When I first played this game I thought it was the absolute best war game ever invented. It involved strategy and negotiation. However, once I played other war games this one fell very, very short. Risk is just too simple a game with up scene amount of luck. The defender is always stronger than the attack, and the only advantage the attacker has is that they receive and extra dice roll (3) instead of the maximum defense of 2. This is a minuscule advantage if you can even call it that. In the game you'll find that an attacking army of 15 will loose 8 or 9 of its troops to a mere defending army of 3. This is because of the lack of a even or even realistic combat system.

Pro: Simple and easy to learn
Pro: 2 variant ways to play (conquest/mission)
Con: only 1 unit type
Con: All based upon luck in dice rolling= unfair battles
Con: Similar strategies
Con: Outrageous amounts of troops are gained by card matches

This game just lacks compared to other games on the market today. I wish I could say that it's worth the money when it is not. Just do some research and you'll find much higher quality games that don't cost too much. However, if you're looking for a simple war game to play, Risk might be for you. BE WARNED, this is a luck based game between card drawing (for matches) and dice rolling. If you despise luck based games, do not buy Risk because that's all it is.

If you are looking for a simple game that is fun to play that contains no luck. Yes I really mean NO LUCK. That game is Diplomacy and it costs about the same as Risk.

It used to seem like the greatest game ever so maybe you should try it at some point. When I play it now, I am over whelmed with the amount of flaws. Risk is actually a political game disguised as a strategy dice throwing fest!

Strategy hint number one; get other people to fight each other.

Strategy hint number two; get Australia in a 6 player game (or if two players are fighting for it, pretend like you are going to go for Africa but then charge into Australia when they have weakened each other).

Strategy hint number three; find other better games to play!