Nautical-but-Nice Fast Risk, juiced down

 Overjuiced version - Previous Rules Set - Medium on Risk math 

MBJp134

Introduction

I've devised changes to the rules of Risk to make it play faster and more interestingly, and this time I hope to state these rules more clearly and to add a naval component. The original ruleset (with navy) seems to be over-juiced, so I'm going to try dialing the reinforcement values back to the previous version. We played the game on August 25, and I'm making a few updates.

 

Set-Up

Deal out the 42 Risk cards into six piles. Each player gets one pile, the rest go to "allied armies" (see below). In other words, all colors of armies go onto the board from the start.

Allied Armies Set-up

Place 2 allied armies on each Risk card territory plus 3 more on three random Territories (from card pile for that ally). Allies are now set up (with 23 armies each).

Each allied army gets one factory placed on a territory selected at random from the ally's cards.

Each allied army gets one ship placed next to the shore of a randomly selected territory with one die roll worth of armies on board. If the territory borders on two oceans (such as Central America, South Africa, etc., see below), roll a die to determine in which ocean the ship is stationed.

Each allied army is assigned one or more poker card suits, i.e., hearts, clubs, etc. Note that for the red suits the queen is always the high card.

Player Set-up

Decide who plays first by die roll.

Place three armies on each Risk card territory. Each player now has 21 armies. Once all are placed, they may be reärranged freely.

Each player gets one factory to place on any of their territories.

Each player gets one ship with one die roll worth of armies on board, to be placed by the shoreline of one of the player's coastal territories.

Shuffle the Risk cards and poker cards.

Each player gets 2 Risk cards and one poker card to start.

The game is ready to begin. 

Joining and Leaving Mid-Game

If a player turns up late and wants to join the game, they pick an allied army to take over. They immediately draw two Risk cards and one poker card. 

If a player leaves the game, their army becomes an allied army. Any poker cards they have remain with the new allied army and may be seized by the first player who manages to play the allied army (by a poker win or if unchallenged--see below) or if the new allied army is completely defeated by another player.

Turn-by-Turn Play 

Reënforcing at Start of Turn

At the start of every turn, including the first, a player gets:

1. Territory bonus (divide number of territories by three, minimum of three)
2. Continent bonuses
3. 2 armies per factory (on the factory territory)
4. Card turn-in (armies, factory, ship, with territory bonuses--see below)

Armies may be deployed to any territory held by the player, but may not be deployed directly to a ship--a ship may only pick up or drop off armies to a coastal territory within one boat length of the ship's location, during the player's turn.

Card Turn-in

A player gets either:

1. Armies equal to two dice rolls
2. A factory (to be placed at the end of turn)
3. A ship with one die roll worth of armies on board to be placed in an ocean bordering one of the player's territories (if no territories have a coastline, no shipbuilding is allowed)
4. ALONG WITH two armies for each card territory owned by player, on that territory

Mobilization Bonus at Start of Campaign

Details of how to conduct a campaign are discussed below. Note that the first time any other player is attacked during a turn, that player may cut the Risk card deck and if they own the territory shown they may place a "mobilization bonus" of one rolled die worth of armies AND optionally reveal one or more cards from their hand showing owned territories and place a mobilization bonus on each. The card-cutting bonus goes for allied armies as well. If the cut shows a wild card, or the player holds wild cards, the mobilization bonus may be placed at the attacked player's free choice (by the player rolling the defending dice in the case of an allied army).

End of Player Turn

1. Draw a Risk card and a poker card (if territory taken)
2. Place any factories purchased at start of turn
3. Replace any and all captured army tokens with tokens of player's own color (see below)
4. Make a single troop transfer of one or more armies through contiguous territory
5. After their turn, a player may choose to play an allied army

If a player has more than five poker cards at the end of their turn, they must discard some to get their stash down to five.

Allowed Troop Transfers

Play Allied Army

A player declares they want to play an allied army, and which one. One or more other players may contest this, provided they hold at least one poker card, in which case a poker game is played (see below), or the declaring player may demur. 

An allied army gets all of the same army bonuses as a player.

