Please. I own nearly every edition of Axis and Allies and the borders and coastlines are just horrendous and often don't reflect the strategic issues the combatants were facing. I'm confident you could make show us something much better.
The US actually tried buying Greenland in the 1950s so they could build early warning radar stations to monitor the North Pole for Soviet bombers and missiles. The US still wants to build a missile defense system in Greenland. Iceland was the hub of the north Atlantic and North Sea sonar networks during the Cold War as well and NATO developed a contingency plan for a Soviet invasion as well. They were at a time more strategic than you'd think they would be.
@@erwin669 Remark didn't let us buy it, but they did allow the US to set up an Air Force base in Northern Greenland. Iceland and Greenland were pretty important to NATO planning.
@@jeffbenton6183 I mean "allow" is a bit of a stretch since the agreement was set up, independently, by the Danish ambassador and the agreement was denounced by the Danish state.
They didn't even try to go for a plausible future. They just picked regional names and smeared them over Risk's pre-existing territories, so they wouldn't need to completely redesign the map. And apparently Denmark just let America exile a bunch of people to Greenland? I can see them ignoring Greenland itself, but Denmark has strong friends.
If I’m remembering myself correctly, on the anniversary edition of the game (the one with wooden blocks) it describes on the panel inside that the map is based off of an early French map of the world from the turn of the century (early 1800’s), so the map they use today is so inaccurate because it’s based off of what they thought the world looked like 200 years ago. And when you think about it that makes a lot of sense, considering the French mapmakers probably knew very little about the islands north of Canada (because the northwest passage hadn’t even been discovered yet) and everything else was removed or simplified for the sake of playability.
Theres a version of the map on their mobile game that includes islands like NZ and the Philippines. It's a seperate map because they allow a second entrance into Asian and a new entrance into South America making both South America and Oceania a bit more challenging
ealry French map from the 1800s at the same time where france is allied to spain/conquered spain cuba and Philippines are the colonise of spain, new zealand probably exist in British maps quite bad excuse though
Tommy Valdes that’s honestly what I assumed especially with the map literally having all the old colonial map stuff like monsters in the sea and chart stuff
So, fun little story. In 8th grade, I printed out a county map for the entire continental US. I made a risk game incorporating every single county in it, and it took me 5+ hours to make. Unsurprisingly, no one played it with me. :c
Also Taking North and South America makes you basically unstoppable it’s not well balanced 3 entrance points 1 of which is in Asia allows you to snowball really easily
The capitancy of Chile was under Peru though not la Plata in a similar note to how the capitancy of Guatemala was under New Spain not New Granada but the thing is the mountains between Chile and Argentina made overland travel between those two less common than sea or coastal travel. And the map is supposed to depict a time of muzzle loading rifles and artillery not breach loaded one.
Have you ever heard of Risk II ? It adds Hawaii, Svalbard, New Zealand, the Falklands and the Philipines wich create new maritime routes connecting the continents
I actually got pretty high ranks in competitive Risk. The rest of this is just about Risk from a game play perspective. The original map is the most balanced map with the lowest skill floor. If you're a better player, you'll still probably win, but it's harder to do in as few turns as other maps where you can control more of the set-up. The most important strategy to get right is what I'll call troop advantage. If you want to win you want to make it so you have more troops than the other players, and that you can mobilize them more effectively. The most effective attacking and defending strategies are to have as many troops in one area as possible. If a player has Europe and has to defend 5 borders, even if they have the same number of troops they're at a disadvantage to a player with North America who only has three borders. This makes Australia an attractive option. If you place troops first, take this. No one player is going to control Asia, get its bonus, and not win the game, so you don't have to worry about serious attacks to your bonus. This also puts you in a good position to take the other southern hemisphere continents, which will result in a maximum of 6 borders and a bonus of 7 troops. That troop bonus also can't be taken away all in one turn, unless you were going to lose anyways. The low troop bonus you get will keep attention away from you until it's too late. As long as you have more troops per turn than your opponents you should be able to keep it that way until your victory is inevitable. Always save your cards until you would either win, lose, or have to play them as well. Ranking the continents in how helpful they are goes as follows: Australia, South America, Africa, North America, Europe, Asia. Best of luck
Thats what I do when playing Risk too, tho I do have a preference for South America over Australia as its usually easier to secure both of the Americas compared to Asia as Australia. Tho regardless, both S.A. and Australia are still the most helpful without a doubt.
@@nathanwailes It is in the southern hemisphere. It has equal access to South America, but better access to Australia. Even though I think Africa is better to have they are close. You're also probably more likely to win starting out in North America.
I had a PC version called Risk II that had the option to add The Philippines, New Zealand, Hawaii, The Falklands, and Svalbard. They created a lot of these sea routes you described. It also had a creative mode called Simultaneous Play. Every player took their turn at the same time. Since you had to issue all battle orders at once, it opened multiple strategies, like attacking from multiple fronts.
Here in Argentina we play a similar game called T.E.G. (wat tactics and strategy in Spanish), the continents are depicted as they would have been in the late 1700s, with their shapes and proportions quite off. Many countries are lumped together or omitted. Nontheless, I think it looks pretty neta. It gives an old timey vibe and, honestly, if those maps were good enough for Napoleon, they are good enough for me.
You did a great job with your version of the Risk map! I remember back in Air Cadets when we would play Risk. You could always tell when a player was new because he would keep attacking until he owned 3/4 of the board but had only one infantryman in each territory---then get annihilated the following turn. Fun times.
