Armies of War

Risk is a vicious game. Nothing beats the satisfaction of storming through a continent with a huge army created from the bonus cards, knowing that on the next turn it’s most likely going to be you getting marched over.

Armies of War isn’t Risk. Don’t let the design, the general aim, and the basic rules fool you into thinking otherwise. This is Risk as imagined by someone who was recently on the receiving end of said ‘army rush’, and felt they could design something fairer.

For the first few moments, Armies of War appears to be an attractive version of the popular dice-based strategy boardgame.

The world map is packed with barracks, their flags flying in the wind, and these buildings get taller and more elaborate the more units you stuff into them.

It’s a little tricky to pick out what territories belong to whom at a glance, though, as the team colour is assigned to the tiny flags alone, and not the more obvious method of colouring the land.

What’s odd about this is that when you choose to skip enemy turns, the game displays a world map colour-coded by player that handily shows all the moves you skipped past.

Why this screen can’t be accessed on your own turn is an odd omission as it gives a great overview of the current state of play.

While it may initially look like Risk, nearly every aspect of the classic war game has been tinkered with, from the way reinforcements and movement works to the combat and handling of conquered areas.

Once conquered, the victor can’t put any more than three units into the territory, severely reducing the chance of ‘steamrolling’ through multiple continents in the process.

It’s a strange alteration that changes the flow of the game considerably. In some ways it creates more tactical considerations, especially in the bottleneck areas, but it does make progress feel stodgy in comparison to its boardgame inspiration.

This is nothing, however, compared to the combat, where the defender can use up to three dice, potentially eliminating three attackers in one round.

This makes it nigh impossible to effectively take a territory with three defenders present, as the odds are too heavily stacked against the attacker.

In terms of gameplay, these changes create an odd mismatch between pressing forward and holding a defensive line. It's essentially pointless to attack an area with three or four defenders.

Armies of War’s emphasis on slower, more defensive-minded play would be easier to recommend to Risk fanatics if it included an option to alter the rules or display options.

Instead, it will be the more casual fans of the classic strategy title that will get the most out of the title’s attractive and less vicious interpretation of the game.