Nautical-but-Nice Fast Risk (overjuiced)

 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. 

 

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 two dice rolls worth of armies on board

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 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 two dice 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

A player gets:

1. Armies equal to roll of one die plus one more for each the largest bloc of contiguous territory divided by three
2. Continent bonuses
3. 3 armies per factory (on the factory territory)
4. Card turn-in (armies, factory, ship, territory bonuses--see below)

Card Turn-in

A player gets either:

1. Armies equal to three dice rolls
2. A factory (to be placed at the end of turn)
3. A ship with two dice rolls 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 dice rolls worth of armies for each card territory owned by player

Campaigning during Player Turn

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 two rolled dice 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.

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

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 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, and must use at least one of these cards per hand they take part in. The active player cannot answer a challenge without at least one poker card in their possession.

The player wanting to play an allied army 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 at 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, and they may choose any poker game they like, e.g., Texas Hold-'em, 5-card draw, etc. Each player must take at least one card from those they already hold and be dealt the rest. Once a player has used up all their starting cards, they must stop playing.

Red queens are always high.

The dealer decides the betting. Typically a pre-deal ante, a bet, discard, bet again, etc. 

A player may "draw" for discarded cards from their supply of poker cards, if any, or get cards from the dealer.

The player whose turn it is may keep playing poker games until they win, give up, run out of armies in their betting pot, run out of starting cards, or until nobody else wants to play (uncontested situation). If they win a hand, and that hand contains a suit of the allied army they want to play, the poker game ends, and they may play the allied army, otherwise they just collect their poker winnings and their turn ends.

All players who won convert the armies they won into their own color, and keep them to use when their turn next or another poker game comes up.

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 each side will roll. The 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 that many dice as well, 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. Ships, of course, may not be reinforced from reserves, and 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 attacked player should all of the attacking players armies be destroyed.

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.

Ships

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 and the Hudson Bay are part of the Atlantic, Eastern Australia is connected only to the Indian Ocean, and South Africa is connected to both the Atlantic and the Indian 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.

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

Unlike with land-based attacks, a ship with only one army left must continue to attack or break off the attack and retreat to another ocean (not possible if all armies are put into a committed or flanking attack). Defending ships may not retreat.

Total defeat of an attacking ship (the last army destroyed) sinks the ship and it's removed from the board. 

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, which would be the defender, it may be under attack from two or more at once.

The attacker may break off the attack by withdrawing to some other ocean, but the ships may not be used again for the rest of the turn. In a committed or flanking attack, the attack may only be broken off once the committed armies on the ship have been destroyed.

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.