For the past 25 yrs after having stopped to visit a rummage sale, I came across the board game "Axis Allies". Had never heard of it before, so I opened the box and looked at all the pieces inside and felt that it was to immersive for me. But I realized right away that since I have always loved Risk, that it could be improved upon somehow. So I decided that if I ever found a few people again that want to start playing Risk, that I would start collecting "some of the pieces" from that game I saw at the rummage sale, and figure out how to add them to Risk. So a week ago I purchased a huge world map ( no borders, no roads, no cities ) just the continents, and the ocean's.I am having a print shop do the art work to make it into a Risk game board. It measures 34 x 54 inches. I will only be adding a handful of pieces from Axis Allies specifically " air power" and "aircraft carriers". Adding air power to Risk will really make it more challenging and interesting. It make every player concern them self with more than just protecting the "border territories" once they have captured an entire continent. Each player will earn $$ to build a factory, then after that they can start building Bombers, Anti-Aircraft Systems, Radar Stations, Airfields, Naval Station, and even the Atom Bomb. We have not worked out all the details about the new rules yet, but were making progress.
I like how you see Argentina containing Chilie as fine (and I agree), but leave Ukraine containing around a half of historic Ukraine and everything between Finland, Azerbaijan and Tatarstan unmentioned. We were never this big, trust me.
@@goose9515 Likely they'll loose territory rather than gain it. Ukraine will sustain tho. The whole country likely won't fall to the Russians I don't think. Maybe tho but I think it will exist somehow in some way. Half the country is probably going to the Russians tho.
@@henrybierman8431 NO, ukraine will destroy russia EZ you wait and watch. this new counteroffensive is the first of many. russia's old weak logistically stupid demoralized troops are no math for ukraine's well equiped west-supplied patriotic army. 🇺🇦 💪
The point of the map is not to be accurate, it's to give a general representation of the world the players can move in. Things like islands distract from the gameplay, and raise the question "why couldn't my troops just go there?"
I always thought they designed the map so it matches what maps often looked like around Napoleon's day, since that is the time frame that a lot of the unit uniforms seem to be from Edit: also, I don't think that is what they were going for in the provinces, those were a little wak
Ive been playing a ton of Risk with friends from college. Its been a good way to reconnect and stave off boredom during this pandemic. Cheers and thanks for the content
You know what be fun, risk map taking place during the Thirty Years War centered on the Holy Roman Empire with every single principality/territory shown.
I have one of the really old RISK games where the playing pieces are made of wood instead of plastic and have special tokens (we called them blibbets) signifying 10 armies to take up less space on the board.
We had ones that are plastic, but the singles were ~5mm long sections cut from a single straight extrusion with a 3-pointed asterisk cross-section, while the 10s were ~1cm sections with a 5-pointed asterisk cross-section. As with the wooden ones, they didn’t bother with 5s. The rules and map design were also a bit different from more modern versions, especially when it came to how the cards were handled iirc.
My dad didn't like those pieces though. Instead he'd put a bunch of the cubes in one of the lids for the piece containers and call it a boat and move it around the map.
The map also has some troubling borders. I don’t get why all of West Africa is united when the Sahara would be a pretty obvious barrier and make it at least two different steps to control it. Maybe I’m just ignorant but there’s a lack of people in northern Canada and Eastern Russia, so I don’t know why they’re pieced up so much. I don’t really like the game that much either because there’s not much thought to put into it. A lot of it is just chance and low-risk judgment. It’s easy to win if your opponents are dumb enough. There’s a game I played in 9th grade on warzone.com that achieved more of what Risk maybe tried to. There a lot of maps you can choose from and it’s not a much different experience from Risk gameplay- wise.
Risk requires skill in strategy, but is mostly luck in tactics. That seems fair to me. Still, I'd like to play a game some time with friends were ever invasion devolves into a game of go (or at least checkers) but that would take forever.
@@jeffbenton6183 Probably a fair assessment. Maybe strategy is all I mean by "if your opponent is dumb enough". If you're smart and have a good strategy, you'll take the chances only when it's right to. Short-term, there's no player input on how the dice will roll.
Great video, but I don't like the suggestions about adding new land bridges and waterways. North America being three borders is not because of random chance, it's a game design decision. You also suggested adding more routes to South America and Australia so they aren't just corners to build up in. This is a common myth. Australia suffers from a lack of continents to attack to, while South America is bordered by the also relatively small, but superior, Africa. Sure, they can place troops on North Africa in order to prevent a player from taking over the continent, but it only serves to have someone angry at you for the rest of the game. Not to mention that they both give small amounts of troops compared to other continents. You say to make them worth more points, but that removes so much strategy from the game. Having them the way they are gives them a unique flair, and separates them from the rest of the continents. As for the other ideas, your putting this too much out of balance. There's a very popular map in the risk videogame where are the continents are given a ton more borders and territories, but only serves to remove a lot of the original's balance.
Thank goodness one poster gets it. Going Australia first is newbie strategy. Sure, it can work. But it often leads to being blockaded at the one egress point. Then it becomes hard to get cards. Cards are what wins much more than continental bonuses.
I thought this video would be about how the map creates very defensive and boring gameplay. But no, it turns out it’s about things that completely do not affect the game, like who cares what you call a region? It doesn’t affect gameplay at all!
It may vary, depending on the version and language. I've got a set from the 80's, and that one does include the Canadian Islands, Philipines, and calls what's Afghanistan here Kazakstan. Still the map isn't great, but it's more accurate.
@@theregalproletariat "again"? the PRC ain't that great but it's still definitely more democratic that a bunch of literal warlords fighting with each other
Oh, I love this!! I did something similar/silly like this. I used the real-world Mercador map too and erased (and added some borders). Tried to keep the number of connections the same, but added some too. Added Micronesia; I took some of China and Mongolia to add Manchuria; changed India to Maurya; renamed N-Africa to Sahrawi; S-Africa to Great-Lesotho, E-Africa to Aksum; 'Afghanistan' to Turkestan; Middle-East to Sasanian-Arabia; of course, N-EU had to become Lichtenstein; W-EU to Andorra-Monaco; S-EU=Rome; UK=Ireland; E-USA=Iriquois, and a couple more places with different names. Now I want to play again!
