• Points are back! Read about it HERE


    current issues

    1 - NEW PLAYERS - Players who created an account on or after Oct 15 2023 are not able to log into the forum
    2 - AWOL - We do not have an AWOL button under the ACTIVE tab yet. Please check each game to see if you are AWOL.
    3 - STUCK GAMES - Some games will not load properly. If you encounter this, please post stuck games HERE

    Thanks.

  • Welcome to Major Command's RISK Game forum.

    If you are a registered player, please log in:

    LOG IN

    If you are new to Major Command and would like to
    play our RISK game online. Then please sign up here:

    SIGN UP

Most important tactic

PITMAN212

Well-known member
Awesome Player
Fixed Force Club
Knights of MC Realm
M.C. Play Testers
The Duellers Society
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
291
so much great stuff here thank you all , my arch nemesis is patience , I lose it often , and lose : ^ )
 

Lokiskittens

Active member
Awesome Player
League of Gentlepeople
Joined
Jul 27, 2017
Messages
44
Question, in an escalate game of 10-12, when most people have 4 cards and you are early in the rotation, is it better to take a reinforcement round where you do not attack to get a higher value on your trade in or do you just plow ahead and attack every round to get as many cards as possible? Attack now I get 8 troops (two with 5 cards before me). If I wait there are multiple people behind me with 4 cards that would bump mine up to at least 15-20. Looking for tactical advice.
 

NewSheriffInTown

Make My Day...
CentCom
Awesome Player
M.C. Play Testers
The Wiki Bar
M.C. Youtubers
Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
3,616
It mostly depends on:

1) How many players
2) What round you are in
3) How many troops you will get now vs next round
4) What is the overall troop count of each player
5) How many cards each player has
6) And.... do you actually have a set now?

You answered most those questions, except the last one, which I assume is yes, you do have a set now.

So in your case, just consider this.... If you don't attack, and skip taking a 5th card, take a look at the other players who will cash in their set of reserves before you. Is it possible for one of them to eliminate another player, take their cards, cash in another set, eliminate another player, take their cards, cash in another set... etc.... and run the board before you get a turn?

If the answer is "probably not", then skip taking a reserve card and wait for the other players to cash in before you.


....


If you can't wrap your head around all the possibilities of a big 10-12 player game, then one quick formula to assess the danger of being wiped out is:

Look at a player who is about to cash in a set...

Is the number of reserves for a set (8 currently) plus (the number of troops due for that player) plus (the largest stack of troops that player has) => Greater then the number of troops the weakest player has?

If yes, watch out, see how far they can go....
If no, don't worry, skip a card.
 
Last edited:

Lokiskittens

Active member
Awesome Player
League of Gentlepeople
Joined
Jul 27, 2017
Messages
44
Thanks, after I had written it out I came to that conclusion (based on simpler reasoning). Your analysis went a lot deeper than I had been thinking and will help me to take my game to the next level. The parameters you used will help me analyse future battles and situations more in dept.
 

TormentaBANNED

Well-known member
Awesome Player
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
197
Sheriff is right in general but i took a quick look at that game and i would have taken the fifth card.

With 4 cards it is more difficult to run the board because players with 3 cards are useless and i would bet that one or more players are going to cash with 3 or 4.
 

Lokiskittens

Active member
Awesome Player
League of Gentlepeople
Joined
Jul 27, 2017
Messages
44
Thanks Tormenta, each situation is different, and maybe it would have been better to take the card in my specific game. I'll update with more info in later rounds when I can retrospectively look back at this decision and better judge this specific incident. It probably also depends on my other play and overall strategy.
 

Lokiskittens

Active member
Awesome Player
League of Gentlepeople
Joined
Jul 27, 2017
Messages
44
Retrospectively in this instance it was better to not take the card. If I had not made some strategic blunders I would have run the table. Thanks for the help, input and comments.
 

ericjkline

Well-known member
Awesome Player
Whiner & CryBaby
Enemies of Diplomacy
Generals
Knights of MC Realm
M.C. Play Testers
The Borg
Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Messages
179
Don’t always take the easy singles from your enemy. Singles cannot attack. I’d rather have 30 troops on 3 terts than 30 on 15 terts. Because in the first case I have 24-27 attacking troops, but in the second I really only have about 12-14 attackers.
 

