Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!yale!eagle.wesleyan.edu!ymatsumoto
From: ymatsumoto@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Risk (playing cautious opponents)
Message-ID: <1990Nov22.153949.36094@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 90 20:39:49 GMT
Organization: Wesleyan University Computing Center
Lines: 29

Even against five cautious opponents, winning is not necessarily too hard.
With card redemption values at the highest, it would probably take me
about fifteen minutes to win a game...  The key is to indeed strike one
opponent at a time; however, there are several other tricks.
	1) Try to knock down countries so the enemy will have to 
		go through several other opponents' countries to get
		it back (ie make your opponent go against innocent
		other countries on the way).  However, beware:  The
		computer will always try to go through YOUR countries.
	2) Sometimes, after you attack 5 or so adjacent countries of one
		opponent, take a sidestep and leave the 5 countries you just
		occupied unmanned.  I would assume that the opponent
		will immediately take these five countries back at once.
		Of course, all you have to do then is to get them
		back one country per turn to get five times as many cards.
	3) In the beginning of the game it might also help to allow the
		computer to redeem their cards, just to quicken the game
		a little bit.  (Max # of men you can get when you turn
		in cards is 50)  
	4) And of course, don't eliminate just one country; others will
		declare jihad on you.  Try to keep all the countries
		alive until you're sure you can sweep the board within
		a turn.  It's also helpful if you make sure every country
		has at least 2 cards when you eliminate them.
I found that trying to win at 5,5,5,5,... takes forever, though.  It's
possible, but it took me hours and hours -- simply takes too long to 
be enjoyable (it was just tedious).

-Yoshi Matsumoto		ymatsumoto@eagle.wesleyan.edu