I don't think this has been suggested before, so I'm going to do it now.

Would it be possible to create a setting for scenarios that sets a territory to be destructible?

What I mean by destructible is that should control of the territory ever be lost by its initial scenario-defined owner, instead of transferring to the conquering player, that territory would be removed from the board for the remainder of the game (along with any associated borders and continents).

When would anyone ever want to use such a setting? Well, I was thinking of a few scenarios where this might be useful. For example, you might want to have each player start with supply depots that provide reinforcements only to their side, but which the opposing player can sabotage, thus removing those depots from the game. Or what if you want to simulate live individuals in battle, such as a general (that gives additional bonuses) or a spy (that provides vision)? If those territories were "killed", to be in keeping with the theme they shouldn't be able to be resurrected because they're now dead.

I'm sure others can think of other potential uses for such an option, and I further think that destructible territories could be even more powerful design options with the addition of barren, spawning or carnivorous territories or continents that provide special non-unit bonuses like extra attack or defend dice.

Thoughts?

I like this suggestion.

When brainstorming designs I occasionally find myself wanting territories to have player specific qualities and functions.  For instance,  I might want a pair of binoculars to only be of use to the original owner.  My solution would be to have Player Assignable Borders, so in the case of the binoculars, when player 1 owns it, certain view only borders kick in, and when any other player takes it those view only borders become non-functional until player 1 recaptures the space.

Though it's not the same thing, I think destructible presents an elegant alternative to PAB. The difference is that with destructible, the binoculars are destroyed.

I don't know that I'd want all associated continental bonuses to be destroyed, but I suppose there are workarounds if I thought a little more about it.

I agree with your setting suggestions.  The lack of a barren feature is really testing my ability to recreate supply-line dependent scenarios.  If you haven't, you should play my Appomattox board.  I consider it an awkward solution to the problem of not having a barren feature, but I'm doing the best with what we have so far. I'll invite you to a game..

BTW, I am not complaining at all. I think Tom is doing an INCREDIBLE job of making this a very designer-friendly site, and I think the options that we do have are very well thought-out and quite powerful.

I actually just started my first two games of Appomattox -- looks like a fun map.

I don't know if all associated continents should be destroyed, perhaps just that territory would drop out of the continent cluster.

Yes, you would want to have any continents associated with it automatically just not include that territory any more. Or just never have them as part of other continents. =/

I don't see why you cannot do this now.

Setup the territory with one-way borders going out or whatever and only artillery borders going in. Once it is destroyed, there is no way to ever reclaim it.

If this isn't the behavior you are looking for, then I may have misunderstood.

I don't think you can destroy a territory with artillery borders, can you? You either bring it down to 1 (in which case it's still owned and can still be reinforced) or 0 if abandon is on, but then it's ambiguous, isn't it, as to whether or not the player retains control?

If abandon if on and retention is off, then you can kill all of the units there.  Duck Hunt for example.

Good example, though I think you meant, "if abandon is ON"

Yes, I realized this after I left. I meant to say with abandonment on and retention off.

Fixed it to avoid potential confusion :)

In that case that workaround would accomplish the same thing, but in a more limited capacity because the board would have to be abandon with no retention, which doesn't work for every map.

Agreed, I was just saying that the feature could be implemented with the current rules, but not necessarily to it's fullest potential.

There has been a Risk 2210 board on ToS. Also in the series is Risk Godstorm, where you can sink Atlantis... that would be a cool thing to do. But it should be more than just conquering it from an original owner. Maybe someone could sink it if they attacked from a certain territory filled with many neutrals (so there is more of a cost for permanently altering the board).

Could be quite fun!