Conquer Club

There comes a point in every Risk game when diplomacy has run its course, when the time for talking is over, when the doves of peace have all been locked up in prison and named as 'collaborators'. It is at those times that you must pick your weapons and here are some examples of the various weapons at the disposal of every CC General.

These weapons are suitable for no cards/flat rate multiplayer games.


The Nibble: Effectively a shot across the bows for your neighbour. Break the bonus, leave a 1 and keep forces behind only large enough to avoid the break back. Useful (for example) when your neighbour has gone for a second bonus and you feel the need to make your intentions clear.

The Raise: Assumes the 'threat of force' can be as effective as actual force. Involves stacking up on your neighbour's border. The idea is to stop your neighbour's push before it gets started to maintain balance. Often works well, but also allows your neighbour first hit (and attackers advantage).

The Break and Leave: Similar to The Nibble but leaving a 3 in his territory (assuming you've reduced him to a 3 deployment). Should have at least a 3 behind to both guard against the lucky break back and, more importantly, allow you to break again with ease.

The Cut: Either to be used as a method to stop a winning surge, or as the first stage in a three move invasion strategy. Involves breaking all the bonuses your opponent holds but only leaving 1's. The size of the force behind the original break determines whether this is a defensive or offensive move. i.e if if you merely guard against a 'cut back' you're playing the world policeman, if you leave a second invasion force then you certainly look like the aggressor.

The Cut and Leave: An opportunity to show some artistry in your killing. Take ten territories and leave 2's in all? Or how about a graduated 1, 2, 3, 4 defence..sadistic as hell and devilishly hard to get out. Also stage two in the three move invasion strategy.

The Cut and Behind the Lines Hold: Similar to The Cut and Leave but your invasion force is stacked in one strategic spot to either force your opponents remaining forces away from your borders or to set up a new bonus within his territory.

The Slow Creep Break your neighbour and leave a force in one territory large enough to (pretty much) ensure it holds. Next turn take another and leave a three. The following turn take another and again leave a three. Rinse and repeat.

The Invasion: No faffing about with this weapon. Involves the removal of all your opponents troops as well as the determination to hold what you've taken from other players on the board. The hardest move to play of all as well as, obviously, being stage 3 in the three move invasion strategy.

The Long March: My trademark move. To be used when faced by a situation whereby not moving equals Death by Sandwich. Involves one huge all encompasing cut+invasion of another's territory and the total relocation of forces into the new territory. i.e Playing NA/SA on 2.1 and cutting through Europe into Asia and conquering Russia/China/India in one move and then (using unlimited forts) moving everything out of NA/SA into Asia. You leave a whole lot of 1's for your opponents and (the hope) is that the turmoil involved in your move actually changes the game from Death by Sandwich into a favourable position.

The Suicide Stack: When faced by a superior force intent on your bonuses, the suicide stack is often the weapon of choice for the serious player. It effectively says to your opponent "No I'm not going to play fair here. Break my bonus and you'll get the lot in the face!!!" The opponent has to determine if 1. the stack is big enough and 2. if the you are bluffing or not. Best to keep the suicide stack behind the line IMO.

The End Game Push: Ideally used once you have 50% of the territories/troops. The concept is to send cutting armies against all your opponents at once. The hope is that your opponents are unable to get them all out thus increasing your next deployment/screwing their next deployment and allowing you to push again.

A beautifully written and very helpful guide from a master of this game type

You could also mention something about cutting off your opponents card supply when making an offensive move, leaving 3s around each of their regions or even working with other players to beat someone back/out of the game.

Oh, and leaving a stack in a defensive and offensive position at the same time (Similar to The Cut and Behind the Lines Hold), sort of like what I have done to K_H on Rauschenberg in Game 4696125.

Brilliantly concise.

You must have a lot of time on your hands Mr C

ManBungalow wrote:A beautifully written and very helpful guide from a master of this game type

You could also mention something about cutting off your opponents card supply when making an offensive move, leaving 3s around each of their regions or even working with other players to beat someone back/out of the game.

Oh, and leaving a stack in a defensive and offensive position at the same time (Similar to The Cut and Behind the Lines Hold), sort of like what I have done to K_H on Rauschenberg in Game 4696125.

You've played very well from the SA position in this game so far. Though I'm assuming King_H will play The Whittle fairly aggressively against you over the next few rounds!!!

The Whittle: When your opponent lays an enormous blocking stack into your bonus, or has an enormous stack outside of your bonus and you want him to push it back, and you respond by taking a decent number off every turn. Effectively a war of attrition.

I'm sure there are many others I haven't listed here.

Similar pieces could be written for escalating multiplayer, freestlye multiplayer, dubs, trips and quads too. I think I'll send some pm's out and see if we might get all the varying attacking options at the disposal of CC players into one thread.

Escalating end game strategy
For the purpose of this post lets assume 6 player sequential and define end game as second set of cashes onwards.

Amongst high quality players the end game options are rather more limited than in no spoils and flat rate games, there is not really the scope to have shot with little damage if it works out badly. Good escalating is all about maintaining a balance, weaken somebody too much and you will give the game away, play consequently tends to be quite conservative.

The Sweep
Classic way of winning, take out a player, recash and repeat until you are counting the winning points. Sounds easy but the devil is in the detail, those opening rounds are not just about getting easy cards, the key is good position and not making your intentions blindingly obvious. Biggest noob errors are trying to sweep with too few troops ( on a 15 cash for example ) or miscounting then not being able to recash and ending up a sitting target holding 4 or 5 cards.

Tactical Kill
This involves taking out an opponent even though troop/card numbers are unlikely to yeald a winning sweep, the aim is usually ( apart from taking out a player ) to set up a card lead and potential sweep the following round. This can prove to be a very risky strategy as often you can find yourself weaker rather than stronger at end turn , miscalculation can leave you very exposed and this is the most common noob blunder. I will only employ this strategy if I am very confident of the maths and have no obvious predators waiting to cash, even then I have been caught out many times by higher than expected losses or some lucky swine hitting a 3 card set.

Defensive Block
As a consequence of card sequence, bad position or bad luck,one or two players will be particularly vulnerable during the end game and need to be protected. Quite simply you block potential aggressors by placing a large force in their way, this normally makes the numbers unrealistic for a good kill. Although seemingly a negative move you must remember that it puts you in prime position to take out the weak player at a later stage, the guard is also the jailer

Taking a hit for the boys
Your worst nightmare is having to hit a large stack to save the game, generally this happens when your victim is all over another player and pretty much certain to take them out and go on to win. Absolutely a last ditch move because even if you have fantastic dice you have likely unbalanced the game and handed somebody the win , but a 25% chance of saving the game is better than no chance. Please note that this is far different from suiciding into a player to influence the result, do that and I promise you will never find yourself in an elite game ever again

The Forefall Move: Eliminate a player leaving you with 5 cards at the end of the round where everyone else is stuck with 2.

TheBro wrote:The Forefall Move: Eliminate a player leaving you with 5 cards at the end of the round where everyone else is stuck with 2.

That would be an example of a smart tactical kill, not so good if everybody is on 3 cards

love how you explain all this, suicide stack works really well in no spoils game

joecoolfrog wrote:

TheBro wrote:The Forefall Move: Eliminate a player leaving you with 5 cards at the end of the round where everyone else is stuck with 2.

That would be an example of a smart tactical kill, not so good if everybody is on 3 cards

I'm poking fun at my brother, I apologize to the rest of you. Not sure if he'll even read this, but if he does: