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Castle Risk

Castle Risk is a version of the board game Risk that is played on a map of Europe. It appeared on the reverse side of the Risk board in a early 1990s version of the game.

Table of contents
1 Map
2 Rules
3 Strategy
4 Rule Modifications

Map

The map is divided into six empires and three neutral areas. One receives 4 troops per turn for each empire you control and 6 troops if you control all the neutral areas. A common variation un play is to divide up the neutral areas so that you receive 2 troops a turn for any of the three neutral areas you control.

Empires:

Neutrals:

Rules

The rules of Castle Risk differ from World Risk in several respects. Each empire has a capital. This cpaital provides much of a player's income and once the capital is lost that player is out of the game. A capital can only be attacked with two dice, rather than the standard three, this gives a great advantage to the defender.

Castle Risk also has very different cards. Rather than only the standard reinforcement cards there are a wide assortment:

Strategy

The best empire to be is usually France. Its owner automtically dominates Spain and England (if it is empty). It is not usually bordered by many hostile empires. The worst empire is Austro-Hungary, which is very boxed in by other powers and has no territories that do not border other empires.

One strategy that is unfortunately too effective in Castle Risk is to sit and build up in your capital for most of the game until you can launch an attack with an admiral against another player's capital. This, however, produces a very boring game.

Rule Modifications

One method of preventing this strategy is to create "quadrants" to reduce the power of the Admiral cards. This is done by dividing the board along the folds and at Portugal and allowing a Admiral to only travel two quadrants a turn. Thus one cannot attack from St. Petersburg to Turkey by see anymore, but St. Petersburg to Yorkshire, or Rome to Turkey are still permissible.