If a player takes territory using an allied army, they get an additional Risk card and poker card for themself. 

The allied army gets a troop transfer.

Playing Poker

In order to take part in a poker game, a player must be holding at least one poker card in their "stash," and must use at least one of these cards in their hand. The active player cannot answer a challenge without at least one poker card in their possession. This can happen if the player failed to take territory during their turn, i.e., they may elect to play an allied army, but if contested, they cannot.

The active player and all players contesting them count out their "betting pots." They count out all of the armies they stand to get at their next turns. This means they will not get these armies on their turn, in a sense they are getting them in advance. Note that if a player loses everything at poker, they shall have no armies to play with at their next turn, except for factory bonuses, if any.

If a player has already counted out their betting pot for a previous poker game, and has not had a turn since, they do not count out their pot again but use the pot they have left from before, if any.

Any player may be the dealer. The game is five-card draw. Each player must take at least one card from their stash and be dealt the rest.

Red queens are always high.

Each player antes up one army. The bet is to the active player (they start the betting). Each player may bet, check, call, fold, or raise. Each action is for only one army at a time.

Betting is where a player adds one army on top of the ante (if no bets have been made yet, i.e., the "live bet" is zero). Calling is where a player matches the "live bet" (which includes what other players may have made on top of the initial bet by the active player). Raising is where a player adds another army on top of the "live bet". Folding is where a player drops out of the hand, forfeiting their armies in the pot, and not showing their cards.

The betting round ends when all players have had the chance to bet, raise, or fold, and no one has raised the last bet.

A player may "draw" from discarded cards from their stash, if any, or get cards from the dealer.

Another betting round ensues, followed by the showdown. If all players but one have folded, the remaining player wins the pot. If a player has been called, they must show their hand first. All other players have the option of showing their cards, or mucking, i.e., folding without showing their cards.

The best poker hand wins the pot.

If the active player wins, and their winning hand contains at least one card in the suit of the allied army they wanted to play, they may play that army, otherwise they just collect the pot and their turn ends.

The player who wins the pot converts the armies they won into their own color, and keeps them to use for their next turn or if they want to join another poker game before then.

How to Campaign

Normal battles are conducted as in normal Risk, i.e., the attacker rolls up to three dice, and the defender rolls up to two dice, ties going to the defender.

However, these battles can slow the game down considerably, especially when large armies are involved. One solution is to roll more dice and force both sides to commit more armies. This is done through two types of attacks: Committed Attacks and Flanking Attacks.

Committed Attacks

In a committed attack, the attacker "selects" how many armies they will "commit," moving them towards the front lines. This determines how many dice the attacker will roll. The defender rolls one less number of dice. Both sides must roll this number of dice or the maximum number of troops they have. For instance, if the attacker commits eight armies, the defender must roll seven, every time, or up to how many armies they have.

The attacker may reinforce this group from reserves (in case of casualties), or increase it, committing more, and declare the number increased, but they may not decrease it. If the attacker loses armies and does not replace them, they roll fewer dice, but the defender keeps rolling the maximum.

There are only two possible outcomes for the attacker:

1. They win and send in the committed troops and possibly more
2. All the committed troops are destroyed and the attack ends

If a committed attack fails, the player may take no more action from the given territory for the rest of the turn.

Flanking Attacks

A flanking attack is similar to a committed attack except that the attacker commits two separate blocks of troops (initially of equal size), or "flanks" to the attack. Each flank attacks as a committed block.

Ties still go to the defender, but the attacker may add one to any one die in a roll. If the defender suffers a total defeat on a dice roll then one of their defeated armies is captured by the attacking flank.

If the attacker wins, all committed armies from all flanks (but not captured armies--they remain behind) move into the captured territory and play continues. 

Flanks may include multiple separate bordering territories, and one or more ships can each be a flank. If all armies on a ship are destroyed, the ship sinks. Captured armies on a ship do not count as crew but can serve to commandeer the ship for the defending player should all of the attacking players armies be destroyed. That is, if a flanking ship captures enemy armies, and the player's armies on the ship are destroyed in the attack, the defender takes control of the ship with the captured armies as its crew.

