I've loved playing the game of Risk since I was a small boy. I still play it to this day and every week some friends and I get together to share some soda pops, lively banter and a few games. We do crazy things like betting on the outcome and drawing up non-aggression pacts with each other, which are quickly broken when it becomes beneficial to world domination. We have one fellow that wins most of the time, we all think he cheats by studying Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. We have a certain name that we call him but I wont go into that now.
My question is for you game strategists out there. Would it be a good strategy to place all of my armies in Northern Europe [Europe 3], Egypt [Africa 3] and Japan [Asia 5] with the intention of initially conquering Ukraine [Europe 6], Middle East [Asia 7] and Afghanistan [Asia 1], and follow up by moving my armies eastward to conquer India [Asia 3] and Siam [Asia 9] essentially surrounding China and Russia with massive armies. Would this be a good strategy for world conquest, which is after all the goal of this game.
And also, to bring this game into the modern era, shouldn't nuclear weapons be added to make it more realistic? This is not a study in world geopolitics, I only seek advice on how to beat my buddy with no name, as it is now, the only way to defeat the guy is if we all gang up on him. Thank you for your help in advance.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons. This map is a facsimile of the real Risk game board so as not to violate copyright.