In a recent game BulbaBulba asked me "what is the purpose of neutrals on boards like wargear warfare and colossal crusade? The original risk game never had neutrals..."

I thought this was a really interesting question. Since neither of those are my boards, I hesitated to comment specifically, but I thought it might make an interesting discussion among the designers on this site, and maybe the resulting insights would be a good reference for new mapmakers. I've tried to answer as completely as possible from my perspective, but I'd love to hear what other designers think.

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First I should mention there are two types of neutrals that can be used on boards:

• "Scenario Neutrals" - (SN) - which are set to specific territories and start with the same # of neutral units every game.
• "Neutral Count" - (NC) - Set to none, low, med, high. These are randomized and allocated similarly to player units.

Then those two types of neutrals can be used for various reasons:

1) To minimize starting imbalance.

1a) SN - When there are continents that are either 1 territory or 2 territories. If one player were to start with an unfair # of these they would have a significant advantage, so (e.g. on Invention/Simple World) all 1 territory continents and one territory in each 2 territory continent starts neutral.

1b) NC - On some boards, especially in games with fewer #s of players, the 1st to go can have a significant advantage. Increasing the level of NC ameliorates this problem in 2 ways. First it decreases the number of territories that the first seat starts with, reducing their per territory bonus (sometimes/ideally down to the minimum bonus). Second, it can force some neutral bashing to complete any continent bonuses, slowing down the initial taking of continents, and forcing players to choose strategically between attacking the enemy or neutral bashing to complete a continent.

2) To provide for additional random elements in the starting position, and therefore improve replayability. Setting NC above 'none', essentially adds an additional player/color to the initial state of the game and so increases the possible permutations of the initial state of the board.

3) Game momentum (SN/NC) - Some boards for whatever reason resolve or progress faster than might be desired. Adding neutrals is usually an effective speed bump to slow down a game.

4) For thematic reasons - SN (maybe NC?) If you have scenarios that don't have totally random starting positions it might make sense to have certain territories start neutral to reinforce the theme of the board.

One more general heuristic -

The fewer number of players on a board, the more neutrals it seems to need. So e.g. I might have a board with a dual scenario for 2 players that has high neutral count, then medium neutral count in a scenario for 3-5 players, and then low neutral for 6-10 players and no neutrals for 11+ players.

Ozyman wrote:

One more general heuristic -

The fewer number of players on a board, the more neutrals it seems to need. So e.g. I might have a board with a dual scenario for 2 players that has high neutral count, then medium neutral count in a scenario for 3-5 players, and then low neutral for 6-10 players and no neutrals for 11+ players.

In a 2-player game, attacking your opponent is a clear win -- for every unit you kill, you're exactly that much closer to victory. Attacking a neutral territory is a big decision in this case because you're weakening yourself and therefore exactly that much further from victory.

In a multiplayer game, this is no longer true, and becomes less true the more players. With enough players in a game, attacking any given player is a similar situation to attacking a neutral -- you've weakened them (and maybe yourself), but haven't touched your other competition. Also, for multiplayer games, neutrals can be desirable to attack for a card during mid-game, when you may not want to antagonize a neighbor by taking one of their territories.

Most random territory assignment boards need neutrals in the two-player scenario for fairness. World War does not have them which gives an huge advantage to seat 1, who on average draws at least one starting territory bonus and can eliminate the starting terr bonus for player 2 before he's got a chance to use it. For this reason Colossal Crusade and Wargear Warfare are more interesting to play 1-on-1.

I've played the original game with neutrals if we were only two players. A pretend 3rd who never did anything but defend. (I've also tried playing with three defensive dice, not all attempts are successful).

I would add to the list of reasons for the inclusion of SN territories. Neutrals can be used in conjunction with factories to create advanced game-play features. Right off the bat I think of the tech trees in Invention and the sheilds/banners in WoTR and Ren Wars.

Also, some of the more advanced boards incorporate "off-board" neutrals that are critical for the functionality of the board.

I don't think it would be a bad idea to either create a wiki page on neutrals ..or at least a link to this thread somewhee appropriate in the Wiki.

I'm not sure about the original 'original RISK rules' (I'd have to pull out my oldest board (one of the original blue ones) to see what it says), but I know that by the time I started playing (in the 70's), the rules book included special instructions for 2-player games that includes neutral armies: https://www.ultraboardgames.com/risk/risk-for-2-players.php

Thank you for that link, agwyvern! What a lovely rabbit hole that was! I was today old when I discovered that "Risk Office Politics" existed, oh my. And you are correct, the original called for a two player scenario designating a color for neutral and using the cards to assign territories.

Thanks for the link agwyvern. I love how the y say "usually all the neutrals are eliminated before the end of the game", lol.

 The original risk game never had neutrals..."

Having seen the benefits of playing a 2-player Wargear game with neutral territories I might just introduce this to original Risk...

Once playing 3+ players it's not that beneficial, unless it's a scenario based game.