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Risk II
Page 2
Playing the Game
At the beginning of each game, players must obtain territory and deploy their initial forces.
There are three methods of territory allocation on offer, besides the traditional 'random' and 'territory grab' methods, Risk II features a new 'election' approach. This is an interesting idea though the 'auction' method might be a more suitable name as players use election points (allocated equally to each player) to bid for a selected territory. The highest bidder wins control of that territory. Neighbouring territories already under a player's control provide additional 'influence' points and assist in the successful acquisition of a territory. The greater the number of neighbouring territories you occupy, the greater the influence affect. This new method allows a player to bid for key territories of strategic importance.
It is important to keep track of your remaining election points though, as if you bid too highly for particular territories you will leave large numbers of remaining territories for your opponents to pick up for a very modest price. On the other hand, fake bidding can be quite a useful way of diminishing an opponents buying power by deliberately inflating the price of a territory by counter bidding.
Once the territories have been allocated, each player deploys their battalions. In 'Classic' Risk, this is done one battallion at a time wheras 'Same Time' Risk allows each player to deploy their forces simultaneously.
  
Battling it Out!
With the deployment taken care of, the fighting can begin ! For 'Classic' Risk and 'Same Time' Risk, each game turn comprises four phases : 'Diplomacy', 'Reinforcement', 'Battle' and 'Tactical Moves'.
During the 'Diplomacy' phase, alliances can be formed between human and computer players using an I-Com, or Iconic Communication, interface. This is no more complicated than requiring a player to propose an alliance by selecting the appropriate alliance level icon and the opponent(s) they wish to ally with. There are three levels available. Level 1 requires both parties to avoid attacking each other's wholly owned continents or largest connected empire. Level 2 requires non-aggression save for attacking an insignificant territory for a Risk Card. Level 3 requires complete non-aggression. To add to the game dynamics, these agreements can be broken.
The computer AI has been modelled to react to betrayal in accordance with a sense of honour depending on the opponent involved.
Send in those Reinforcements!
For 'Classic' Risk, reinforcements are calculated on a combination of territories held, continent bonuses and traded card sets but each player always receives a minimum of three battalions.
In 'Same Time' Risk, connected empires are also considered and the calculation is slightly different.
Additionally, reinforcements to a given territory are limited to the number of neighbouring territories also occupied. This is known as the 'reinforcement restriction rule'. The Battle phase is where the two modes are most noticeably different. In 'Classic' Risk players take turns in attacking their opponents. Attacks are made from a single territory to a neighbouring enemy territory. The attacker can choose to retreat if they feel their losses are too great.
Success of failure is decided by a simple set of rules using up to three six sided dice. The number of dice rolled depends on the number of battalions included in the attack. If victorious, the attacker must choose how many battalions will occupy the conquered territory, with a minimum of the number of dice you used in the attack. This must be done all while retaining enough strength to defend against any counterattack. Provided you have enough forces, there is no limit to the number of attacks a player can do in a single Battle phase.
In 'Same Time' Risk players make their moves simultaneously. As a consequence the Battle phase is divided into five sub phases : Border Clashes, Mass Invasions, Invasions, Spoils of War and Surge Attacks. Head to head engagements are handled in the Border Clashes sub phase. This occurs when two or more players have attacked the same territory. Mass Invasions resolve multiple army attacks against a single army defending a single territory and Invasions take care of the single attacks. In Spoils of War, an eventual single occupying army is decided in a fight between the marauding armies and Surge Attacks deals with a follow through attack against a secondary hostile territory. Each player is limited to a single Surge Attack per game turn. These variations on the classic theme are very welcome and allow many different strategies to be employed, extending the battle dynamics significantly. For example, multiple territories can be attacked from a single territory by splitting the battalions into separate attack forces.
  
The dice mechanics for 'Same Time' Risk are necessarily different to maintain certain complexities.
Each attacking army is represented by one of five twelve-sided dice. These dice range in colour from the weakest, white, through yellow, orange and red to the strongest, black. Each dice has a different mix of values on its twelve faces, ranging from 1 to 6. For example, the white dice has a '1' value on four of its twelve faces and has an average roll of just 2.6. In contrast, the black dice has more sixes and an average roll of 4.5.
In the 'Tactical Move' phase, each player can move battalions between connected territories to reinforce vulnerable spots or move forces in preparation for an attack. This is limited to a single move, though in 'Same Time' Risk it is possible to split an army and move from a single territory to multiple adjoining territories. Invariably, there are several armies you'd like to reposition but you have to decide which one offers you the greatest advantage.
And then it's back to the 'Diplomacy' phase. If you are doing badly you may wish to consider an alliance. When it's all over, a victory or defeat video clip is played. A relatively simple thing to implement but often-neglected feature of games is the inclusion of post battle statistics. Risk II comes up with a graphical representation of Territories, Troops, Kills, Casualties, Reinforcements, Continents, Connected Empire and Attacks for each player.
The Interface
Controls are intuitive and a number of display preferences can be set, many during gameplay. As well as the conventional 2D board view, a 3D-globe view is available. Both are zoomable, though this seems to serve no practical purpose.
More useful are the information overlays, e.g. Continent Colours, Ownership, Border Threats, Troop Strength and Connected Empire. In addition a number of Information Panels detail the number of Territories, Continents, Connected Empires, Troops, Expected Reinforcements, Trade Cards and Capital Cities for each player. These can be viewed at any time during the game.
Music please!
Tchaikovsky dominates the in game music and is used to good effect during the introductory video scene.
One of the major differences from the previous version of the game are the territory zoom sequences and battlefield animations. As a battle commences the player is transported from the worldview to a close up of the contested territory. The battle is represented by Infantry, cavalry and artillery unit animations. Soldiers fire and reload their rifles and cannons and officers and NCOs bark orders. These battlefield antics are very pleasing to the eye and are far more interesting than inanimate pieces of plastic used in the board game. The animations themselves are repetitive and fairly limited but, despite this, I never seemed to get tired of them.
As you'd expect, you can proceed at a faster pace by disabling either or both the Territory Zoom and BattleView animations.
Conclusion
Combined with the in-game tutorial section this manual is very well-documented and polished.
Graphics are very good! Colourful and sharp visuals; nice map and zoom animations.
Risk II also offers a good atmospheric soundtrack and decent sound effects for this type of game.
All in all I must say that I enjoy playing this game from time to time. I very much like the board version and I still prefer this over the computer provided I find enough friends to play.
If not, Risk II is a worthy opponent offering a variable challenge on a lost evening !
-Jochen
Ratings
Manual:
81% |
Graphics:
85% |
Music & Sfx:
83% |
GamePlay:
74% |
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This game scores
 
on our 5-point Rating System
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