Whenever one group of friends gets together and wants to play either Risk or Axis & Allies, they always ask me, and my answer is always a resounding NO! These games take way too damn long to play! I played Axis & Allies for 8 hours straight once, and it still wasn't finished. We wrote down all the stuff we had to eventually finish it, but we never did. Another thing I hate about these games is the fact that all you need to do is pile your army up in one giant pile like Australia, then sweep across the map. It would be nice if they offered a nuclear option, so people would have to spread out their troops a bit and offer a bit more strategic play to the game. Plus, all you do is roll the dice, which means it's a game of luck. I'd have more fun playing a slot machine, personally. All in all, I am surprised that a game that takes 6-8 hours to finish has lasted this long, and gotten this popular. You would think someone would've designed something better by now. A good board game takes 2 hours or less, is not based on luck, and has some semblance of strategic play to it.
My brother and I invented nuclear Risk. At some point you yell "Nuclear Risk" and from that point on combat rolls are 10x damage, and you can wipe all the units from a territory. Of course, such territories are uninhabitable and can't be used by anybody. Which later was incorporated into Risk:2210.
Computer RISK is *so* much better. Better options, faster moves and attack results, etc.... Plus NOTHING can beat the Same-Time Game! The only problem I had is that my copy is...... and the network version of it doesn't work.
I play a computer version called Lux, on occasion. Great games which go really fast, rarely more than an hour. Nice variations. Lots of maps, can download new AI's even. I've found that unless you get oz (Australia) completely or 3/4 under your control initially, you waste too long taking it over to really have time to fortify well. I tend to go for South America, plus a Central America, West Africa, and one or 2 countries more. Works quite well.
That's how it works in 2210 - in our version, nuclear option was usually a fight-to-the-death endgame.
