Risk: Clone Wars strategy
This version of Risk seems to have more than its fair chare of critics. The Order 66 rule seems to throw a lot of people off but it is in fact this new rule that creates a very different dynamic in hte game that if not properly planned for, can lead to failure. Indeed many of the normal straetgies and tactics in this version are different from the original game and I have tried to outline those for you below. The game is very different and if you don;t play it a little bit differently, you will lose. I actually favor the Republic becasue the Order 66 rule puts them on the offensive in this game.
The Republic must move fast and try to win the game by turn 8 before Order 66 is called or get Order 66 to be called before turn 8 so that you have the best chance possible to survive the betrayal. After Turn 8, the probability is that more than half of your territories will turn after the Betrayal, thus severely weakening your post-Order 66 position. Prior to Turn 8 means that you have less than half of your territories turning which is great boon for you. Usually when the opponent calls Order 66 this early, it is a scorched-earth desperation option in which case you probably have many territories to start with and losing a few to Order 66 isn’t going to me more than just a headache. Sometimes the Order is called early when the two sides are at the tipping point and calling the order early enhances defensive positioning of the Separatists and blunts the eventual counter-attacking force. If the Order is called on Turn 8, it is 50/50 and depending upon how it turns out, the strategy either puts you in a favorable position and you need to sweep now or if you are not in a favorable position then perhaps holing up might be better.
Spreading thin in achieving this goal of forcing the Order 66 call to come earlier than would be advantageous to the Separatists is ok, depending on how you would accomplish this. Some of the implications of spreading thin are that when Order 66 is eventually called, those territories that turn will have only one army on them and will be easily taken back when you use the armies you have left over.
The key to this is to have armies left over. Try to put chance in your favor by having a lot of 1 army territories in the back, keep your borders secure, fortified and mount a large force on one territory to take as much as you can, leaving one army behind unless sealing a gap. Having the one territory super force is extremely important in all versions of Risk, for it gives you the most “bang for your buck”, but it is even more crucial here. If done well, even when the opponent breaks through, you should be able to come back with multiple reinforcements in a single mounted territory and clear the enemy out or use this to leverage positions somewhere else n the board.
You will of course be hoping that your border territories don’t turn, but in case they do, you don’t want too many armies there. So by turn 4 or 5, defense is becoming a smaller priority as an all-out assault is what will give you the best chance for success, while accomplishing the goal you also have territories that may turn to the Dark side, but aren’t as dangerous to you. This balancing act of how many one army territories, fortified and partially fortified borders, and mega-stacks will factor heavily in the post-Order 66 era of the game. Usually the rule of thumb is in the early game you have little defense, as you get more established defense becomes a higher priority and in the end game there should be little to no defense and offense is your primary concern. Taking out large swaths of territory late in the game may tip the balance to force the Order to be called earlier than your opponent would like and you would lose only a few territories.
Remember, in accordance with this strategy of deciding how many armies to have on your territories, you also need to take into account the opposing alliance’s army placement as well. Finding a way to keep their mega stacks down, under-pressure or isolated is the only way to avoid a collapse. Sometimes it can be useful strategy to follow up a successful attack with some quick strikes on your borders not to conquer the territory but merely to diminish and weaken it. This is really the only Achilles heal to the strategy. If the opponent has a mega stack, just prior to calling Order 66, he may try to do a sweep with his mega stack just to see how many he can get. Eliminating or at least minimizing the effect of this surge can be crucial in swinging the balance in your favor.
Being able to capture the Emperor once he appears will be made easier with one or two bigger stacks staying in your favor, more territories always means more reinforcements and also factors in to how easy it will be to protect the Emperor: How many territories does it take to reach him? The further away you are, the more reinforcements you will to garner to mount a successful attack. If you are close by, you may be able to take him one or two turns, if you act decisively. If you are far away, and the territories between you and Darth Sidious are packed with armies, you may not be as successful as if you had multiple one-army territories, which you left behind during the opening sequence and later turned with only one-army in them. Spreading thin is only a negative if it causes you to lose a lot of territory quickly and disables your reinforcement ability.
You will need to decide which of your assets you will wager in war and which you will defend for resources. Since the Separatists will most likely take a defensive stance, try to eliminate him quickly from one side of the board and nest there. Once you quickly establish a home base to draw reinforcements from, you can focus your efforts on rapid expansion, putting as many territories of your color on the board as possible. If you cannot obtain a “nest”, then attempt to sweep one side of the board with as much as you got to cut off supply routes, narrow your borders and bolster the fronts. Eventually, you will find your self a favorable position because you are keeping your opponent from taking a continent, you aren’t taking any so he has no real obvious priority and meanwhile you stack up on territories forcing the issue with Order 66.
Do everything you can do with in reason (no suicide/kamikaze runs, leave enough behind for defense of a bottle neck or later assaults) as taking territory is the only way to win the game, and the faster, the better. Put your opponent on the defensive and switch focus points to keep him off-balance. By switching focus points, he either can’t read where your next move is and you can exploit what he is not paying attention to or force him to split his forces which makes your objective a bit easier in either case.
In addition to all-out warfare by the Republic, it also needs to put pressure on the tokens in places. Again, having more territories limits the Separatists’ options, while also making it easier for you to capture them. Capturing one garners you extra cards, which are immensely useful in this game and necessary for victory. Try to guess where the higher point tokens are, 3 dots equal 3 cards. Likely the opponent will place the higher value tokens closest to his back or central empire where it is easily protected. Occasionally they will have no choice or try to trick you, but going for any tokens is better than not getting any.
