Risk was first published more than 60 years ago. For many of us it was our first 'serious' board game (ie: the first that didn't just rely on roll & move mechanics) so it has a place in our hearts even if the vanilla game does rather show its age. Risk (Hasbro) hasn't stood still, however. Tho' you can still buy versions of the unvarnished original, it's been refreshed through numerous themed editions, and unlike the myriad themed versions of Monopoly, which usually just have a paper-thin veneer of their adopted theme, the themed versions of Risk usually incorporate rule variants and a new board to distinguish them from the vanilla game. Case in point, Risk: Peaky Blinders and Risk: Stranger Things, both from Winning Moves.
Tho' they share the core Risk rules for movement, attack and defence, neither of these editions of Risk are played on a world map, so have no fear - neither Thomas Shelby nor Dustin Henderson will be launching attacks from Kamchatka to Alaska. The map for Risk: Peaky Blinders is of the British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland. Tho' land areas are deemed adjacent via sea routes (for example, the South West of England and South East of Ireland are considered adjacent), there's no wraparound. This version of Risk takes up to five players, each controlling one of the rival gangs vying to be the most powerful criminal organisation: the Peaky Blinders, Birmingham Boys, Jewish Gang, Sabinis and IRA. The pieces are nice sculpts (bare-kuckle fighters for 1 unit; mounted gang members for 5 units; limousines for 10 units) but just be warned that the colours of each faction's pieces aren't as clearly distinguishable as they might be and some of the territories on the GB map are very small, so it can be fiddly placing the larger pieces in them.
You get additional gang members (ie: Risk armies) for territories and for complete regions. Similar to the standard game, you can trade in territory cards for additional gang members but the number of gang members you receive depends on the total number of razorblades on all the cards you trade in. Each card will show either one or two razorblades but you're incentivised to save cards and trade them in in larger quantities. For example, 5 razorblades will get you 10 gang members but 10 razorblades will net you 30 gang members.
There are Mission cards that can earn you more gang members. Power cards may boost your gang but they might cause you to lose gang members. Both tho' feature characters from the TV series and add to the theme of the game. Risk: Peaky Blinders also incorporates a British Crown marker that advances along a track from the Houses of Parliament to the Garrison Tavern. This acts as a game timer, with the win going to the player who controls the most territories, altho' if a double 6 is rolled at this stage the Crown is deemed the winner and all the players lose! This version of Risk has special rules for a two-player game whereby the three non-player gangs are also in play at the start of the game as 'neutral' gangs.
Risk: Stranger Things takes up to four players: the Hawkins kids, the Hawkins adults, the US Army and the Soviet Army. The two Hawkins factions are considered to be allied with the Hellfire Club and the US and Soviet armies are both allied with the Demogorgon. When you occupy a territory showing your allied icon, you get to add +1 to your lowest defence roll.
The mapboard for Risk: Stranger Things represents territories, colour coded to form regions and connected either by land borders, red arrows or 'rifts'. Tho' this version of Risk has similar rules for adding pieces for controlling territories and regions, and for trading in territory cards, it's more strategic than conventional Risk because there's a focus on scoring victory points by completing missions, and incomplete missions are kept secret from the other players. The cards in this Stranger Things edition are of notably better quality than those in Risk: Peaky Blinders. The board is less cramped but paradoxically some of the playing pieces are unnecessarily small - particularly the tiny bikes that are used to represent 1 unit; the vans that represent 3 units and planes that represent 5 units are more appropriately sized.
Just like the British Crown in Risk: Peaky Blinders, Risk: Stranger Things has a game timer in the form of Vecna, who moves one space forward on a track at the end of every player's turn. It's not quite as unrelenting as it sounds because a die is rolled at the end of each round (ie: after all players have had a turn) and Vecna moves back a space if an even number is rolled. Whenever Vecna enters a territory containing more than one unit, it eliminates a unit. If Vecna reaches the Creel House at the end of their track before any player has won (scored 20 victory points), you roll two dice and the game only continues on a 2d6 roll of 6 or more. You repeat this each round, and if there's a roll of less than 6 then Vecna wins and all the players lose!
We reckon Winning Moves have got the balance right with these Risk variants. There's enough echo of the original core game to give players - particularly only occasional gamers - the reassurance of familiarity and enough that's thematic and new to give each of these games a flavour of the popular TV franchises of which they are part.