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Such contestants are highly dangerous individuals as it is nigh on impossible to predict their movements or expect them to move with any logic. They see a country beginning with ‘K’ and they attack it because they like the letter. The person next to them passes wind and they spend the remainder of the game intent on eliminating the unfortunate dispenser of flatulence.
RISK does not favour the overly cautious, who invariably tend to be the people-pleasers in life. They do not wish to offend, so they are mostly content to sit and wait until someone destroys them, at which point they will reply, “Now then, what a lovely game that was. Would anybody like a cup of tea?”
Participants unable to see the wider context in which they operate also fade away under the dark gaze of Master RISK. Ignorant as they are to what is happening around the board, their focus is purely on their mission. Like a teenager in the kitchen they slam the doors and elbow the saucepans; crumbs on the floor and an abandoned knife thick with marmite, a butter-tub with no lid and a puddle of slopped tea. The trail of a teenager is not difficult to spot and neither is the strategy of the blinkered mules who fail to take into account the actions of all the contestants.
“Errm, if you don’t attack Europe, the REDS will hold the continent and gain extra armies!”
“So what does that matter to me? I’m going into Africa.”
“Well if you do, you won’t hold Africa because the REDS will use their new power to make sure you don’t!”
“Oh well, someone else can worry about that. I’m just doing what I want.”
RISK, however does embrace the cool and calculating mind which forms short-term alliances that are mutually favourable. A master understands that ultimately the alliances cannot last as in the end there can only be one winner. So he offers his suggestions with liberal lashings of logic to whoever is appropriate at the time. He shows no favouritism; he will happily form a partnership with a taxman to block the advances of his wife. He expects no favours from kith and kin, for RISK is a pure game, to be played at a level above the emotions of human relationships.
RISK is a game for up to six players and sometimes the champions, who uphold the proud principles it so dearly loves, will invite the unitiated to play. In doing this, these champions understand that the undeserving may win and that they themselves might suffer the humiliation of an early exit. They are prepared to accept this because during the process of the game they seek to pass on their great knowledge in the hope of creating worthier contestants.
The rules? The world is divided into six continents. Each player selects a mission known only to them. It might be to totally occupy two or three continents or perhaps to totally destroy someone else’s armies. Each player is a colour and starts with a set amount of armies placed in turn in territories within the continents. By rolling dice, opposing armies are destroyed and conquering armies move into their new territories.
Every turn a player receives reinforcements according to their strength and occupying whole continents adds to the amount received. A card is also collected at the end of each turn if a territory has been conquered. Certain sets of cards when handed in bring greater reinforcements.