Finetuning a Risky Venture

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As mentioned in other posts, I have been working on a map for Risk. It is loosely based on the PC game Risk II with a few additional territories (above the 5 territories already added in Risk II). Mainly I was attempting to prevent the castle strategy. But after an initial design, I wanted to make the map more esthetically pleasing and "in the style" of an 19th century map.

About a month ago, I ordered a set of Lord of the Rings Monopoly pieces to replace the (now inappropriate) modern cities and capitols from the 2008 edition (Revised) Risk. I planned on using the "hotels" (fortresses) as the capitols, and the "houses" (strongholds) as the cities, but now that I have them in hand, I am not sure.

I am also working on creating my own set of rules (beyond a 2-player variant from the last post)... I guess the most appropriate name would be Risk, Revised Edition 1.5. I am including elements from Risk II, Risk Legacy, and various incarnations of standard Risk rules (both official and variants) over the last 30 years. After I complete the map and get a better handle on the new set of rules, I will throw it out to those of you that pretend to read what I write! :)

My Dark Heresy Cadre of Acolytes mk 3

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Well, it's time to update our group glamor photo. The last incarnation of our group can be found here. Hmack has completed his mk 2 version of his character, and we have added a new player.

We have just completed rank 5 and will gain our first advances from rank 6 at the end of our next session in 2 weeks. Here is the breakdown of our group:

• Denathor (Adept) - WH40K IG Master of Ordinance by Zorcon
• Venris (Cleric) - Converted Necromunda Redemptionist Leader by Zorcon 
• Kaarl (Tech-Priest) - Custom figure by Adeptus-B
• Quintillia (Assassin) - Converted Warmachine Eiryss, Angel of Retribution by Hmack
• Nickodemous (Imperial Psyker) - Converted Dark Age Bane Leader by Zorcon
• Rel (Scum)  - Converted Dark Age Forsaken Coil by Zorcon
• Skull Servitor - Skull Servitor by Zorcon

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Future upgrades: I *still* have a Techpriest Enginseer ready to paint for the mk 2 Tech-Priest, but the player has yet to take any mechadendrite advancements!! Plus, I discovered he wont be sporting an Omnisian Axe or a manipulator, so this guy will need to be modified after the player makes his final choices. I am also getting very antsy to make a mk 3 version of my character, but will wait until I get a force sword and better armor.

Two Risk or Not Two Risk

In my opinion, Risk has some inherent problems, but it is still a game with a bunch of little guys (ie fun to play with).

I have managed to put my hands on the Risk rulebooks from 1980, 1993, 2003, 2008, and 2011. As far as game play, they are almost identical with only minor tweaks to troop reinforcements (how many you get per turn) and starting number of troops.

In '93 they introduced missions, and each proceeding set "improved" the mechanics to some degree. The '08 set significantly retooled of the mission system, plus they added cities and capitols. They also changed the official way to determine starting territories.

One element I thought strange was that the most significant changes between all 5 sets of rules are in the 2-player rules variant ('08 doesn’t even cover it). Within that sub-section, the biggest differences are whether or not to include neutral armies, and whether or not the allies are passive or aggressive.

I recently picked up the 2008 set because it had cities and capitols (unique to the set). But I will be playing this mostly with my son, and it didn’t cover how to play a 2-player game, I looked at how the other sets handled it. My old '78 set had 2-player rules (without allies), the ’93 set added 1 neutral ally, and the ’11 set is the same as ‘93. However, the '03 rules include a very extensive set of instructions for including multiple aggressive neutrals/allies.

After reading through all these editions, I made up my own rules!! Essentially, I blended the '93 and '03 rules in the framework of an '08 game (cities, capitols and enhanced objectives/missions). I am really pleased with how it all turned out. This is a PDF of what I came up with.


As I mentioned in a previous post, I also started working on a custom map for Risk. I like it, but have decided to take a dramatic turn in direction. I will share my progress in a later post,

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I like what I have done so far, but have decided to take a completely different approach. I will share what I come up with another time.