RISK: Global Domination

RISK: Global Domination

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RISK Terminology
By Rest In Peace Ted Kaczynski
Here's a simple guide to help you understand some fundamental terms within the game of RISK. These can help you learn how to not only be a better player by knowing these, but also help follow along other players and their games, leading to you learning how to play the game even better!
   
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The Various Terms You May Hear When Playing RISK & What They Mean:
Good Neighbor: A Good Neighbor is an opponent who respects your borders when in a game. A Good Neighbor will often never attack you (unless they have to in order to win), especially if you hold a bonus, and will often in fact go out of their way to be nice. They will only match troops along their borders only if you do first, or if you've proven to be someone who cannot be trusted. Good Neighbors will often deescalate tensions between their allies, leaving their borders completely unguarded with only 1 troop. Essentially a Good Neighbor is someone who doesn't give you or other players a hard time in the game. These players are usually experienced and know the politics of RISK.

Bad Neighbor: The opposite of a Good Neighbor. A Bad Neighbor is usually a newer player who will at any chance they can, just give you a hard time. Bad Neighbors will always attack and mess with anyone they can. Bad Neighbors will never deescalate tensions and will often be the ones to start fights with other players. A Bad Neighbor may also be someone you made mad within the game and will see your defeat as their sworn objective, even if it means they also lose the game. Bad Neighbors are much more common than Good Neighbors, and be ready to just have constant headaches and problems when fighting them.

Noob Corner: A spot that is stereotypically fought for by newer players. Most often, these are either maps with extremely broken blizzards, or a place that can be defended with only 1 stack. Every map typically has a Noob Corner and as you play you'll see what those are. A common example is Australia on the Classic Map due to its ease of defending if you can take it.

Noob: A new player. These are players who will do seemingly random and stupid moves. A noob is usually a Bad Neighbor to anyone who upsets them, but this isn't always the case.

Stack: When you consolidate all your troops onto one or two places on the board. This is done because the larger your stack is, the harder it is for your opponents to break your borders and territories. However this may be done at any time within the game and is an extremely common tactic done by players who either wish to be left alone, or be flexible to make huge moves when the time comes.

Card Swapping: When you and other players will use their turn to gain a card by attacking one territory and then retreat or consolidate troops. Then your opponents will use their turn to do the same thing. One territory will swap owners multiple times. This is usually done in games with more experienced players, where the pace is a lot slower and many players have large numbers of troops.

Botting: This games version of rage quitting. When a player surrenders/rage quits, their remaining troops and territories are taken over by a bot. Bots are loose cannons and will do random and really stupid moves within the game. However since RISK is a very strategic game, this will run counter to the nature of the game and can lead to you and/or your opponents having to deal with their borders being radically altered by stupid and nonsensical attacks.

Borders: Places where large numbers of troops will be stacked upon in order to prevent other players from being within them. Usually (but not always) where bonuses are given if you hold all territories in that region/country is where borders will form.

Going To War: When one or more players attack another. This often means attacking their troops when possible, and going within and past their borders in order to break them. Players can go to war either for strategic reasons, or for purely emotional ones. Newer players are more likely to go to war between others, and for petty/stupid reasons, while more experienced players will usually only go to war when it helps increase their chances to win.

Breaking/Breaker: Attacking someone's borders/territories to prevent someone to not gain bonus troops when their turn is up. This is done to prevent your opponent from gaining extra troops, thus preventing them from becoming as strong or stronger than you. A Breaker is typically a new player, but not always, who will break borders and overall ruin anyone's territory bonuses. These players will take the "war" aspect of RISK way too far and take every opportunity to mess up anyone who hold bonuses or decent stacks of troops. A Breaker typically has a "If I can, I will" mentality, and this is to attack whatever they can.

Card Trade: Turning in your territory cards for a troop bonus. Depending on the game mode and how the bonuses of the troops are calculated, this can be a good or bad thing for both you and your opponent.

Parasitism: Allowing a player to gain extra cards so when you attack and eliminate them from the game, you will have even more cards to trade in to enhance your game. There are other phrases people will call this, such as card harvesting or anything tied to elimination for the sake of gaining cards.

Point: How many fronts you need to defend in order to hold your bonuses and territories. For example, on the classic world map, North America is a 3 point hold, meaning you need to stack and defend 3 territories in order to keep your bonus troops coming in on your turn, Alaska, Mexico and Greenland. Australia is a 1 point hold, because you only need to defend Indonesia, and nowhere else.

Blizzard: A game modifying option where no player can hold, attack, or go through that territory. This means you have to go around that country/territory in order to either capture, break or hold a bonus. This can radically change how the game is played. For example, if a blizzard happens to be in Mexico on a classic world map, this makes South America a 1 Point hold with Brazil, and North America a 2 Point hold with Greenland and Alaska. Play this if you wish to shake up the 'meta' of RISK.

Fog of War: Fog of War modifies the game by simulating the confusion and lack of reliable information one will have when war breaks out. If you do not have a territory within a specific area on the board, you will not know who else is there, what their troop size is, or who holds a bonus. For example, if you only have 1 troop in Central America, you can see what players and the strength of their troops are in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. However if someone attacks that territory and you lose it, you will lose all that information that is going on in South America and North America's Mexican border. This makes the game often riskier to attack others and slows the game's pace because you never really know who owns what, and you may open yourself up to attack.

Card Blocked/Kill Guarding: A strategy used to prevent someone from gaining cards because their armies are too low in numbers to attack you or are locked within their own borders. For example, if you only have 8 total troops and one territory with only one way in and out to attack and your opponent has 300 troops, they can fortify their troops at your border. This means you cannot reasonably get a card because you cannot win fighting 300 troops when you only have 8. This can be done either as a sign of disrespect, or to prevent you from dying to another player, so they can take your cards when you get eliminated.

Pocket: The territories you own in a specific area of the board. A strategy you will often see players do is 'flush' someone out of a pocket, meaning they no longer have any easy access to that part of the board. If all players are in Africa for example, and you only have a 1 troop hold in Madagascar, and someone attacks and defeats you, you no longer have a Pocket within Africa. This is done to prevent you from either stacking troops there if someone doesn't want that, or to consolidate you to a smaller place within the board, making you an easier kill when the time comes.
1 Comments
MaviEjderha7 21 Jan @ 1:15pm 
tamam