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Subject: Diplomacy In Online Risk
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JamieRogersUser is Offline


Tactician
Tactician
Posts:2

13 Oct 2019 5:04 AM  

As most members of my family or my friends dislike playing risk or only play occasionally, I play most of my risk online, on a mobile app called RISK: Global Domination. In this version of risk, there is an option to make alliances. This is the only diplomacy component in this game apart from asking other playing to attack specific players, which isn't very useful. 

Anyway, I find that generally, the easiest continents to go for online is South America or Africa, as most other players go for Australia or no continent at all and won't let you hold a continent bonus of one such as North America. However, these continents require alliances or treaties with other players so you don't get attacked from multiple places and can expand elsewhere. The biggest problem with this is that as soon as I put the smallest amount of trust in my ally, at least 60-70% of the time they back-stab me and force me into a much weaker position.

My question is: How should I deal with this problem? 

Should I try not to rely on diplomacy as much, but risk having to attack multiple stronger opponents at once, or try to mitigate or prepare for these betrayals? If anyone has other suggestions please list them down below.

Ehsan HonaryUser is Offline


Site Admin
King
King
Posts:268


18 Dec 2019 5:50 AM  
Hi Jamie. Well, I think not relying on diplomacy won't do you any good. The situation you describe is quite normal, in fact it is expected. No one wants to let another players become too strong and so the moment a player is pulling away, like getting North America and holding it, other players may feel inclined to attack. But, and there is a big but, you are not playing a two player game. There are others present in the game. Attacking a strong player can have significant costs. First there is the actual attack and then there is the repercussions and creating a foe out of it. For this reason players don't necessarily jump on the idea of attacking; what they want is for someone else to do their bidding. And this is when diplomacy can come in. If you are the strong player, you must make it look costly to all other players that attacking you can destroy them. This is why you may have treaties with others. It is not the treaty itself that matters. It is the complexity of decision making by other players when you have a treaty. You make them think hard and even hesitate. Who knows if your ally is going to come to your help when you need it. But because you have one, other players need to consider it in their calculations. This in turn can put them off the attack. They may hope others would do it instead. You may need only a couple of turns to get hold of a strategic position and strengthen your fortifications and so a simple hesitation is sometimes all you need to turn the game to your favour. Even back stabbing can be handled by diplomacy, by making it costly to get back stabbed. I leave it to you to imagine what you can do for that :-)

Ehsan Honary
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Forums > RISK > Risk Game Strategies > Diplomacy In Online Risk