@@sandrine.g5136 Unless you're talking about future lore, that's not true. I think you're confusing it with Pheasant Island, which is a small uninhabited island between Spain and France, but on the Basque side. Andorra has their own government, but they have two heads of state (co-princes), which are the president of france and one Spanish bishop. Probably why you mixed both.
Build a giant wall map, make it magnetized, and make troops magnets. Boom, A massive Risk board that is accurate to the world and with more territories. That would be a good idea actually.
Author of the video: "I want a map with correct proportions, with correct coast lines". Also author of the video: "This is how my map would look like" *Proceeds to show a Mercator Projection at 4:15 , with clearly disproportionate proportions and coast lines...
EVERY map has disproporionate things, because you translate 3D object on 2D surface. Mercator however, is distorting things basing on math, with clear principles (keeping longitude and latitude at right angles). It is different from Risk map which is distorting things without any clear principles.
Many years ago several associates of mine and myself found ourselves with the remains of several Risk boards, and a bag of Scrabble chits. Being a serious table top war gamer, and prone to tweaking game systems, Russ specifically, and I, turned the basic game of Risk into something on steroids; We called it, Domination. Little changes led to deeper ones. We eliminated all the land bridges and instituted wet navies. We classified those old world game pieces by color, giving them ranks or levels of proficiency. Six levels of infantry, for example. One color represented national guard or home guards, the other end, Special Forces. We did the same with the Calvary pieces, turning them into tank units of varying potency. The artillery became various sorts, from light artillery batteries to AA batteries to fortresses. Those little wooden squares used in Scrabble make ready made game pieces, all you need is a felt tipped pen. Naval transports, destroyers, battleships, aircraft carriers, fighters and bombers of varying proficiency. Etc. We also took all those larger countries and broke them down further, so between the land spaces and ocean spaces we had around 200 territories. The cards were also enhanced, becoming two separate stacks. One for each territory, of course. Each territory worth X in resources and unit creation values. The other became 'Chance' cards. Things ranging from weather events you could drop on an opponents territory to spy actions that could disrupt supply chains, redirect your opponents forces, etc. We also instituted a Tech Tree, which meant that you could devote X amount of dollars per round to gain a roll on a die. Rolling a 1 granted you the right to roll on the Tech Tree, allowing you to gain access to 'the next tier' of units. i.e. every one started with Home Guard/National Guard infantry, which then progressed up to the elite SpecForce infantry. There were games that lasted weeks, and their were games that ended a few hours after starting... It was...something else.
Check out the old computer game Risk II, which adds New Zealand with bridges between Australia and Argentina, and Philippines with bridges between Guinea and Japan, and Falkland Islands with bridges between Argentina and South Africa, and Hawaii with bridges between Japan and USA.
Same here. Im not sure if its the '97 but I know it is not one of the modern versions. Never had any real complaints with the geography aside from perhaps some missing islands
Man, I enjoy risk (even though I’m AWFUL at it) but yeah the map is pretty roast-worthy. Speaking of video games and board game maps, one I find intriguing is XCOM 2’s. The premise is a world invaded/colonized by aliens and subdivided in a way that reminds me of the scramble for Africa, but also the USSR’s history of using awful borders to protect centralized control.
Greetings. Your version of the map for Risk seems great to me. The idea of putting troops in a shaded area for the Pacific islands is excellent and allows the battlefield to open up more so board space isn't wasted. You should sell your design idea to Hasbro Gamming. An upcoming edition for the classic Risk with this map I would call it "Risk 21st Century Extended Version".
Did you ever hear of the mobile game Warzone? It's like Conquer Club but broader. They have a mapmaking community for the game with a load of cool maps!
@@cbowser3 In the mobile game, there is a blitz roll mode so that you don't have to roll the dice a bunch of times if you have a lot of troops (30-100+ is common). When attacking a much smaller opponent, you can 1) lose a lot of troops and may or may not gain the territory 2) take the territory with little to no losses. Because such a game-changing event is left to the computer, there is quite a bit of luck (and knowing how the AI functions).
@@cbowser3 If you like the board game, you should check out the mobile game. There is a lot more variation in maps and gameplay, but the app is a battery drainer and games can run for hours (unless small map/few players).
When I was I young guy, late 1970’s my brothers and I took the challenge of redrawing the map. We doubled the countries. Changed continents to political treaty organizations (NATO, SEATO, Warsaw Pact, OAS, etc). The process was a blast and really expanded the game possibilities.
For me the biggest problem with the risk board is the lack of mountains. Ik regions like Europe and Asia are supposed to be hard to control, but they’re large enough that they could use some interesting dividing mountain ranges. One idea would be to add the alps to block Southern Europe off from Western And Southern Europe. This would make conquering Europe harder, make the Middle East region more strategically important, and serve as a buffer for Africa and Asia. Another idea would be to add the Himalayas between India and afg. , Ural and Afg. , and between China and India
These suggestions ignore the fundamental rules of mapmaking. It’s not about accuracy, it’s about the translation of information. Look at subway maps! Especially when a map is for a game. It’s meant to serve the gameplay not the other way around. You want to change risk? Start with something that will actually improve the experience, like how combat works. The simple map is probably the best part about that game.
The Risk II sequel did have New Zealand (which had waterways to Western Australia and Argentina), Hawai'i (which had waterways to Western United States and Japan), the Falklands (which had waterways to South Africa and Argentina), Svalbard (which had waterways to Scandinavia and Greenland), the Philippines (which had waterways to Indonesia and Japan) and North West Territory was split in two (adding Oikiqtaluk (which I think is a misspelling of Qikiqtaaluk - the Inuit name for Baffin Island) to the East). This made the game far more balanced and also the accuracy of the coastlines was improved especially the size of the UK and Japan and the positioning of Oceania.