Not only are tokens available for cards, but also attacking and taking at least one territory from each of your opponents garners you a card for each. Getting two cards per turn is a must. Achieving this through the tactic below, described as splitting the alliance, will make this much easier as you will likely be bordered on both sides by both enemies. It is very, very important for you to get as many cards as possible so you can bolster your forces with reinforcements, ships and special moves in the game.
In addition to trying to take as many cards as you can (this is really the only resource in the game that you cannot lose when Order 66 is called, so trying to take as many as possible to use later in the game can be good strategy, albeit with one exception), use your Anakin cards early when they make sense. Once the Separatists call Order 66 (which you hope will come sooner rather than later) all Anakin cards special powers can only be utilized by the Separatists, not the Republic. If you hold more Anakin cards than other cards, this can be crippling if you were planning on using the Anakin Card special power to further you objective on the next turn. By using the Anakin cards early, either for their effect in the game that would give you a significant edge in obtaining your objective or for use as cards you trade in for ships (which you will want a lot of late in the game) and armies. This way, when the order is called, all of your Anakin cards are already spent in your initial thrust to force the issue since you are trying everything you can to force the issue, and the many cards you have left over can be used with more freedom as far as options are concerned. Cards really are the only resource you can’t lose, other than your innate and practiced strategy and tactics, and in fact, even after Order 66 is called the Republic can still use them to build armies or ships, but not keeping this rule in mind about Anakin cards will not only hamper you in the 11th hour, but it also fails to show adherence to the guiding principle for the Republic which is to attack hard, attack fast and attack now. Using Anakin cards to further that objective early is a component part of the overall plan. Not following it means losing a distinct advantage early on.
Resource management through out the game is crucial to your attack strategy and also to your opponents’ defense strategy. Everything you do will be to garner as much in resources as you can and to prevent your opponent from getting as much as you. Tokens play an important role and the defense or attack on these tokens may decide the game. Continents are a major factor, as in all Risk games. The attacking player needs to hold continents but must not divert energy from the main goal just to maintain continents. The defensive player will try to hold onto continents above all else to maximize their return. Cards can also be used to look at opponents’ cards, take a card from them, swap for other cards and so forth. Keep using those cards when appropriate before they have a chance to do so real damage on you. The Republic needs to be aware of the need to produce more resources during the game faster than the Separatists.
Finally, the other item you can attend to is splitting up the alliance. You can accomplish this by either by killing one player off on the other team or by dividing the two of them up so they can’t fortify through each other, are constantly under threat or it makes it very difficult to place tokens. You and your ally do not benefit from the cross-fortify connected alliance as much as your opponent does. Since each player can only attack on their turn but may defend many times on other players’ turns, defense is more difficult to achieve correctly and Separatists are in a defensive position in the game, not the Republic, achieving a cross-fortify connected alliance is not necessary requirement for the Republic strategy.
Killing one of them off means they lose those cards (unfortunately the rules say you don’t get to keep them as spoils) and they also lose that turn. So the Emperor token will move only half as fast, and the Republic gets twice as many attacks as the Separatists. This helps move the pace of the game in your favor with a few exceptions: the tokens being placed will come out only half as fast, you can’t get two cards per turn (since one player is out) and it is likely that Order 66 will be coming as soon as possible. Even with these blemishes, it pays to kill one of them off in spades and if you time it right, you may be able to put the squeeze on or even knock out an opponent that was going to go next, but since he’s gone, you get one more turn (actually, your teammate just gets to go immediately after you, but the effect is the same) before the Separatists get to go. If you can accomplish this by turn 4 or 5, Order 66 will be severely diluted and you will hopefully have conquered so much territory that the effect will be mitigated even more.
This is the crucial point for the Republic strategy. Finding a way to dilute the potency of the Order 66 rule as you mount your attack will drastically swing the odds of success in your favor. By forcing the issue early on, putting on pressure by taking lots of territories, eliminating an opponent, taking tokens and cards to get more reinforcements and ships swings the advantage in your favor so much that the opponent may call Order 66 earlier than he wants to just give him a chance to stay in the hunt or to launch the nuclear option as a major attack strike, which hopefully you can contain through your grand strategy.
Once you have survivedOrder 66 and you have set yourself up as best as you can, now is the time to assess your position and what you need to do and how much time do you have to do it in. What resources do I have and what can I expect in the near future? Based on the answers to these questions, formulate a strategy set similar to Capital Risk in the end-game. You may still win the traditional way, and that may be easier or more satisfying, but going after the Emperor in most cases will be your best bet. That is the Yin to the Yang: They get to call Order 66 and wipe out a lot of your planets, but you get to play capture the flag afterwards. Once you capture the flag (the Emperor) you win the game. This is the crucial point: the name of the game changes drastically and is no longer same game and so different strategies are required. Those who plan ahead for this very distinct phase of the game have an overwhelming advantage.
Do you go all-out now, a win or bust strategy? Or do you wait, build up and fortify a bit before launching an assault? Generally you go early if you have a lot of forces now will have few future resources or your strongest force is very near the Emperor. If you see a trap or you have few resources now but lots of future resources, a build and fortify strategy with some conquest to gain cards, shorten borders, gain reinforcements but diverting a lot of your resources to this drain you from your real objective.
As mentioned earlier, the placement of defenses and mega-stacks will have a huge impact in post-Order 66 era. If you are behind the defenses and have assault forces right at the front and you get to go first, that is an overwhelming advantage. Attempting to do this by strategy requires reinforcements and placing each element in different continents so you have time build up and establish yourself. Pick the richest-army, easiest-defended territory you can build your assault from there.
I hope this helps! Good luck. |