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Scenarios
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Saturday, March 03, 2007
1117 Views ::
11 Solutions ::  :: Diplomacy, Online, Treaty, Player Profile
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Let's look at this scenario in detail. The idea is to examine it from all angles and find out what is the best outcome.
History
You were originally in Africa, but you decided that it was too competitive and if you stay there you will be squeezed between Brown and Yellow. So you decided to leave and make your luck elsewhere.
You went to Asia and adopted a strategy of slow concentrated growth. All you wanted was not to get kicked out of the game.
Meanwhile, everyone else was busy conquering their continents secure. Blue has just managed to get his continent. Green will get Europe in one turn. Yellow and Brown already have their continents, but are aggressively competing over Africa.
Brown was clever earlier on. He made a treaty with Blue over Central America not to be attacked. He has since counted on this and has moved all his armies to a single front, which is helping him greatly to fight in Africa.
All players are quite experienced.
Blue
Blue, having secured his continent is interested to expand, but where? Next turn, if he gets cards as well, he would have a large number of armies to place on the map. Should he break the deal to get South America in one go? Wouldn't that be immoral? Brown is already fighting Yellow, so if Brown is attacked by Blue, he may have no chance to bite back. If the deal is broken, would Blue be able to sleep at night with a clear conscience?
Brown
Brown has counted too much on Blue, and feels vulnerable. At the same time he sees Africa within grasp.
Yellow
Yellow, the most powerful, is in a good defensive position. But he needs to expand. Africa, Europe or Asia?
Green
Green is looking to get a deal with someone, since he is in the middle of the world and is squeezed from every direction. Blue probably would be reluctant to make a deal as he already has a treaty. No one owns Africa yet, so no clear leader to approach.
Red
As for you, you are threatening everyone with the largest concentrated army on the map. Everyone can be a target. They all know that if they let you grow, you will be a big problem in the future. But no one is willing to do anything about it. It is too costly for them to attack you for no potential gain. In short, they are all doomed. You are exploiting this and slowly growing. You only have one problem: If they gang up against you, you will be out of the game in no time. You have to make sure that you keep them divided.
Here is the card information:
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Blue |
Green |
Yellow |
Brown |
Red (To play) |
| Didn't cash |
Didn't cash |
Didn't cash |
Didn't cash |
Gets 6 if cashed |
| Cards left: 3 |
Card left: 3 |
Cards left: 3 |
Cards left: 3 |
Cards left: 3 but has no combination |
To thoroughly analyse this we need to play it out from everybody's point of view. Once we know what are the best moves anyone can have, we can then work out how the game will progress.
Questions
Playing as Red: What would you do? Blue’s move may have a significant effect on the game, what would he do and what you do about it if you are Red? Would you carry on growing, or initiate an attack to control the game. How do you keep them divided.
Playing as Blue:
Would you attack South America? What would you do about Red?
Playing as Green:
Who to make a deal with? What to do? Where to go? Red?
Playing as Yellow:
Where to expand to? Should you fight to death to get Africa, or give it up. The Red forced, what about them?
Playing as Brown:
Can I count on Blue? Is it worth? When should I change my attitude towards the risk I am taking?
Find more solutions in the book
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| Your Solutions |
 By
Imported Post @
Friday, March 16, 2007 12:05 PM
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Assuming that it's red's turn first, playing as red the first thing I would do it place the three armies on the mass (for 23) and then make a direct run to wipe out Australia and then branch out from there. Providing you get a decent split on the loss of armies in the attack red should have 6-7 armies to leave at indonesia when the attack's finished. It's highly unlikely that either yellow or green could make a successful attack to take back australia due to the distance and limited number of their armies. Green's got other things to worry about and yellow would either consolidate armies in an attempt to avoid annihalation or to mount an attack against red next turn (depending on card trades). Once in australia, build slowly out from there and see what goes on.
Blue's turn: Simple. Place most of the armies on central america and smash through to Venezuala. Don't take any farther. Consolidate borders.