Cardinalsrule

Administrator
Staff member
CentCom
Awesome Player
Whiner & CryBaby
Fixed Force Club
AADOMM
Assassins Guild
Enemies of Diplomacy
Generals
Knights of MC Realm
M.C. Clan Council
M.C. Play Testers
The Borg
The Embassy
T.O's.
Kickstarter
Joined
Jan 2, 2011
Messages
4,780
Don’t always take the easy singles from your enemy. Singles cannot attack. I’d rather have 30 troops on 3 terts than 30 on 15 terts. Because in the first case I have 24-27 attacking troops, but in the second I really only have about 12-14 attackers.

Except in 1v1, where you always want to take away your opponent's deploy.
 

ericjkline

Well-known member
Awesome Player
Whiner & CryBaby
Enemies of Diplomacy
Generals
Knights of MC Realm
M.C. Play Testers
The Borg
Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Messages
179
Question, in an escalate game of 10-12, when most people have 4 cards and you are early in the rotation, is it better to take a reinforcement round where you do not attack to get a higher value on your trade in or do you just plow ahead and attack every round to get as many cards as possible? Attack now I get 8 troops (two with 5 cards before me). If I wait there are multiple people behind me with 4 cards that would bump mine up to at least 15-20. Looking for tactical advice.

In games with this many players, I often take the 5th card and hope that when I cash it in I will end up with a 3 card set immediately afterward. You need some luck to beat 10-12 players, and you don’t usually win playing conservative, especially against smart players. Usually you win by taking a gamble at some point and getting hit enough dice to start the chain reaction, or someone before you does, fails, and leaves you a nice Christmas gift so you can run the table. It’s important to make yourself hard to kill by keeping troops in separate parts of the map so you are hard to kill by any one player.
 

wigglemonster

New member
Awesome Player
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Messages
4
The deploy is divisible by 3.. So.. sometimes you can take that factor down one deploy then yes!
 

Pariah

Well-known member
Awesome Player
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
145
Something i wrote, copy/pasted:
Hey buddy. Just figured i'd give you a short version of my strategy for most escalate games on medium maps with 5+ players. You need to consider individual map features such as the +1 autodeploys on maps like Africa or Forgotten Kingdoms which are more valuable than commands early in most games unless you drop heavy in a certain area and going for something larger first seems in order.

In general though you will make a variety of choices early in games but the end goal should be to build up stacks that you can add men to from a card hand in and use to eliminate players who will give you enough cards to eliminate another player or give you enough cards to where you will hopefully be able to cash a set in on your next turn and be able to survive to see your next turn after the likely actions of the players yet to act. Usually this phase starts once card values get into the 15+ range. Once at or close to this range you need to consider heavily the actions of all playersyet to act to make sure you will survive to see your next turn. If not then cashing in an early set or making an elim attempt with whatever stacks you have is actually your best move if you strongly believe someone else will be in position to make a run of the board. It's all about knowing when to strike. All your early game actions are just giving you better odds of success when the time to strike comes.

You always want to go for whatever commands or auto deploys you think you will be able to take and hold the quickest. If you go to big first then other players could outgrow you in strength and anything you take will become threatened. If you find yourself in a position like this it is important not to overstretch and take commands it will just induce attacks on you and further weaken you. When the time comes to strike, you will not have enough men for any strikes to work. You should accept your bad position in the game and simply build stacks where you can, merge your forces into a larger stack where you can, take the weakest province you can to get a card, and try to move out of/stay out of area where players look like they will be expanding soon. Study the game carefully and wait for a time to strike and try to make a run, if that opportunity does not come then make the best strike you can when you see that your likely not to see another turn. If you take a dominating position early in a game you can attack other players command early in a game to suffocate the other players a bit but you must back off soon and start focusing on building and not get to bold. You will just be throwing away your opportunity to build great striking stacks. Often time just taking a small command and building with just the deployables from that is best, and not trying to expand into further commands. There are some exceptions to this though such as classic massive and europe massive where steady expansion is the best strategy, or atleast the early phase lasts a lot longer and the game can sometimes go in a variety of directions. On smaller maps the early stage does not last nearly as long and unless you are blessed with a great drop simply building stacks and looking for easy attacks to get a card right of the very bat is the best strategy. All in all the main jist really is to just build striking stacks and placing them in the best positions to be able to reach and eliminate the weakest players and understanding when to strike or when you HAVE TO strike.
 
Top