that the question may not matter. However, your ultimate goal in Risk is not just to win one game, but to win repeatedly. This is your ultimate goal which you must consider when you are formulating your grand strategy.

Grand strategy has been discussed extensively in history by the likes of Clausewitz and followed meticulously in major recent events such as World War II and the Cold War.

Grand strategy has the following main five principles. You must implement as many as you can in your grand strategy to be successful and get best results.

Read More..

How to Get the Most from Your Negotiations

By Ehsan Honary - Saturday, June 27, 2009
:: 2 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Negotiation

While playing Risk, quite often you may find yourself negotiating with other players. Negotiation is a skill that can prove extremely useful when you want to avoid direct conflicts and save your armies and resources for better use later in the game. However, negotiations can be tough. Some people ignore them altogether. Others actively argue that there is no need to negotiate or make deals with other players because these deals can be broken. These player find negotiation difficult and as such either avoid it or to try to justify their negativity philosophically. Remember, negotiation is just another tool. You are not forced to use, nor do you have to avoid it exclusively. Just be good at it and when the right circumstances arise, use the tool to get ahead of others.

Most people learn how to negotiate in the field without much systematic training. There are many established guidelines to follow for better results, though many still fall to the trap of old ineffective approaches. Consider the following example negotiation…

Read More..

Assertive Risk Play

By Ehsan Honary - Saturday, May 23, 2009
:: 2 Comments :: Article Rating :: Psychology, Diplomacy, Strategy

When playing Risk, you can generally adopt three kinds of strategies; passive, aggressive or assertive. Each of these has its own style of play and has certain consequences. It is well known that in order to successfully communicate with others, you need to be assertive and this also applies to Risk as well. However, what does it mean to be assertive? How can you optimise your strategy to take advantage of the benefits of assertiveness?

In this article you will be introduced to the APA model (Assertive, Passive & Aggressive) and explore various issues and parameters that you must be aware of when you are dealing with other Risk players.

Read More..

Reverse Intimidation

By Ehsan Honary - Sunday, April 26, 2009
:: 1 Comments :: Article Rating :: Psychology, Diplomacy, Strategy

Risk is all about attacking and that’s what you do most of the time in this game. However, as you know, direct attacks are costly and over time come to erode your armies. Some players are naturally more aggressive than others and usually pick on the weak and vulnerable intending to eliminate them. What should you do if you find yourself in a position where you are threatened by a stronger player? Should you keep a low profile and hope for the best? Should you go for a direct attack and hope you get lucky? What is the best strategy to contain a stronger player and extend your life in the game?

Read More..

If Obama Played Risk...

By Ehsan Honary - Monday, December 01, 2008
:: 17 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Strategy, Real-world example

Imagine, one afternoon, by some magical coincidence you find yourself in a room where a number of ‘players’ are gathered around a world map, playing Risk. What’s unusual about this game is that the players are not ordinary people like me and you. They are in fact the heads of states of some of the most influential countries in the world and they have gathered together in the UN to ‘play it out’, over a Risk game.

Imagine the new president of USA, Barak Obama, is in charge of the US player while other corresponding heads of states are present as shown below.
 

 Europe  USA  South America  Middle East  China  Japan  Africa
Token  Token  Token  Token Token Token  Token

(Rules: using escalating cards and connected fortifications)

You are an excited observer and can’t wait to see what happens next and how it will all play out especially since a new person is now in charge of one of the most powerful continents.

Obama Risk Game

Read More..

Don't Fight the Last War! Part 3 of 3

By Ehsan Honary - Saturday, November 29, 2008
:: 6 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Strategy, Online Risk Games, Series

This is the last part of the 3-part series. As you saw earlier, many players suddenly made bold moves and expanded in different directions. The cards meant that the game was unstable and anything could happen. Here is how the world looked like.

Total Diplomacy - Risk Game - Last War 8

Read More..

Don't Fight the Last War! Part 2 of 3

By Ehsan Honary - Saturday, November 15, 2008
:: 17 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Strategy, Online Risk Games, Series

As you saw in Part 1 of this example scenario, Brown had a dilemma and needed a compromise. This is how the world looked like. Follow with this example to see what happened next.

 

Total Diplomacy - Risk Game - Last War 5

Read More..

Don't Fight the Last War! Part 1 of 3

By Ehsan Honary - Thursday, October 30, 2008
:: 5 Comments :: Article Rating :: Diplomacy, Strategy, Online Risk Games, Series

Every now and then I come across Risk games that stand out in memory for a long time simply because of the way they unfolded and provided sheers entertainment. The following is the story of one of these games.

The game captures the essence of timely decision making. In Risk, players need to be robust and continuously recalculate their position in respect with others. Unfortunately not all do, and as you may imagine this will cost them the game. In effect, they fight their last war and get eliminated!

The following example will illustrates this beautifully. This is the first part of a 3-part series. You are encouraged to suggest solutions. A few days later, the next part will be published and you can all compare your potential solutions with what actually happened.

Total Diplomacy - Risk Game - Last War 1

Read More..
Previous Page | Next Page
  
 

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players

William Shakespeare

Book: Total Diplomacy, The Art of Winning Risk, Risk Strategies
Available as Paperback from Amazon
Available as E-Book

E-BOOK: Available in PDF, Kindle and on iTunes

Total Diplomacy: The Art of Winning Risk

As Kindle from Amazon.com

As Kindle from Amazon.co.uk

PDF Format

in iBookstore on iTune US

in iBookstore on iTunes UK

in iBookstore on iTunes Germany

or search your local iTunes

You can read the Kindle version on any device where Kindle software is available. Currently this includes PC, Amazon Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Android phones and BlackBerry. You can also obtain the book directly from iBookstore on iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch through iTunes. The PDF version is free from any rights management protection (DRM) and is designed to maximise your viewing capability.

An e-book is the most ideal option for international customers as opposed to a paperback book. You can buy the book from anywhere and receive it immediately after purchase.

 

 

Latest Forum Posts

Minimize
Global Siege Final Beta
by GreenlandIceland
MissionRisk reincarnated. Origional Risk board. I know most people love thier different maps, I can'...
RE: Play Risk Without The Countries
by The Player
There are no screenshots of the game on that site so cant tell what it is. From what I have see...
Play Risk Without The Countries
by oldbard
There's a great Risk game that many are playing right in their web browser... It's called The Grid, ...
RE: what to do
by Ehsan Honary
Please try again. If you are using Chrome, I suggest trying another browser as Chrome can sometimes ...
RE: what to do
by A Risk Enthusiast
Sorry for going off-topic, but I tried to create a thread about South America twice and it won't sho...
RE: World War II Risk
by A Risk Enthusiast
I think you should check out Axis & Allies... it is a World War II game, also with dice, but with mo...
RE: what to do
by A Risk Enthusiast
I suggest you take over Australia, take over China (to connect Kamchatka to Siam), and then fortify ...
RE: what to do
by Ehsan Honary
Riskguy, that's an interesting start. I am not sure how the map was set, but given the current layou...
what to do
by riskguy7
I need to know what I should do. here is the set up for the beginning of the game and brown has made...
RE: A Sudden Fall
by p.d0t
hmmm... maybe turtle in Madagascar? Truce with orange and see if you can talk him into breaking ...