As a kid, I used a big word map, as long as I was tall, my grandpa gave me. I drew my own territories, had naval units..... I had so much fun on it, though no one ever wanted to play with me. Played games against myself that lasted for weeks at a time.
I actually really like the way 2210 AD does the map, its after a nuclear war so it's more then possible that smaller unaffected countries like Djibouti and Lesotho could take over some bigger territories
My mum got our risk board out for the game, and I immediately stared at the board to find errors and I felt like a genius when I noticed the Afghan debocle!
I’ll probably cover the Axis and Allies map next when I do this type of video again.
Wow this is the first time I saw a pinned comment before it got pinned.
I have an argentinian version of risk (it call "teg la revancha") and it have all Your corrección, even The Pacific islands
Yes please
You could try the Risk Europe map as well, it has some oddities here and there.
Please. I own nearly every edition of Axis and Allies and the borders and coastlines are just horrendous and often don't reflect the strategic issues the combatants were facing. I'm confident you could make show us something much better.
My dad always says "If there's anything Risk ever taught me; it's the immense strategic advantage of Greenland and Iceland."
That was Plague Inc for me
Don't forget Alaska and Kamchatka
The US actually tried buying Greenland in the 1950s so they could build early warning radar stations to monitor the North Pole for Soviet bombers and missiles. The US still wants to build a missile defense system in Greenland. Iceland was the hub of the north Atlantic and North Sea sonar networks during the Cold War as well and NATO developed a contingency plan for a Soviet invasion as well. They were at a time more strategic than you'd think they would be.
@@erwin669 Remark didn't let us buy it, but they did allow the US to set up an Air Force base in Northern Greenland. Iceland and Greenland were pretty important to NATO planning.
@@jeffbenton6183 I mean "allow" is a bit of a stretch since the agreement was set up, independently, by the Danish ambassador and the agreement was denounced by the Danish state.
See the map is actually an incredibly intricate dogwhistle to get the truth out that new zealand isn't real.
Can confirm as a new Zealand that we're all being payed by the- amexicjxmcv. Helj JP md
@@moontruther7865 * gun shots *
Also Newfoundland. There are some who claim to be from there, but no place that silly could really exist.
And that Ireland and Wales are connected
Lol
“Taiwan dose not exist.”
China: (Simultaneously happy and confused screaming)
How could you do this to Mark Twain?
Warren Lehmkuhle II Taiwan not Twain
I’ll let someone else do the honors
China be mad because you didn't show the 9 dash line.
3:11 in the 2210 risk the whole of china is called hong kong lmao
0:48 is that an face reveal?
No, if it was he would be wearing a helmet
tmas1211 his helmet is called a Pickelhaube.
wififan He did when he showed his YT silver plaque
That’s his cat
Risk is the sole reason I know what Kamchatka is.
Do you see torpedo boats?
This is absolutely true for me
@@dubspool Eight, in all directions!
EU 4?
I learned of Irkutsk from risk. That’s about it
I love how in 2210 AD Andorra controls all of Iberia.
Mighty Andorra.
Hong Kong ruling all of China:"AMATEURS"
Joesolo13 Angkor Wat: Noobs, I’m a building and I control all of Indochina!
And France
UKRAINE!
They didn't even try to go for a plausible future. They just picked regional names and smeared them over Risk's pre-existing territories, so they wouldn't need to completely redesign the map. And apparently Denmark just let America exile a bunch of people to Greenland? I can see them ignoring Greenland itself, but Denmark has strong friends.
If I’m remembering myself correctly, on the anniversary edition of the game (the one with wooden blocks) it describes on the panel inside that the map is based off of an early French map of the world from the turn of the century (early 1800’s), so the map they use today is so inaccurate because it’s based off of what they thought the world looked like 200 years ago. And when you think about it that makes a lot of sense, considering the French mapmakers probably knew very little about the islands north of Canada (because the northwest passage hadn’t even been discovered yet) and everything else was removed or simplified for the sake of playability.
Theres a version of the map on their mobile game that includes islands like NZ and the Philippines. It's a seperate map because they allow a second entrance into Asian and a new entrance into South America making both South America and Oceania a bit more challenging
The 2209 a.d on mobile is the best
ealry French map from the 1800s at the same time where france is allied to spain/conquered spain
cuba and Philippines are the colonise of spain,
new zealand probably exist in British maps
quite bad excuse though
Ignores the fact that the area historically known as the homeland of Russians is called Ukraine
reverse card
The Reholodomor instead of Reconquista lmao
All of France and Spain has been annexed by Andorra!
And something lewd happened between Germany and Poland
it`s homeland to all eastern slavs
This is why Ukraine didn’t mean borderland, it was Okraina, which meant home land, which softened into What we know today
Role a dice then *take over the world*
European empires: *why didn't I think of that?*
That, or lose 60 armies against 3 because the dice just hate you, then get steamrolled...
@@Darkdaej is the bad dice roll the reasons why France failed at being an empire and all it's wars with england?
um actualy, Caesar did it, or at least he said that he throwed it, but same thing xd
Remembee that time Alexander the Great rolled a 1
@@Darkdaej Once I beat my little brother from 2 troops (me) vs his 25
Isn't the map bad on purpose, to emulate maps of the colonial era?
That would be brilliant social commentary, if true.
