My brother and I also played Risk for the first time ever over Christmas vacation. I think it’s that same “Leatherbound Book” edition that you bought, too.

Did you play the “special 2 player rules” in the back of the instruction manual? Or did you and Kenny just play with 2 players the same way you’d play with 3 or more? The 2 player rules basically set it up so that EVERY color is playing. The non-human colors are basically just drones that own territories and serve as roadblocks. They start out with fewer armies than you do, and never receive reinforcements or attack. Also, territories are not “selected” at the start of the game, but dealt out randomly (by dealing out the cards in the deck to the humans and non-humans alike). Check out that rule set if you havn’t yet and give it a shot.

Also, I highly recomment Risk II, which is a computer version of Risk that came out probably 5 or 6 years ago. It’s a lot quicker and easier to play a game of risk when you don’t have to fumble with all the little men setting up the board (and when you can save a game in progress). It’s not the greatest implementation in the world, I’ve definitely caught a few bugs in its gameplay. But it’s dirt cheap (I bought it for $5 including shipping on Amazon) so it’s worth a shot.

Last updated: January 15th, 2007 A list of blogs from various product team members and other related…

Another variation is to play Capital Risk. At the beginning of the game each player choose 1 territory to be their “Capital” and to win you have to capture the other player’s Capital. With more than 2 players each time you capture a player’s capital you also acquire their other territories and troops.

Have fun!