What I learned from playing risk?

I like playing risk, the board game. For those who don’t know it’s a strategic board game about using soldiers to conquer all the countries in the world. For those who don’t know about the game you can go and see the rules of the game here but for you to understand this article you don’t need to know the exact rules. I’m just going to share some philosophies I use in playing the game.

Don’t fight fire with fire

In the game, the more armies you have the more you will win. But that doesn’t mean you must fight with all your armies at the same time. If you have a lot of armies never use them to fight with a strong enemy. Fight armies that are weaker than you. It’s not bullying, it’s just strategic. In World War 2, you will never see both the Alliance and German sides bring tanks on the same field. Always choose your battles correctly, and only use them to achieve a necessary goal. Example: To get a strategic country on the board game (conquering certain countries gives you extra advantages in the game). When, you attack someone with equal strength as you, both parties will draw and you will lose all your armies. Making you both weaker than earlier and exposed to a third player. That’s the same in life, sometimes fighting fire with fire is not the best strategy, like Bruce Lee said it, “Be Water My Friend”

Control strategic points

In the game, there are several countries where it is important for you to conquer first. For example, in the image below if you want to prevent your enemy to control South America you must control & increase number of armies in Venezuela & Brazil because they are the only place to enter the South America Continent. In business, you cannot control everything but if you know what is the most important factors to control than you’re on way to have a good foundation.

Gain & maintain momentum

A few countries are grouped together to form a continent. When all of you conquer all the countries in a continent you get to get add more armies every turn compared to other players. So, usually the first person to get a continent will usually win the game. This is because there is a compounding effect. In business, there is a compounding effect in financial issues, but here in the game the compounding effect is in the amount of armies you can add in the game. In layman terms, there is momentum in the game. As a player, you need to get continents as soon as possible and built on it to conquer more countries. Usually, when my enemy does this, I will try to distrupt their momentum by doing all it takes to prevent them conquering a continent. Some will say I’m just really a sore loser but it’s all pure strategic. I know 100% that advantage will determine the outcome of the game. Of course, if I don’t play seriously then it won’t be fun right? ;P

Don’t be greedy

The amount of your armies are not limitless. You might have a lot of armies but if you go and conquer so many countries, you might end up having your armies scattered to thinly which leaves you open to attacks from many direction. So attack until you reach your objective or able to conquer a strategic country where it is easy to defend. One time, I had a strong army, I conquered all the way to the other edge of the board game, but I spread my forces too far. Each of the country I conquered, only had 1 army. After that, the previous owner of the land I conquered, re-conquered my lands. It’s same with life, nothing wrong trying to achieve more but be clear about the reason why you’re doing it. If it’s just greed, then you will lose it.

Most of people I know play alliances like it’s a marriage. Most alliances are temporary but the mutual benefits are clearly defined. Most businesses are that. It’s not like I’m going to start betraying my alliances. I am still playing with my friends ;P but my point is this: Every situation you have an enemy. And that enemy has another enemy and ultimately, the enemy of my enemy is my friend…for now. Just find who that person is and work something out.

Sometime I play the game too seriously because I want to win. But the reason I want to win is that I feel it is a good opportunity to understand the thinking process and how I will react to situations. I especially like trying to anticipate my opponent’s next steps although most of the time I cannot guess correctly. I was able to learn about all the 3 things above from the game. Maybe you guys have learnt something from the game to? Please do share. I hope you guys can see that we can learn from anything at anyplace, we just need to open my mind to let it teach us something.

Be.You.