Tommy Valdes that’s honestly what I assumed especially with the map literally having all the old colonial map stuff like monsters in the sea and chart stuff
That was my opinion too
@Blabla Poser dont forget the units themselves look like soldiers from the colonial era
@@basedperson1533 Very clearly not later then the second half of the 18th century though. So the coastlines should really be fairly accurate.
I once tried to add 18 territories to the risk board because I thought it was stupid that 42 isn’t evenly divisible between 5 players
Why 18 instead of 8? Just curious
@@austinchase2 probably because 60 is evenly divisible by 3 as well.
Austin Chase because 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 5
on how it went?
But now it isn't divisible by 7, 14, or 21! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.............................
So, fun little story. In 8th grade, I printed out a county map for the entire continental US. I made a risk game incorporating every single county in it, and it took me 5+ hours to make. Unsurprisingly, no one played it with me. :c
Making friends is politics after all
Sights in Chilean*
Again we are fuse with argentina
@SpyroSfilms to steal their ocean access clearly
The new map version is a clear win for both, you are top dog in the Pacific Coast Latin American Union, and we annex Paraguay and Uruguay.
I’ve always hated the Risk Map.
It was just .. weird
Also Taking North and South America makes you basically unstoppable it’s not well balanced 3 entrance points 1 of which is in Asia allows you to snowball really easily
333rd like!
Thats why I make a 150 province version thats 120sq feet
the fact that you could use australia and south america to just build troops up
3:14 so Hong Kong will take over China in the future, well the the foreign affairs department will have something to say about it
thomas jim if we are still having full scale international war in 2120 we are already doomed
4:10 complains about Risk map then gives Chile to Peru.
Just join Chile to La Plata and name it Cono Sur, why have such bordergore?
Maybe call it the Andes instead
The capitancy of Chile was under Peru though not la Plata in a similar note to how the capitancy of Guatemala was under New Spain not New Granada but the thing is the mountains between Chile and Argentina made overland travel between those two less common than sea or coastal travel. And the map is supposed to depict a time of muzzle loading rifles and artillery not breach loaded one.
The Risk map should be classified as a crime against humanity.
Why?
@@lucifer2b666 Watch the video you’re commenting under, I guess.
Have you ever heard of Risk II ?
It adds Hawaii, Svalbard, New Zealand, the Falklands and the Philipines wich create new maritime routes connecting the continents
I scroll down too much to find this.
I think Taiwan and possibly Korea are too small to put any troops on.
Otherwise, I love it ^^
*Laughs in North Korea*
@Ciekawostki rozrywkowe Michała Górola Góry???
Rename “northern canada” to “arctic canada” to be consistent.
“Northern United States”
Why did they just make a huge West Africa and Middle East but also overseperate Siberia?
I actually got pretty high ranks in competitive Risk. The rest of this is just about Risk from a game play perspective. The original map is the most balanced map with the lowest skill floor. If you're a better player, you'll still probably win, but it's harder to do in as few turns as other maps where you can control more of the set-up. The most important strategy to get right is what I'll call troop advantage. If you want to win you want to make it so you have more troops than the other players, and that you can mobilize them more effectively. The most effective attacking and defending strategies are to have as many troops in one area as possible. If a player has Europe and has to defend 5 borders, even if they have the same number of troops they're at a disadvantage to a player with North America who only has three borders. This makes Australia an attractive option. If you place troops first, take this. No one player is going to control Asia, get its bonus, and not win the game, so you don't have to worry about serious attacks to your bonus. This also puts you in a good position to take the other southern hemisphere continents, which will result in a maximum of 6 borders and a bonus of 7 troops. That troop bonus also can't be taken away all in one turn, unless you were going to lose anyways. The low troop bonus you get will keep attention away from you until it's too late. As long as you have more troops per turn than your opponents you should be able to keep it that way until your victory is inevitable. Always save your cards until you would either win, lose, or have to play them as well. Ranking the continents in how helpful they are goes as follows: Australia, South America, Africa, North America, Europe, Asia. Best of luck
Thats what I do when playing Risk too, tho I do have a preference for South America over Australia as its usually easier to secure both of the Americas compared to Asia as Australia. Tho regardless, both S.A. and Australia are still the most helpful without a doubt.
Why do you rank Africa above North America?
@@nathanwailes It is in the southern hemisphere. It has equal access to South America, but better access to Australia. Even though I think Africa is better to have they are close. You're also probably more likely to win starting out in North America.
North America>Africa
from my unskilled perspective my ranking goes africa>south america>australia>north america> europe>asia
Dude, the official RISK online has an upgraded map that is mostly the way you said it should be.
Minus the land bridge from Madagascar to India.
I had a PC version called Risk II that had the option to add The Philippines, New Zealand, Hawaii, The Falklands, and Svalbard. They created a lot of these sea routes you described.
It also had a creative mode called Simultaneous Play. Every player took their turn at the same time. Since you had to issue all battle orders at once, it opened multiple strategies, like attacking from multiple fronts.
Here in Argentina we play a similar game called T.E.G. (wat tactics and strategy in Spanish), the continents are depicted as they would have been in the late 1700s, with their shapes and proportions quite off. Many countries are lumped together or omitted. Nontheless, I think it looks pretty neta. It gives an old timey vibe and, honestly, if those maps were good enough for Napoleon, they are good enough for me.
You did a great job with your version of the Risk map! I remember back in Air Cadets when we would play Risk. You could always tell when a player was new because he would keep attacking until he owned 3/4 of the board but had only one infantryman in each territory---then get annihilated the following turn. Fun times.