Green: A little more difficult. First of all, secure Europe. Providing blue takes over venezuala, Brown's not likely to retaliate against you as they'll be focused on Blue, otherwise they're likely to go after Africa, either way, Brown shouldn't be an objective. If red's vacated to australia, I'd start to move units up to iceland to combat the blue threat, if Greenland isn't consolidated beyond the armies in the picture, a pre-emptive attack might be called for to take away the 5 bonus armies. If red is in the game, taking northern europe from ukraine and moving all the armies in may be a smart idea, leaves a border open but allows rapid retaliation against any invaders. A difficult position. As with all of the above players, no need to trade in this turn.
Yellow: If Red took out australia, they must cash in if possible. If yellow still has australia, don't cash and put all armies in kamchatca to take out alaska which will cripple blue. Start moving african armies back across to the siam border to consolidate against red's threat (providing it's still there).
Brown: If blue hasn't attacked from central america and is still has the continent and is vulnerable, attack it and then just consolidate. If yellow was attacked by red in the first round, consider taking most of africa on this turn. The north africa / europe border's troublesome and so some focus should be expended on it.
Anon
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By
Imported Post @
Friday, March 16, 2007 12:05 PM
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Playing as red:
Need to secure a strong location of continent ASAP. Pour in all available troops on Afganistan then capture Australia. The rest depends on the moves of the other players.
Playing as blue:
Possible to break the treaty but it may have an effect on future games. You could also go through Europe and then extend from there. Alternatively, if you're not planning to play with the same players again, it is more viable tactically to wipe brown of the map. Europe would be harder to capture as green would focus solely on you, but he seems too weak to fight back, and it would be easy to hold it later. Also, the southern border would still be safe. If you extend south through brown, it would have to be quick before green fights back after he secures Europe. It would be easier to capture as it would be a surprise and he is still busy with yellow. My suggestion is to put everything at Central, capture South America and fortify Brazil. He won't be able to strike back without getting wiped out by yellow, so you can focus on green now.
Playing as green:
After Europe, the only viable way to expand is through North America. Joining the battle in Africa would be crazy, and you're not strong enough to hold Asia yet. I would ally with red for Central Europe, then take Europe and Greenland together before blue fights back. Red, yellow and brown would be too busy to worry about you.
Playing as yellow:
In great danger of getting wiped out by red. Pull back and focus. Assuming you come out of it alive, concentrate and spread slowly. (Note: my favourite strategy is to build up, and build up, and then smash Africa, leave it undefended, and capture South America in one turn. Depends on the situation though.)
Playing as brown:
Best choice is to clean up Africa and pull back to South America quickly. Cash in if possible, put a few in Africa and the rest in South America. Either fortify or push north. Fortifying will be difficult since he would get large reinforcements the next turn and could probably wipe you out. However, if you attack the others would see you as a dangerous aggressor. Decide based on your ability to defend Africa from possibly both green and yellow.
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By
Imported Post @
Friday, March 16, 2007 12:05 PM
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blue: dont know about you guys, but in the games i played we never break a treaty, as everytime one breaks a treaty, the world turns on him and he got wiped out first. As blue i will keep my treaty and go after europe. Green will not get his extra reinforcement before i get mine, so the idea is not to let green to have the chance to get his extra reinforcement. Yellow will be too busy defending Australia, so my west border will not be a big problem.
brown: i'll reconfirm (if possible) the treaty i made with blue and take Africa. Reinforce, and may use my armies to stop blue from taking Europe.
Green: try to get hold of Europe.
Red: go after australia.
Yellow: stop wasting my armies at africa and pull back to australia. brown has more armies in africa, and i've got australia to worry about.
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By
Imported Post @
Sunday, April 15, 2007 4:25 PM
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I agree with you guys, the only viable strategy for Red is to get a continent, which means Australia. Assuming that Red succeeds (which he should), Yellow is as good as wiped out.
