Taking over the world might not seem the most festive of activities, but a game of Risk will see you through from First Night to the last of the leftovers.
For many British households, the festive season affords the perfect opportunity to meet up, exchange gifts and share food before getting down to the truly important business of battling each other to the death in Kamchatka, Siam and Alberta. For non-converts, playing Risk may not seem particularly festive, but, to its fans, this classic board game’s mix of conflict, back-stabbing, vendettas, false promises and the taking of malicious glee in others’ misfortune is exactly what Christmas is all about.
As was that other veteran military game L’Attaque, Risk was a French invention, which first appeared as La Conquête du Monde in 1957. The game — in which two to six players fight for control of the globe for reasons of megalomania — was designed by Albert Lamorisse. It was a rather good year for Lamorisse: not only was his game of world conquest published, but he also won an Oscar for his film The Red Balloon.
Lamorisse created the game during a family holiday in the Netherlands and set it in the era of Napoleon Bonaparte. In a further Gallic flourish, he handed it to a philosopher, Jean-René Vernes (author of The Existence of the External World), for fine tuning. Vernes tossed out the navies from the original game (possibly to avoid a repeat of Trafalgar) and, in a move the notoriously gung-ho Little Emperor would have surely disavowed, rearranged the combat rules so they favoured the defender.
When the game was licensed by Parker Brothers in the US, they reversed that decision. Risk favours the aggressor and just as well, too, because without that tweak, conquering the 42 territories to the machine-gun rattle of rolling dice would take even longer than it already does.
Lamorisse claimed that a game of Risk would last 90 minutes. This is highly optimistic. Anybody who has played with those serious opponents who slowly build up their forces as they hide themselves in Australia will know Risk is a game that, if begun on First Night, can easily outlast the turkey leftovers.
Parker Brothers was initially sceptical about Risk. The Cold War was at its height and the feeling was that people don’t like playing at war when there’s a real one going on. There was also the cost — with the vast board and hundreds of plastic-cube armies, the original Risk sold for almost triple the price of most board games. As it transpired, there was no need to worry: in 1959, the year of its launch, Risk sold 100,000 copies and sales soon began to outstrip those of Monopoly. Why not? After all, hadn’t Parker advertised the new game with the slogan ‘Why stop at Mayfair when you can own the whole globe?’ The game had initially been aimed at families, but, by the late 1960s, Risk was so popular with adults that Playboy magazine ran articles on winning tactics.
Ah yes, how to win? ‘Don’t mass troops in Asia,’ a parent will advise his or her off-spring. ‘And keep out of New Guinea. Africa is easy to invade, but hard to hold onto.’ Everyone has a theory. Dozens of learned papers have been written on the strategies of Risk. Many include the sort of mathematical analysis — filled with probability theory and talk of Markov chains — that would have given Napoleon indigestion.
Risk remains one of the world’s biggest-selling board games and many feel it can still give children valuable insights into the modern world. In 2023, The Wall Street Journal claimed playing Risk had taught ‘Cold War kids… that alliances have limits, odds don’t predict the future and it’s fool’s work to invade Ukraine’ — it seems that at least one ‘Cold War kid’ in St Petersburg didn’t play Risk at Christmas.
Harry Pearson is a journalist and author
A sweeping double staircase, stone floors and oak-panelled walls meet swimming pool and games room in this West Country mansion
Penny Churchill takes a look at Avishays House, a 17th century creation that's in the grandest tradition of the country
How to win at board games, from Monopoly and Cluedo to Scrabble and Snakes and Ladders
As millions of people around the country are set to have an enforced period at home, it'll be time to
The 12 party games of Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas land you with 12 days of enforced revelry. That’s 12 sub-sets of step-relations, 12 afternoons
17 dangerous games for boys (and girls)
If you worry about health and safety, please look away now…