For the past 25 yrs after having stopped to visit a rummage sale, I came across the board game "Axis Allies". Had never heard of it before, so I opened the box and looked at all the pieces inside and felt that it was to immersive for me. But I realized right away that since I have always loved Risk, that it could be improved upon somehow. So I decided that if I ever found a few people again that want to start playing Risk, that I would start collecting "some of the pieces" from that game I saw at the rummage sale, and figure out how to add them to Risk. So a week ago I purchased a huge world map ( no borders, no roads, no cities ) just the continents, and the ocean's.I am having a print shop do the art work to make it into a Risk game board. It measures 34 x 54 inches. I will only be adding a handful of pieces from Axis Allies specifically " air power" and "aircraft carriers". Adding air power to Risk will really make it more challenging and interesting. It make every player concern them self with more than just protecting the "border territories" once they have captured an entire continent. Each player will earn $$ to build a factory, then after that they can start building Bombers, Anti-Aircraft Systems, Radar Stations, Airfields, Naval Station, and even the Atom Bomb. We have not worked out all the details about the new rules yet, but were making progress.
I like how you see Argentina containing Chilie as fine (and I agree), but leave Ukraine containing around a half of historic Ukraine and everything between Finland, Azerbaijan and Tatarstan unmentioned. We were never this big, trust me.
Not yet but we'll see after the war 🇺🇦 💪
@@goose9515 Ukraine is doomed to fail
@@goose9515 Likely they'll loose territory rather than gain it. Ukraine will sustain tho. The whole country likely won't fall to the Russians I don't think. Maybe tho but I think it will exist somehow in some way. Half the country is probably going to the Russians tho.
@@goose9515 you are defending you can only lose territory or remain the same size
@@henrybierman8431 NO, ukraine will destroy russia EZ you wait and watch. this new counteroffensive is the first of many. russia's old weak logistically stupid demoralized troops are no math for ukraine's well equiped west-supplied patriotic army. 🇺🇦 💪
No Tasmania either lol, they get left out even more often than NZ
Tasmania's pretty small though so it makes some sense
Joesolo13 it’s almost as big as ireland
Ireland isnt in risk either though mate
The point of the map is not to be accurate, it's to give a general representation of the world the players can move in. Things like islands distract from the gameplay, and raise the question "why couldn't my troops just go there?"
3:14 this must be what China means when they say democratic protests in Hong Kong "threaten Chinese sovereignty"
I always thought they designed the map so it matches what maps often looked like around Napoleon's day, since that is the time frame that a lot of the unit uniforms seem to be from
Edit: also, I don't think that is what they were going for in the provinces, those were a little wak
Exactly, it’s super stylized and not at all trying to be accurate
Ive been playing a ton of Risk with friends from college. Its been a good way to reconnect and stave off boredom during this pandemic. Cheers and thanks for the content
The way you moulded all of Chile into the same area as Peru physically hurt me
You know what be fun, risk map taking place during the Thirty Years War centered on the Holy Roman Empire with every single principality/territory shown.
I have one of the really old RISK games where the playing pieces are made of wood instead of plastic and have special tokens (we called them blibbets) signifying 10 armies to take up less space on the board.
That's the kind I grew up with.
They all have the space reduction tokens. Cavalry are 5 troops and cannons are 10.
We had ones that are plastic, but the singles were ~5mm long sections cut from a single straight extrusion with a 3-pointed asterisk cross-section, while the 10s were ~1cm sections with a 5-pointed asterisk cross-section. As with the wooden ones, they didn’t bother with 5s. The rules and map design were also a bit different from more modern versions, especially when it came to how the cards were handled iirc.
The old wooden 10 army pieces could be used as d3s if you paint numbers on them!
My dad didn't like those pieces though. Instead he'd put a bunch of the cubes in one of the lids for the piece containers and call it a boat and move it around the map.
*sees Revolution on your shelf, a niche game that I thought I only played*
Ah, I see. A fellow man of culture.
has someone ever told you, that your cat is cute!
What if *he is the cat*
@@kyriekuragecs5895 I never belive to think of that
Yeah, it happened when my gf was about to eat it... not my proudest moment.
The map also has some troubling borders. I don’t get why all of West Africa is united when the Sahara would be a pretty obvious barrier and make it at least two different steps to control it. Maybe I’m just ignorant but there’s a lack of people in northern Canada and Eastern Russia, so I don’t know why they’re pieced up so much. I don’t really like the game that much either because there’s not much thought to put into it. A lot of it is just chance and low-risk judgment. It’s easy to win if your opponents are dumb enough. There’s a game I played in 9th grade on warzone.com that achieved more of what Risk maybe tried to. There a lot of maps you can choose from and it’s not a much different experience from Risk gameplay- wise.
Risk requires skill in strategy, but is mostly luck in tactics. That seems fair to me.
Still, I'd like to play a game some time with friends were ever invasion devolves into a game of go (or at least checkers) but that would take forever.
@@jeffbenton6183 Probably a fair assessment. Maybe strategy is all I mean by "if your opponent is dumb enough". If you're smart and have a good strategy, you'll take the chances only when it's right to. Short-term, there's no player input on how the dice will roll.
As someone who eventually became a map obsessed historian, the Risk map always bothered me as a kid
I will definitely try to do some of this myself, editing the maps, and also making some units of my own
I remember making a RISK map on the Korean War. It worked out well because it managed to capture the "back-and-forth" action of that war
did anyone else crack up at Ural being renamed "Enclave of the Bear"
Cat Is A Genius
Great video, but I don't like the suggestions about adding new land bridges and waterways. North America being three borders is not because of random chance, it's a game design decision. You also suggested adding more routes to South America and Australia so they aren't just corners to build up in. This is a common myth. Australia suffers from a lack of continents to attack to, while South America is bordered by the also relatively small, but superior, Africa. Sure, they can place troops on North Africa in order to prevent a player from taking over the continent, but it only serves to have someone angry at you for the rest of the game. Not to mention that they both give small amounts of troops compared to other continents. You say to make them worth more points, but that removes so much strategy from the game. Having them the way they are gives them a unique flair, and separates them from the rest of the continents. As for the other ideas, your putting this too much out of balance. There's a very popular map in the risk videogame where are the continents are given a ton more borders and territories, but only serves to remove a lot of the original's balance.
