Being an old school Risk addict I was pretty locked into the "Place Armies, Attack, 1 Fortify, Get Card" way of life.  That is how Risk is played - sure I played you could fortify to any connected, but that was it.  Playing on WarGear for a month or so has opened up some new things for sure.

So, 4 basic changes that are on a lot of boards that are very worth mastering (in the order I figured them out) -  (Not all apply to all boards, but if they do - take advantage of them.)  (and some subcategories)  (btw - I love parens.) 

1) Return to attack after fortify.  Especially if you are allowed to fortify to any connected (or just any) country.  Wow, being able to instantly move armies to the front opens up offensive strategies.  This is critical in Light Cycles as Legonate taught me.  I could not figure out how he was beating me.  

1a) Look at game histories and have "Oh, so that's how it's done" moments.

2) Return to attack after placement.  This allows you to be judicious and place as you go.  This is very useful if you have two fronts, and you are not sure how to divide your placements - particularly if you are trying to kill a player with separated countries.  Also very useful on games like the Smurf one where the countries have a limit of 5 armies.

3) Keeping more than 5 cards.  The first game where I figured out I could collect 6 cards and turn in two sets at once was a revelation.  (I forget the game, but I believe I won.) 

4) Keeping reserve units.  Oh, you mean I can keep armies and place them next time?  This move just kept me alive in an Infection game - I didn't know what to do last turn, so I kept my armies.  This turn there was a chance for a kill - and since I now had 10 armies, and could fortify and return to attack, and return after placement - i was able to get that person, the elimination bonus, and then carve out a decent area.

4a) Which reminds me of elimination bonuses - very nice to get when they are there. 

I am sure this is old hat to those of you who have been around for awhile, but that has been my learning curve so far.

One thing I haven't figured out is capitals - I keep losing mine and *poof* I'm gone.

Amidon37 wrote:

One thing I haven't figured out is capitals - I keep losing mine and *poof* I'm gone.

Don't take one until you are positive you can hold it, or grab multiple ones so you are less likely to go *poof*.

Capitols are doubly dangerous, in that they can elicit un-tactical play in your opponents. Even when Person A has no chance to wipe you out there is a good chance they will attack your capitol anyway and allow Person B to finish the job.

I'm not sure what the thought process is there yet, but it's something to watch out for.

IRoll11s wrote: Capitols are doubly dangerous, in that they can elicit un-tactical play in your opponents. Even when Person A has no chance to wipe you out there is a good chance they will attack your capitol anyway and allow Person B to finish the job.

I'm not sure what the thought process is there yet, but it's something to watch out for.

It's the same reason people play the lottery. The expected value of the play is pretty much 0, if not negative, but folks sure love wasting their grocery money on it.

Yo Amidon, thanks for the props on two of my maps features. Yeah, those things are really important since some of us will use them as the actual keys to being able to play the map. In Smurfs, return to attack is really important but it also has return to placement so if you don't have a path space and all your shrooms are filled you can attack with 1 unit and then place your units in the path and refill the shroom you attacked out of.
As far as capitals go they are still a little new to some of us. I don't think I have really used them very well yet. Right now I tend to use them in maps just to avoid worthless clean up at the end of the games but that's not really a good use of them and I know that (perhaps if I brought Chimps in Space here).
I need to take time to give props to Castles. I am amazed at that map. The capitals are used to perfection on that map. They are placed in the perfect spots and the addition of the modifiers and View Only borders makes them hard to pass up but dangerous to have. I hate giving Cram anymore props than all you Cramchakle Acolytes seem to bestow on him, but he, once again, took the simple and perfected it (Hordes! never existed before his prior persona created it). I try to do innovative things with my stuff but I'm just shooting in barrels hoping to hit while Cram does it every time. That's why I think he is full of monkey crap!
So you keep paying attention to the History and look over the rules each game because map makers like Cram, Edward Nygma and myself to a lesser extent, will keep finding new ways to use these cool tools tom keeps giving us.

IRoll11s wrote: Capitols are doubly dangerous, in that they can elicit un-tactical play in your opponents. Even when Person A has no chance to wipe you out there is a good chance they will attack your capitol anyway and allow Person B to finish the job.

I'm not sure what the thought process is there yet, but it's something to watch out for.

This is the explanation for at least half the games I've ever lost on Castles.

Amidon, re your 3rd point, I'm guessing that was on Mars. The card setup on that board is sneaky clever.

Risky, Chimps in space is your magnum opus, and capitals would really clean up the end game, turning a 9.5 out of 10 into an 11 out of 10. Capitals would have worked well in Gent's duel/chess, though I know of at least one game in each where a player came back after losing the head/king.

Ah gentleman's duel and chess were simply awesome.

So now in the game "Across the Great Divide" there are two capitols in the middle of the board. Grabbing one gives you a big bonus, but then if someone kills you then you are out - but the rub is they are then are vulnerable to being killed.

So, in the game I am in someone grabbed a capitol, and no one is taking it from him because (I assume) they are afraid to have it. Has this happened in other people's games? A very interesting study in psychology here I thinks.

Yep. In the couple of games I played on that board, I opined that holding one of them was basically a death sentence. It's nice while it lasts but eventually someone takes it and you die - and then someone else takes it and they die too. My initial take was that they're best to avoid until the end game... or until you can take both.

Heh, but if noone risks it besides that first person, he should be able to build up a sizable defense for it, no? I haven't actually played on the board so I don't know.

Maybe, but there's a unit cap on the capitals and there's return to attack and return to place, so there's a limit to how much defense you can really put on it.

A unit cap on capitals is very counter-intuitive to me.

asm wrote:  It's nice while it lasts but eventually someone takes it and you die

Which makes sense - right now it is not worth taking the capitol and getting his stuff because he doesn't have that much, but the more he gets the more tempting it will be.  

Also  - It's sneaky how holding both capitals results in a lower bonus than holding just one.

With a 25 unit cap on all territories with the exception of the Capitals (20) and the card bonus structure being 3,3,3,3,3,3,3...,if the game gets drawn out is it possible for a stalemate?

Under the right circumstances, I'm sure it's possible.

I'm looking forward to trying some online rules on cardboard. (except for capitals, which I dislike).

Wanna know what most people have learned?

You've been playing a game for 3 months where your strategies have flourished and put you in a very dominant position when all of a sudden....OOPS--> your 20 unit defense has suddenly been defeated by an 8 and now your leaking all over the place and you eventually lose the game.

Welcome to wargearn.net ^_^

Sure strategies can increase your chances of winning but nothing will ever beat the oh so Evil"RNG"=Random Number Generator. Don't get discouraged though...just move on to the next game and do your best.

Now thats what I have learned...

If an 8 attack takes down your 20 and *that* ruins you, than your position wasn't so dominant in the first place. It certainly stinks when such things happen though - I mean anyone that does an 8v20 attack is throwing a hail mary in the first place and sometimes they work, but usually they do not.

More often for me it is the 20v8 that I initiate, but doesn't pan out well that irritates me.

Some luck stats on all this would be nice.

It would be nice to have a luck-stats summary at the end of games, which would calculate each players performance against the expected outcome (based on probability of dice rolls). That way at least you would know objectively whether luck over the course of a game actually played a significant role in your defeat/victory.