Posted on 01/11/2026 8:10:29 AM PST by DFG
A top-ranked board game player has said President Trump's geopolitical rampage through the Western Hemisphere looks just like a popular strategy in the game of Risk.
Michael Olivol, a grandmaster and former world number one player at Risk, revealed that the game's most advanced players often attempt to control all of North America before moving on to easier targets like South America in their quest to rule the world.
Risk is a classic strategy board game where players battle for global domination by conquering territories on a map, building armies, rolling dice to fight enemies, and forming sneaky alliances.
Coincidentally, three of the key spaces on the game board are Greenland, Central America, and Venezuela, which the 32-year-old accountant from New Jersey described as major 'choke points' that keep enemies from invading your territories.
'You need those territories, as well as Alaska or Kamchatka [Russia's closest point to the US], to safely hold the North American continent,' Olivol told the Daily Mail.
Since taking office for a second time, Trump has not only lobbied to buy Greenland and Canada and take over the Panama Canal, but the US has also launched military strikes against alleged drug traffickers in Mexico and Venezuela.
Trump has also touted the massive supplies of natural resources, including oil and precious metals, that the US would have access to by gaining more control of both continents.
Olivol noted that Risk players gain shockingly similar advantages, being showered with more 'armies' (or resources) as a bonus reward for controlling more nations on the board.
In Risk, controlling an entire continent gives you a big troop bonus every turn, which snowballs your advantage and allows you to invade other parts of the world more quickly.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“Kamchatka was the place.”
I just posted that.
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Kamchatka Krai has a population of approximately 288,947, predominantly ethnic Russians, with significant indigenous groups such as Koryaks and Itelmens.
Population Overview
Total Population: As of 2024, Kamchatka Krai has an estimated population of 288,947 people.
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Density: The population density is very low, at about 0.61 persons per square kilometer, indicating a sparsely populated region.
Trying to dominate Bananastan is as difficult in Risk as it is in real life.
"Never start a land war in Asia."
I played a lot of Risk when I was younger, until the release of Axis & Allies, which I liked a lot more. The trick was for Germany to push east and Japan to push west, linking up in India. If that could be done relatively quickly, the USSR could be overwhelmed from the east, west and south leaving the remaining Allies in a pretty bad way.
Still comes down to the roll of the dice.
Yeah, risk is so much like real military action < /sarc>
A board game player does not have to know or understand the real geopolitical world, which does not run on gaming theories of board games. The two conditions - a board game - and the real world - are not analogous.
I launched many a world dominating counter attack from there.
Now the author should do muslim conquest of England.
Beatcha. See my No. 8
Arnold Rimmer kept a RISK diary that he recorded his dice throws.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qPSUr3AyzI&t=33s
After the election when Trump said that he wanted Canada and Greenland for America, everybody went huh? Where did that come from? I immediately knew he was playing RISK. It’s amazing that it took so long for people to recognize the strategy.
he wo control kamchatka, rules the world… actually, australia was the stronghold to get early.
hehehe, when someone started their domination turn we would cry, who do you think you are. king of the world?
good times, good times
Europe’s actually my 2nd favorite choice after North America. From Europe you focus on conquering Africa. Once that’s done you can wall off the east by placing a lot of troops in Ukraine and the Middle East. Greenland is your only connection to North America. So you are then free to conquer South America. Once you have 3 continents, you’re pretty much unstoppable.
Learned were Irkutsk and Yakutsk were from that game.
My UNIX .plan file contained one sentence,
Risk, a game of global domination.
Yep; essentially “don’t do what the real Axis did” and you have a chance.
Then, just a short leap to https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6942/drang-nach-osten.
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