I mentioned Risk II in the first post of the thread, but I played a game on Saturday and wanted to report on it. Here is a picture of the board for reference when discussing additional territories:
Copied from my report on boardgamegeek.com with minor changes:
I was able to play another game of RISK II this weekend, and this time to completion. Present was my trustworthy friend Derek, who has joined every game I've played, as well as two of my nephews, Max and Phil, who love classic Risk, but had never before played a simultaneous game. Playing to 60%, the players needed a mere 28 territories of the full 48 in order to win. Even at this early cutoff, the game was already in the winner's hands before we were done before turn 3. We made it through 5 in all.
In the beginning, I was granted a rather unfair advantage. We simply distributed the cards, which left me with a surprisingly good position--I had about half of Europe and several connected territories that also led into Asia (remember, in this version connected empires also grant additional armies). The result was a significant army bonus of 7 per turn while everyone else only got 4. Derek and I admittedly had a casual relationship--we hardly had any adjacent territories and couldn't really help each other out much. On the other hand, my nephews joined forces in an inseparable bond and were determined to attack me from Asia. They did not do much to prevent a European conquest in spite of owning a few of the territories between the two of them. Phil had the best shot of preventing me from gaining the whole continent, but he also had ambitions for N. America and clashed with Derek. Between the silly Asian assault and the N. American campaign, he did not have enough forces present in Europe to defend against me, and I had all of Europe by the end of the first turn.
Turn 2 I played rather cautiously. My nephews continued to trip over each other as their territories were interspersed. Rather than consolidating a continent and separating their territories so they had clearly discernible empires, they were weakened by trying to avoid conquering each others' "throwaway" territories. Max had sizable forces in both India and Siam, and Phil had a big army in Ural and China. I was somewhat nervous that they could break through my forces and remove my European bonus. They took out most of my useless Asian territories, but I succeeded in repelling them and gained Afghanistan and India. Meanwhile, Max also slowly tried to gain Australia and Phil and Derek were going back in forth in North American and extended their battle into the South. Derek clearly had the upper hand, as his forces were far more concentrated there, but he had quite a time eradicating Phil.
By turn 3 I broke through both nephews' defenses and had them both on the run. Derek had been true to his word in spite of a couple of times where I'd been a tad more vulnerable to a backstab. I managed to take out Max's backup line in Siam and continued to spread throughout Asia. Derek tried to help me a bit by attacking Japan through Hawaii, but he couldn't really do much near to home. Max pressed into S. America from New Zealand to help out his brother; the Americas remained unattainable and still no one else had gained a single continent other than myself.
Turn 4 I invaded Africa, which had largely been left alone. I nearly gained the whole of Asia, and I continued my policy of slowly building up in Iceland and Svalbard for a potential N. American invasion (to ensure Derek couldn't get too big...again, only if necessary). Max finally had Australia, but Phil literally had only two territories remaining in N. America by the end of the turn. I had played a rather cautious turn because while I had large forces on all fronts, Derek and I kept our mutually respectful truce and didn't attack him on any front (by this time, most of my front lines were now facing Derek's men).
Turn 5 was the final slammer. I had to turn on Derek, but we also swallowed up my nephews. Phil was crushed in N. America and Max forced out of the South. Derek owned both continents, minus one key territory: Greenland. You see, Greenland was Phil's last stand, and while Derek attacked him there from Oiktaluk, I did too from both Iceland and Svalbard, denying Derek the potential (though never enjoyed) continental bonus and securing a powerful foothold in the continent, as well as gaining Phil's card (yes, he cashed in, though he couldn't use most of his bonus troops due to Risk II's reinforcement restrictions). I completed my Asia conquest and would have appreciated that massive boost to my forces had another turn come around. I also pushed Max and Derek's troops out of Africa, thus gaining that continent with minimal effort. I invaded Australia through Siam while Derek invaded from Argentina, and we completely annihilated Max, except for his holding in New Guinea.
The number of territories I held at the end was 28, the exact minimum for victory. My holding of three continents while Derek only had one and my superior numbers on all fronts guaranteed an ultimate victory, even if Derek put up a reasonable resistance. We decided to call it quits, justifying it by the number of territories held.
In spite of the overwhelming victory, it was a bit depressing winning so overwhelmingly. As I said, the game was in the winner's hand early on, and the last two turns were more of boring mop up action than fun (especially for my poor nephews, who were both messing around on their phones for much of the time while Derek and I pondered placement and moves). Still, I'm always glad to win, and the boys said they wanted to play me again while they're still in town. I hope we get to. I'll keep you all posted.