If only one flank remains, the battle reverts to a committed attack and the attacker loses the plus one advantage and the ability to capture enemy armies. Flanks fail when all but one army are committed and destroyed, on land, or when the last army on a ship is destroyed and the ship sinks (or is commandeered).

Ships

Movement

A ship moves two die rolls worth of boat lengths on a cruise. If a cruise reaches a port of call (to pick up armies), or a landing, or a naval battle, and the pick-up, landing, or battle succeeds, the ship may go on another cruise, proceeding to the next action with a two dice roll. A player may take action with each of their ships at least once per turn.

Ferrying Armies

At the start of a turn, or between successful actions such as an opposed landing or a naval battle, a ship may pick up one or more armies from any one territory and drop them off at any other friendly territory, including any armies already embarked on the ship, before continuing on to action.

Patrol

If a player has ships in an ocean when another player tries to make an opposed landing on one of the player's territories, the attacking player must overcome those ships in a naval battle before being able to land.

The separate oceans are, by the way, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Arctic. The Mediterranean Sea, Hudson Bay, and the Black Sea (Ukraine and the Middle East) are part of the Atlantic, and the Red Sea (Middle East and Egypt) are part of the Indian Ocean.

Eastern Australia is connected only to the Indian Ocean, Western Australia only to the Pacific

South Africa, the Middle East, and Egypt are connected to both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

Central America and Argentina are connected to both the Pacific and Atlantic

Alaska and Kamchatka are connected to both the Arctic and Pacific.

Scandinavia, Greenland, the Northwest Territories, and Ukraine (by way of the Black Sea) are connected to both the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans

Iceland is only connected to the Atlantic

Siam and Indonesia are connected to both the Indian and Pacific Oceans 

Opposed Landings

An opposed landing is where one or more ships attack and try to take over a hostile territory with or without the assistance of the player's land-based forces. Multiple ships may attack the same territory, but only if in a flanking attack, otherwise one ship must mount the attack. If the landing is a committed or flanking attack and all armies on board are defeated, the ship sinks. In flanking attacks, captured land armies go onto the attacking ship.

Naval Battles

Any one or more ships may engage any one or more other ships in the same ocean in a naval battle. The attacker decides which enemy ships to engage, but the defender is free to send in any other unattacked ships in the same ocean as desired.

Each ship in an attacking fleet chooses an enemy ship to attack. More than one ship can attack a single enemy ship. This may be a normal attack, a committed attack, or a flanking attack (if two or more ships are available). 

Sinking and Capturing Ships

Total defeat of a defending ship gives the attacker the option of letting the ship sink OR boarding her with one or more armies and capturing her. In this case, the capturing ship is out of action for the rest of the turn, unable to engage other ships (though she may be attacked herself), pick up troops, or engage in other action. If multiple ships are attacking, one of them must decide to capture, the others are free to continue action. If the victorious ship has insufficient armies (less than two), the defeated ship sinks.

A ship may make a concentrated attack against one other ship, or a flanking attack with two or more. A ship may only engage one other ship at a time, but multiple ships may engage a single ship. In other words, while a ship may only be actively attacking one other ship, the defender, it may be under attack from two or more at once.

In any engagement, as attacker or defender, if a ship suffers a “total defeat” (loses all die rolls) in a turn, both sides roll a die and if the defeated ship gets a lower roll, the ship immediately sinks. 

Sea Roving

If all of a player's land armies are destroyed, but they still have ships at sea, they may continue to play, effectively as a pirate. They cannot reinforce however, even from the winnings from a poker hand, since ships may only embark troops from a friendly land territory.

Pirates may attack other ships or attempt opposed landings. If successfully attacking enemy ships in a flanking attack, they may capture enemy troops to be added to their own crews.

If all of a pirate's ships are defeated at sea, or sunk or captured in an attempted landing, the player is out of the game and may choose to play a still-active allied army, if any.

If a pirate makes a successful landing and captures one or more territories, on their next turn they may reinforce that territory with the usual bonuses, including any poker winnings still held.