Thank goodness one poster gets it.
Going Australia first is newbie strategy. Sure, it can work. But it often leads to being blockaded at the one egress point. Then it becomes hard to get cards. Cards are what wins much more than continental bonuses.
I would prefer your version of Risk lol
You HAVE to check out Risk: Europe's map. Youre gonna "love" it.
Emp: “What do you think about risk?”
Kitty: 0_0
Now make a new board based on the updated map. Seriously, with this kind of thing you have to see how it affects the gameplay as well.
I have an argentinian version of risk (it call "teg la revancha") and it have all Your corrección, even The Pacific islands
Tarem 2 Argeeeeeeetina
Aguante el crisis
I thought this video would be about how the map creates very defensive and boring gameplay. But no, it turns out it’s about things that completely do not affect the game, like who cares what you call a region? It doesn’t affect gameplay at all!
This was an interesting video. I agree with your changes, that would be cool. You should do some more board games like you said
It may vary, depending on the version and language. I've got a set from the 80's, and that one does include the Canadian Islands, Philipines, and calls what's Afghanistan here Kazakstan. Still the map isn't great, but it's more accurate.
3:15 yeah, I know we support Hong Kong, but it's a little to much
Nah, it's probably the simplest way to make China a democracy again...
@@theregalproletariat "again"? the PRC ain't that great but it's still definitely more democratic that a bunch of literal warlords fighting with each other
@@paleozoey So apparently,the best way is to find another China that's democratic...
hmmmmmmmmm
Yeeesssssss. New Zealand finally made it onto the mapppp!! We've been waiting for this moment for a loooooong time
Oh, I love this!!
I did something similar/silly like this. I used the real-world Mercador map too and erased (and added some borders). Tried to keep the number of connections the same, but added some too.
Added Micronesia; I took some of China and Mongolia to add Manchuria; changed India to Maurya; renamed N-Africa to Sahrawi; S-Africa to Great-Lesotho, E-Africa to Aksum; 'Afghanistan' to Turkestan; Middle-East to Sasanian-Arabia; of course, N-EU had to become Lichtenstein; W-EU to Andorra-Monaco; S-EU=Rome; UK=Ireland; E-USA=Iriquois, and a couple more places with different names.
Now I want to play again!
3:21 TIL That in 2210, Andorra will have invaded Spain and France
@@sandrine.g5136 Unless you're talking about future lore, that's not true. I think you're confusing it with Pheasant Island, which is a small uninhabited island between Spain and France, but on the Basque side. Andorra has their own government, but they have two heads of state (co-princes), which are the president of france and one Spanish bishop. Probably why you mixed both.
Good for them
3:10 I love how the persian gulf just... doesn't exist
Build a giant wall map, make it magnetized, and make troops magnets. Boom, A massive Risk board that is accurate to the world and with more territories. That would be a good idea actually.
Okay, is no one going to mention all of China being "Hong Kong" in Risk 2210?
Sicily is here,even if poorly placed.What is missing is Corsica and Sardigna tho.
Step 1: Return Alaska to its rightful owner.
Canada.
Step 2: Do the historically reasonable thing.
Partition Alaska between Canada, United States and Russia
Step 3: do this
give it independence
Map stylization: *exists*
EmperorTigerstar: *confused screaming*
I tried to make a board like this a while back and it’s uncanny how similar the two look. Great work!
I was playing Risk when I received the notification. Seriously.
Author of the video: "I want a map with correct proportions, with correct coast lines".
Also author of the video: "This is how my map would look like" *Proceeds to show a Mercator Projection at 4:15 , with clearly disproportionate proportions and coast lines...
Wait, what?
EVERY map has disproporionate things, because you translate 3D object on 2D surface.
Mercator however, is distorting things basing on math, with clear principles (keeping longitude and latitude at right angles). It is different from Risk map which is distorting things without any clear principles.
Many years ago several associates of mine and myself found ourselves with the remains of several Risk boards, and a bag of Scrabble chits. Being a serious table top war gamer, and prone to tweaking game systems, Russ specifically, and I, turned the basic game of Risk into something on steroids; We called it, Domination. Little changes led to deeper ones. We eliminated all the land bridges and instituted wet navies. We classified those old world game pieces by color, giving them ranks or levels of proficiency. Six levels of infantry, for example. One color represented national guard or home guards, the other end, Special Forces. We did the same with the Calvary pieces, turning them into tank units of varying potency. The artillery became various sorts, from light artillery batteries to AA batteries to fortresses.
Those little wooden squares used in Scrabble make ready made game pieces, all you need is a felt tipped pen. Naval transports, destroyers, battleships, aircraft carriers, fighters and bombers of varying proficiency. Etc. We also took all those larger countries and broke them down further, so between the land spaces and ocean spaces we had around 200 territories. The cards were also enhanced, becoming two separate stacks. One for each territory, of course. Each territory worth X in resources and unit creation values. The other became 'Chance' cards. Things ranging from weather events you could drop on an opponents territory to spy actions that could disrupt supply chains, redirect your opponents forces, etc.
We also instituted a Tech Tree, which meant that you could devote X amount of dollars per round to gain a roll on a die. Rolling a 1 granted you the right to roll on the Tech Tree, allowing you to gain access to 'the next tier' of units. i.e. every one started with Home Guard/National Guard infantry, which then progressed up to the elite SpecForce infantry. There were games that lasted weeks, and their were games that ended a few hours after starting... It was...something else.
