The PC version of RISK introduced a concept of Generals/Commanders and Tactic cards that greatly increased gameplay.  The basic idea for the RISK board was that your units had several basic attack tactics in addition to the number of armies on each territory:

Attack Right Flank, Attack Left Flank, Attack Middle, Defend Left Flank (lightly attack middle), etc.

For example, if you had 2 units defending against 5 units and you chose to defend left flank while they chose to attack right flank, your defense would be perfect and they would lose a larger number of armies than you.  Dice were not involved.

If your units had a general present, then the types of tactic cards were increased, such as surprise attack, feigned retreat, attack both flanks, etc.

 

I'd be interested in working with somebody to try making this idea a reality on this site.

Do you have any more detailed info on how this worked? i.e. the actual rules? Sounds interesting.

Sounds very complicated. Along the same vein, I wouldn't mind seeing the possibility of including the special units from Risk 2210, and perhaps even the special cards.

tom wrote: Do you have any more detailed info on how this worked? i.e. the actual rules? Sounds interesting.

Couldn't believe it but I actually still had the old documentation laying around.  Direct from Hasbro's documentation:

"Generals

Ultimate Risk makes use of Generals during combat.  A General assigned to a group of battalions adds tactic cards (see Combat Phase) to the Tactic List.  Each general is ranked 1, 2, 3, or 4.  The higher the rank, the more tactic cards the general adds to the Tactic List.  Also, a General assigned to a group of battalions increases the chances that a specific tactic will work during combat...In addition to adding tactics, Generals increase the max number of battalions a territory can contain...Each General costs three battalions to place on the Play Map...Each player starts the game with the ability to place five Generals...

Combat Phase

To start an attack, click on the territory you want to attack from.  Next, click on the territory you want to attack.  At this point, the Tactics Scroll appears.  The Tactics Scroll graphically shows you all the tactic cards that your battalions can perform.  To scroll through these tactic cards, click on the arrows.  Remember, Generals add tactic cards to the Tactic Scroll...Determination of a battle comes from several factors.  These factors appear in order of importance:

- Card Tactics

- Size of Army

- Generals Present

- Terrain Conditions

- Luck

- Cornered Opponents

- Attacking across a Sea Lane..."

 

Essentially, dice were completely thrown out of the game in favor of the tactic cards.  The basic tactic cards (for attacking without generals) were Attack Left Flank, Frontal Attack, and Attack Right Flank.  The basic tactic cards (for defending without generals) were Defend Left Flank, Defend Middle, and Defend Right Flank. 

With generals, there were added tactic cards depending upon the Generals rank.  Lower ranking generals would add Attack Both Flanks, Echelon Frontal Assault, etc. While Higher ranking generals would add tactics like Surprise Attack, Feigned Retreat, and Cavalry assault.  I could draw pictures to help explain better but maybe another day.

 

 

Vataro wrote: Sounds very complicated. Along the same vein, I wouldn't mind seeing the possibility of including the special units from Risk 2210, and perhaps even the special cards.

See my post above, the Ultimate Risk Generals basically were the same as the special units from 2210 AD.

 

 

For starters I would recommend just trying to simulate the basic attack and defense tactic cards. I'm no good with Flash but would love to work on this project with you, Tom.

Am I right to understand that these ideas are right out the copy-written game? At a minimum, you'd want to rename all of the components, but it sounds like delicate ground we'd be treading on here.

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Vataro wrote: Sounds very complicated. Along the same vein, I wouldn't mind seeing the possibility of including the special units from Risk 2210, and perhaps even the special cards.

See my post above, the Ultimate Risk Generals basically were the same as the special units from 2210 AD.

 

 

I'm not sure they're really the same. At least the cards sound rather different. Also, the commanders in 2010 by default rolled 8-sided dice, which at the time I found very unique (not so much any more). The thing that I think would be difficult about implementing them is having that dice bonus moving based on where the commander is. Furthermore, it is only a single d8, not d8 for all 2/3 dice rolls made by an attacker on a given attack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_2210_A.D.#Commanders_and_cards

Revitalizing this thread:

The primary tactics would be:

- Attack Left Flank

- Attack Center

- Attack Right Flank

- Defend Left Flank

- Defend Center

- Defend Right Flank

The battle resolution puts a high weight on which tactics are used.  For example, if I was attacking 10 armies against 3 or 4, they could potentially win if using the most effective tactic.

In general the more aggressive tactic wins unless it is directly repulsed by the defending tactic.  

Example:

Player A chooses Defend Left flank and Player B chooses Attack Left Flank.  Player B's troops essentially attack around the unprotected Right Flank of Player A's troops.  Player B would have a huge advantage in this battle.

 

I'd like to focus the discussion on Tactic Cards for now.

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Essentially, dice were completely thrown out of the game in favor of the tactic cards.  The basic tactic cards (for attacking without generals) were Attack Left Flank, Frontal Attack, and Attack Right Flank.  The basic tactic cards (for defending without generals) were Defend Left Flank, Defend Middle, and Defend Right Flank. 

 

Sounds really interesting. I played the Game of Thrones board game a couple of times. It is a surprisingly good board game for a novel adaptation. One interesting aspect of the game is that they did it completely without dice. That makes the game more tactical and obviously less luck-dependent. I enjoyed it a lot.

Their game mechanics rely on comparing the value of the involved units, including such interesting concepts as being able to support adjacent areas and supply-based maximum army sizes, and a set of 7 Generals cards per player. Might serve as a additional inspiration for adapting the system proposed by Attila.

For anyone who is interested, here is a copy of the rules: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/D1mZns0k6tS.pdf

Had trouble accessing the link...

AttilaTheHun wrote: Had trouble accessing the link...

works fine for me. but here is the link to the game's website: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=172&esem=4

in the middle you can download the rules book as a pdf.

but I'm happy to outline the game dynamics a bit more if you are interested. may be a bit dry reading to go through a rulebook without actually playing the game...

I just saw they have a nice little tutorial linked at the bottom. Pretty nifty.

Does anyone know while playing pc ultimate risk what does the "check" mark and "X" mark mean while viewing the generals tactical cards?

Does anyone know while playing pc ultimate risk what does the "check" mark and "X" mark mean while viewing the generals tactical cards?

jmh wrote:

Does anyone know while playing pc ultimate risk what does the "check" mark and "X" mark mean while viewing the generals tactical cards?

Refresh my memory, where and when do the marks show up? BTW, I found my old copy and hope to reinstall it soon on an old laptop. Found that ultimate risk, command and conquer red alert, and mech warrior all ran off win 95. If there is a heaven on earth, think just found it.

The "tactical cards" pop up when you have a general. Sometimes general against general and sometimes general against just armies. There will be stars underneath the cards. The cards available will depend on the rand of your general. Within each card, some of them will no distinguishing marks, some will have a check mark (only one card usually in the opponents color) and others will have an x mark (2 or 3 cards usually and again in the opponents color).  I believe it has something to do with suitable and unsuitable attacks and defenses depending on the terrain, but I can't remember which is which.

Anyone?