The Deep Red team bring you the latest developments in the design of RISK II...

At the end of the last piece of this diary, I mentioned that taking and holding a continent wasn't a crucial factor in RISK II. By that I didn't mean that it was no longer important to set your sights on taking specific regions - after all, continent ownership is a major part of most missions. What I meant was that in addition to the rewards from continent ownership, we've introduced new reinforcement rules that give players a few more things to think about.

First of all, the mechanics of how reinforcements are awarded have changed slightly. In Classic RISK, the number of territories that a player holds are counted up and divided by three, with the player then awarded the resulting number of battalions as reinforcements. In Same Time RISK, the same system is used... with one major change. When each player's territories are counted, his or her largest grouping of connected territories is counted as double. For example, if a player occupies 14 territories and 10 of them are connected to one another, he or she is awarded eight battalions as reinforcements. That's 10 territories counted double, with the four remaining added on to make 24, then divided by three, equalling eight. Simple, isn't it?

Like all good game rules, this is far easier to demonstrate than to explain in writing, but it all becomes effortless once the game begins. Anyway, the computer takes care of it all for you so you don't need to worry.

Apart from ensuring that all RISK II players brush up on their mental arithmetic, this also brings a more 'real life' feel to the game, with players tending to build realistic troop masses and front lines. It also brings about subtle changes in most players' tactics. In effect, players no longer need to risk all in pursuit of a continent - they can more or less create one of their own.