Check out the old computer game Risk II, which adds New Zealand with bridges between Australia and Argentina, and Philippines with bridges between Guinea and Japan, and Falkland Islands with bridges between Argentina and South Africa, and Hawaii with bridges between Japan and USA.
3:22 Ukrayina.
Idk I have the ‘97 version and it’s map is much more accurate
Same here. Im not sure if its the '97 but I know it is not one of the modern versions. Never had any real complaints with the geography aside from perhaps some missing islands
"Prarie Canada"
>Half the Land isn't Prarie
They're called the Prairie Provinces.
Risk made a map very similar to the one you presented, on the risk steam game there is a map called "World Conquest" that is very similar.
I was literally about to do this when this video was posted
Man, I enjoy risk (even though I’m AWFUL at it) but yeah the map is pretty roast-worthy. Speaking of video games and board game maps, one I find intriguing is XCOM 2’s. The premise is a world invaded/colonized by aliens and subdivided in a way that reminds me of the scramble for Africa, but also the USSR’s history of using awful borders to protect centralized control.
Greetings. Your version of the map for Risk seems great to me. The idea of putting troops in a shaded area for the Pacific islands is excellent and allows the battlefield to open up more so board space isn't wasted. You should sell your design idea to Hasbro Gamming. An upcoming edition for the classic Risk with this map I would call it "Risk 21st Century Extended Version".
3:18
BASED Andorra man
Also "Balkania"
Did you ever hear of the mobile game Warzone? It's like Conquer Club but broader. They have a mapmaking community for the game with a load of cool maps!
The mobile game of risk is just about luck lmao
TurCanadian Mapping well isn’t Risk as a whole mostly about luck with a slight importance on strategy?
@@cbowser3 In the mobile game, there is a blitz roll mode so that you don't have to roll the dice a bunch of times if you have a lot of troops (30-100+ is common). When attacking a much smaller opponent, you can
1) lose a lot of troops and may or may not gain the territory 2) take the territory with little to no losses.
Because such a game-changing event is left to the computer, there is quite a bit of luck (and knowing how the AI functions).
Bright Mong fair enough but regular risk is still about luck, though perhaps to a lesser extent.
@@cbowser3 If you like the board game, you should check out the mobile game. There is a lot more variation in maps and gameplay, but the app is a battery drainer and games can run for hours (unless small map/few players).
I have the Classic Edition Risk Game and One time I sezed control over North and South America and Africa in the First few Turns.
How do you offend two countries with a board game?
“United Indiastan”
3:12 Can we just talk about how two of the most influential countries of Europe, Spain and France, got conquered by Andorra?
My RISK map is so much better than yours, I don't know why, almost all the problems you listed are fixed on my map.
Make a video then fam.
@@Tribute7373 No thanks.
@@moon_girl4468 LMAO
0:52 is that Bang on the shelf? :DDD
When I was I young guy, late 1970’s my brothers and I took the challenge of redrawing the map. We doubled the countries. Changed continents to political treaty organizations (NATO, SEATO, Warsaw Pact, OAS, etc). The process was a blast and really expanded the game possibilities.
when centeral amarica is colon-
*spanish*: we'll take it from here
Step one: Get rid of it.
Step two: Buy Hearts of Iron
WHAT ABOUT UKRAINE
For me the biggest problem with the risk board is the lack of mountains. Ik regions like Europe and Asia are supposed to be hard to control, but they’re large enough that they could use some interesting dividing mountain ranges.
One idea would be to add the alps to block Southern Europe off from Western And Southern Europe. This would make conquering Europe harder, make the Middle East region more strategically important, and serve as a buffer for Africa and Asia.
Another idea would be to add the Himalayas between India and afg. , Ural and Afg. , and between China and India
I actually did something like this for a project in Middle School. It has formable nations and all that stuff. I’ve still got the board 👌🏽
You can improve the board by:
1. Buying a different board game.
2. Discarding your Risk game.
Perhaps combining Greenland and Iceland on your map would be an improvement, as the populations of both countries are relatively low.
These suggestions ignore the fundamental rules of mapmaking. It’s not about accuracy, it’s about the translation of information. Look at subway maps! Especially when a map is for a game. It’s meant to serve the gameplay not the other way around. You want to change risk? Start with something that will actually improve the experience, like how combat works. The simple map is probably the best part about that game.
The Risk II sequel did have New Zealand (which had waterways to Western Australia and Argentina), Hawai'i (which had waterways to Western United States and Japan), the Falklands (which had waterways to South Africa and Argentina), Svalbard (which had waterways to Scandinavia and Greenland), the Philippines (which had waterways to Indonesia and Japan) and North West Territory was split in two (adding Oikiqtaluk (which I think is a misspelling of Qikiqtaaluk - the Inuit name for Baffin Island) to the East). This made the game far more balanced and also the accuracy of the coastlines was improved especially the size of the UK and Japan and the positioning of Oceania.
I've been a player on Conquer Club for 13 years now, lots of maps to choose from, I especially enjoy playing on the Napoleonic Europe map.
As a kid, I used a big word map, as long as I was tall, my grandpa gave me. I drew my own territories, had naval units..... I had so much fun on it, though no one ever wanted to play with me. Played games against myself that lasted for weeks at a time.
Cyprus is missing too. They should include Cyprus and add a land bridge between it and another country
I actually really like the way 2210 AD does the map, its after a nuclear war so it's more then possible that smaller unaffected countries like Djibouti and Lesotho could take over some bigger territories
My mum got our risk board out for the game, and I immediately stared at the board to find errors and I felt like a genius when I noticed the Afghan debocle!
I love that ps2 civil war game!!! It's my first time being exposed to history in video games
I remember the Risk 2 PC game had settings to add more territories and a pacific ocean route.
Its really nice we saw the emperor himself this time!