This is a very fun version of Risk.
I didn't play this game before I bought it and there are not many good descriptions about it so I thought I would describe the game a little.
The game is set in medieval Europe and is designed for up to 4 players. Instead of a game of classic Risk where you are trying to eliminate all other players, in Risk Europe, players are trying to collect 7 crowns to win the game. Crowns are claimed throughout the game by capturing territories that have cities in them or by buying crown cards (you can also play an alternate version where you have to complete missions in the game to earn the crown cards). I liked the goal of the game to collect crowns rather than eliminate all the other players because if a player is eliminated from a game of classic Risk, they may have to sit and wait a long time for the game to end. In this version if a player has a bad start, they can at least stay in the game and even come back and win.
The game starts by players picking a starting city, adjacent territory, and placing a castle in their city. Each major city in the game gives a bonus to the player that controls the city. Some cities that are on the outer edge of the board and have less borders to defend have slightly weaker bonuses while some of the cities in the middle have slightly better bonuses so it helps balance out the game.
The game is played in rounds. Each player has 8 cards with "orders" for their kingdom. Players pick 2 orders and in what order they want to play them. Then the players take turns playing their order cards. This mechanism makes it hard to react quickly to other players, which I'm sure is designed to simulate how hard it would be to send orders quickly through a kingdom in medieval Europe. After each player plays their 2 orders, they set those cards aside and pick 2 more orders and play another round. Once all 8 orders are used, players can then start over and choose from all 8 orders again.
The orders are basically to either tax your kingdom to raise money, spend money to buy armies or crowns, expand to new territories, or move troops from one territory to another. This limits how quickly you can generate an army and move against the other players but it also helps you as you can also see when players are making armies and have some time to prepare your important cities for defense.
Also the player who starts playing the orders changes throughout the game, which balances out the game. In addition, some of the orders have bonuses like placing a few footmen or becoming the new starting player that need to be strategically used during the game.
The next major difference with classic Risk is the battles. In classic Risk all armies are the same but in Risk Europe there are different units that have different abilities. There are siege weapons, archers, calvary, and footmen. Units are purchased during the game with the more expensive units able to inflict greater damage. When a player loses units in a battle, the player picks which of their units they lose. That makes it important to have a mix of more expensive units with the inexpensive footmen. That way as a player loses units, they can remove the footmen rather than having only an army of calvary and as the player loses units, they lose calvary every time (which cost 3 coins vs 1 coin for footmen).
A big difference with battles is that the attacker actually moves the units they are attacking with into the territory of the defender. There is no backing out of an attack or retreating for either the attacker or defender. Once there is a battle, it continues until one of the player's army is destroyed.
Players may also spend coins to build castles. Everyone starts with one castle in their starting city. Castles provide a few bonuses. The biggest two benefits are: 1- A territory with a castle cannot be attacked by an army without a siege engine. 2- When a player purchases more units they can only be deployed into territories with a city. However if a player builds a castle in a territory without a city, they can then place newly purchased units in that city.
That is pretty much it for how the game works. My friends and I played it with 4 players and we really enjoyed the game. We had 3 lead changes late in the game and a come from behind victory so it was pretty fun.
I thought the game would be about 60-90 minutes since you are just trying to earn 7 crowns but as a player gets close to winning, people in our game tried to slow them down and keep them from getting to 7. That seemed very similar to classic Risk, as one player gets a clear advantage, players team up to check their power. People made a few tactical mistakes that we later realized prolonged our game as well. In the end we spent 3 hours learning the game, playing, and then figuring out where people made errors in their strategy. I'm sure the game could be played in 60-90 minutes though.
As for the quality of the game pieces/board, I thought Hasbro did an excellent job. The board is large and high quality. Each player has different colored armies but also each army is made from a different mold, so everyone's army looks different to reflect different nations of real medieval Europe. The only downside here was that the pieces are plastic and brightly colored blue, orange, green and purple. So no wooden meebles or hand painted knights in shining armour. The game comes with several dice for the battles but at one point in a battle the attacker rolls 3 dice and the defender will roll 2 just like in classic risk. The dice are all red though and it just seemed like the defender should have white dice at that point.
There are a few things that I felt would make the game better. One, the crowns only cost 10 coins which is relatively cheap compared to the cost of the armies and castles you can buy. I would suggest the crowns cost 15 or 20 coins. Players could also simply play with the missions to earn the crowns though. Two, the territory of Denmark is very elongated and reaches far south, compared to other countries, it is very exaggerated giving the player controlling a very long reach through central Europe. Third, it is very hard to spend time moving troops during the game, I would suggest one of the bonuses on one of the order cards be a free "maneuver." Finally, it would be nice if there were some built in mechanic in the game to either help players that are losing or slow the winning player without all the players having to stop fighting each other and concentrate on stopping a potential victor.
Overall Risk Europe is a great game and I highly recommend it. I am glad I purchased it even without having played it. If you are a Risk fan and have actually taken the time to read this far, you should probably just buy the game.
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Model Number | B7409 |
| Number of Game Players | 4 |
| Number of Pieces | 120 |
| Assembly Required | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Remote Control Included? | No |
| Release date | 1 July 2016 |
| Mfg Recommended age | 10 year and up |
| Item model number | B7409 |
| Product Dimensions | 8.1 x 29.49 x 29.49 cm; 1.3 Kilograms |
| ASIN | B01ALHAEMK |