Next up is Blue, who made a treaty with Brown, which I find to be a bit strange. (I personally don't believe in permanent treaties. I always set time limits on them. Makes them much easier to keep.) So anyway. I'm going to go with the strategy I proposed for Red for Scenario 4: place everything in Alaska and take three or four Asian territories which nobody really wants to defend anyway. (I lost the last game partially because I didn't realize that my enemy was getting two extra armies out of Asian territories; this is influencing my mindset at the moment). No aggression, but quite a bit of gain.
Green must of course take Europe.
Yellow - I love how it says on the scenario "the most powerful" - by this time he should be out of luck and continentless. His only chance is to trade in and either push for Australia or Africa. If he succeeds in retaking Australia Red is as good as dead. If he succeeds in Africa Brown is in a bad position but Red and Yellow still have a chance. If he fails in both, or has no combination, he is doomed.
Brown, if he still exists as a credible power, will have to try for Africa and pray Blue is honorable (and stupid) enough to let him live.
In the long run:
Blue will (I believe) win the game. His control of a major continent ahead of anyone else is just too big an advantage. He will overwhelm Europe and then nothing can stop him. The only way this could be averted is if Red makes a surprise trade-in strike on Alaska in the next few turns.
Green, if he can survive the next turn's probable attack on Iceland, has a chance. He cannot cripple Blue or else the world will unite against him, but he cannot leave Blue alone or he will die. If Green lives through the next few turns with Europe intact, he has a shot.
Out of Brown, Yellow, and Red, only one will survive and become the third major power in the game, controlling Africa and at least one of the other two continents. This will probably last for about a turn before that power is annihilated by Blue and/or Green.
If I could choose which person to play, I'd say Blue for sure. Other than that...it all depends who gets a combination first.
Machiavelli
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By
Grant Blackburn @
Saturday, June 30, 2007 5:15 PM
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It seems clear that the strategy of taking Australia for Red is a priorty, but Red needs to be careful since this may weaken Yellow so much that he may be eliminated by another player and they get to take his cards. This would be to Red's disadvantage initially. If you can engage in enough diplomacy to stave off attacks, you can slowly grow so that when it comes time to turn in your next set of cards, the value is high enough that you can take at least half the board. Taking Australia should be tempered with the tactic of blocking a player so you can take out his last territory and thus get his cards. You need to be careful though since doing so means he may turn in his cards and wipe you out.
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By
kevyn rogan @
Sunday, September 16, 2007 6:58 AM
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RED: only option is australia, atack hard and fast using fortifying move to put as many units as possible in indonesia, try making a treaty with green before boving, they need reassurance from somewhere and will feel safe knowing your huge army isn't coming their way, also the reds will be weak in asia after the australia campain so knowing the only real threat to asia wont attack would be handy.
BLUE: not real strong enough to mount a serious attack and survive the retaliation so it's all about claiming a card at the moment, the weakest target is asia so one attack to get a card other than that simply reinforce the borders for now.
GREEN: also has nowhere to go at the moment, take the remaining territory in europe and strengthen borders, consider trying to crack greenland to break the blue hold there.
YELLOW: having probably just been decimated by red the only options are to retake australia or to try to take africe, depending on how much red has left they are probably the weaker target so surrender africa agreeing to let brown have it freely if they will give you time to move out then try to wipe out red. if red is still strong then yellow must attack brown in africa if they dont have a set to trade in then they dont have a chance and are as good as out of the game.
BROWN: chances are yellow is now very weak, time to take advantage and take africa, with 2 continents controlled they will now be a big target, build up forces in brazil they will be ready to counter atack any movement into either continent.
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By
Johan Pacheco @
Wednesday, December 05, 2007 1:15 PM
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I personally would not go for Australia if I were red. If you did you would be weak, you would not have yellows cards because of the leftovers in africa, and there is a ninety percent chance the players will gang up on Red. the players will not be able to trust each other. The general thought will be "if we gang up on him the last guy to hit him will get his cards". Thus, everyone will worry about concentrating on the people with continents. I would (if I have a trade in hand) would attack one territory in Asia than move back to the same spot. In that position you worry the other players and you are well suited to make a bull rush to any player.
