One of the things I love about historical or near-historical wargames, is the feeling of imagining myself as one of the military forces in a scenario. We get this in board games like Diplomacy or Axis and Allies, which assign a certain Great Power to each player. And this remains fun even if the game has major inaccuracies or unfaithful balances, such as France annexing Spain in 1901 or Japanese tanks driving through eastern Russia in 1942.
Now Risk has always been a game of global conquest, taking place in an unspecified time period between factions you create yourself as you go along. However, what would the Risk map look like if it were set up to resemble a historical scenario? Which scenario would it be? Well, one option is to aim for the Napoleonic Wars of the late 17th and early 18th century. Since 1993, certain Risk versions have hints of this...
1) The 1993 board game release used artwork of Napoleonic-era soldiers. Its game pieces included infantry, cavalry, and artillery that seem to be from this time period.
2) Most electronic game versions of Risk have art, scenarios, and/or features that emphasize Napoleonic times. This includes PC versions of Risk (1996) and Risk II (2000). Major generals such as Napoleon and Wellington are generally featured in these versions.
3) Risk: Édition Napoléon (1999) blatantly takes place in Napoleonic Europe. It's the only nonfictional Risk variant board I know of.
So, here is a very loose approximation of the world setup during 1812. Wikipedia reference map: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/NapoleonicWars.png
FRENCH EMPIRE (BLUE)
This represents Napoleonic France and its European satellites at the height of French power in 1812, with Austria and Prussia under its heel and before the disastrous invasion of Russia. It also includes a young United States, which wasn't historically allied to France but was hawkish for war against Britain. Blue starts with 9 territories, including all of Europe except for Russia and Great Britain.
*Western Europe
*Southern Europe
*Northern Europe
*Scandinavia
*Iceland
*Greenland
*Indonesia
*Western Australia (nonhistorical extension of Dutch East Indies influence)
*Eastern United States (nonhistorical alliance with the U.S.)
BRITISH EMPIRE (RED)
This represents the British Empire of the early 19th century, with some necessary exaggerations to its colonial control. Britain's coalition also controls Brazil, the capital of the Portuguese government-in-exile. Red starts with 9 territories, which include an entertaining stronghold in Canada (four territories) and one territory in every other continent.
*Great Britain
*Quebec/Eastern Canada
*Ontario/Central Canada
*Alberta/Western Canada
*Northwest Territory
*Pakistan/India
*South Africa
*Eastern Australia
*Brazil (allied Portugal)
RUSSIAN EMPIRE (GREEN)
This represents the Russian Empire, on the verge of invasion from Napoleon. With this startup, Russia also claims Afghanistan (really Central Asia) even though Russia had not yet consolidated that part of its empire, according to maps I've seen. Green starts with 8 territories that are all connected, giving it the cleanest setup of all.
*Ukraine/Russia
*Afghanistan
*Ural
*Siberia
*Yakutsk
*Irkutsk
*Kamchatka
*Alaska
ORIENTAL EMPIRES (BLACK)
This represents the first manufactured alliance, a mishmash of the Ottoman Empire as well as the empires and kingdoms in China, Japan, Siam, and... umm, Madagascar. The name of such a group would be debatable, but "oriental" has a vague meaning in the English language that includes culture from the Balkans and Turkey up to the ends of Eastern Asia. Black starts with 8 territories in Asia and Africa.
*China
*Mongolia
*Japan
*Siam/Southeast Asia
*Middle East
*Egypt
*North Africa
*Madagascar
PENINSULAR EMPIRES (YELLOW)
This represents the Spanish colonies in America, thrown into upheaval and revolution after the Peninsular War (Napoleon's invasion of Spain and Portugal). Historically, many of these nations had already begun independence movements by 1812, and many of them tried to form cooperative governments. For game balance, this faction also includes the Spanish Philippines (played by New Guinea) and Portuguese West and East Africa. If it bothers you that Portuguese Africa is in a different faction than Portuguese Brazil, consider that Portugal's king stays in Brazil himself until 1821, so it's not the same as the African colonies. Yellow starts with 8 territories, in pockets of South America, North America, and Africa.
*Venezuela
*Central America
*Western United States
*Peru
*Argentina
*Congo/Central Africa (representing West Africa)
*East Africa
*New Guinea (representing the Philippines) |