The time to strike would be if a player hits five or four cards and is weak enough to be taken over in one turn. If that is accomplished I would trade those cards in and amass everything on one position again and wait until the time to strike occurs again.
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By
Ehsan Honary @
Thursday, December 06, 2007 12:26 AM
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Johan Pacheco, your strategy is similar to following the "Turtle Strategy". Basically as you said, you just wait and grow and obtain cards and if someone attacked you, you attack them and take them out. Of course if you can also easily take out a player with large number of cards, you will do so too. It is certainly a valid strategy, except that if every knows about it, it can be frowned upon when it is used. The problem is that if everyone does that, the game simply goes into a marathon and will never finish. Considering that a satisfying Risk is a game that does finish, this can become a problem. There are strategies that deal with this (as I have discussed in the book), and depending on circumstances if other players are sensitive to this move, it could end up being considered a step too far and you could get targeted badly. If you can pull it off, it is certainly an interesting idea.
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By
Grant Blackburn @
Friday, December 07, 2007 11:34 PM
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What if Red were to take a run at the small territories in Asia and hole up in Northern Asia. Before he does that he gets a treaty with Yellow, allowing him to take the smal, insignificant territories to go north, but prevents Yellow from attacking Red, thereby forcing him to go East? Would this strategy not force a conflict in Africa or Europe? The question is, how to get Yellow to buy into it or at least give yourself insurance that if he doesn't, you can still fend him off, assuming you don't go for Australia at first?
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By
Whispering Dreams @
Friday, December 21, 2007 6:43 AM
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I'm still quite new to the game, anyone please review my solution so that i could improve, thanks.
Red : (reds turn)
Offer to have a treaty with yellow :
Yellow move out of Asia
Red NAPs yellow on Aus and Africa
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Why (I think) Yellow will agree to the treaty:
Aus for free, without the need for armies to protect it so that yellow could concentrate on Afr, if not, Aus is likely to be captured by red and Afr captured by brown.
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Red:
If the treaty is successful, Red will capture Asia in 2-4 moves,(depending on diplomatic ties with blue and green) while keeping brown and yellow fighting with equal bonuses so that the fight would last.
Also encourage a treaty between yellow and green so that it will be likely to form a North and South Ame vs Europe and Africa situation.
If the treaty with yellow fails:
Encourage brown to take africa from yellow fast and assure that he would not be attacked by red after taking yellow as long as he does not pass middle east.
(thats like a free gift to brown so he has little reason to reject)
red gets indonesia so that yellow will live in aus but not get its bonus, while red waits for the last hit on yellow.
If brown takes too long to kill yellow, get green out of asia and get aus for bonus, camp army in china to get killing blow of yellow. (keep an eye out for blue, who may cash in and take the cards.)
Convince brown that blue thinks browns growing too strong and may attack into south america.
Green should be encouraged to attack brown when brown is spread out after taking africa.
Being harsh on yellow also warns players of rejecting treaties from you in future games.
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By
Ehsan Honary @
Friday, December 21, 2007 7:45 AM
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Very good analysis. Your strategy makes sense. Of course the only problem is to make sure you can get Asia secured. Also it is a good idea to get rid of Yellow for Australia, but securing Asia is always though and everyone will jump in to make sure you don’t get it.
The other issue is that once you go through an invasion, you will no longer be as powerful as you are now and may become a victim of chain reaction; i.e. you may eliminate Yellow and someone else comes to eliminate you.
Another risky part is if you can trust Yellow. He may make a deal with you, keep Australia only to come back later to screw your plans.
So moderated growth is preferred so at no point you become too weak.
In any case, very good post. If you have recently started playing that’s a very good strategy. Just keep playing Risk ;-)
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