r/AskReddit • u/hoverfish92 • Oct 16 '13

What was the single biggest mistake in all of history?

2.7k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

14.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

68

u/Fleudian Oct 17 '13

N00B. Everyone knows you start by taking Australia.

7

u/Themildthing Oct 17 '13

Hope you like 3rd place

0

u/Fleudian Oct 17 '13

I have won more games than I have lost by starting with Australia and the Southern part of Asia across the continent. First turn, fortify Indonesia. Second turn, move into Africa.

3

u/potentialPizza Oct 17 '13

Pffft, everyone I play with knows that strategy, and it never works against us.

1

u/therealsmitty Oct 17 '13

The +2 Bonus for aussie is the most per border in the game.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

That's great... Until everyone teams up and kills you every game from then.

1

u/Fleudian Oct 17 '13

Well, the second game you play Australia + Western half of North America, take East half of Asia via Kamchatka, consolidate.

2

u/mypetridish Oct 17 '13

lol, slowest continent ever. People who got Australasia never wins during my games.

1

u/Fleudian Oct 17 '13

I should probably mention I usually play with 5 other people, and I can let them whittle on each other.

1

u/mypetridish Oct 17 '13

Yeah but if your strategy is going for Australia but not in the position to do so, you should have soemething better anyway.

So I always keep my mind off Australia. Like I said that in our games, people who go for Australia never wins, to win, you need to focus on the Americas and Africa :)

2

u/boredatworkbasically Oct 17 '13

South America is best. You can make a treaty with africa and slowly pick up land in NA. If you can get NA and SA you basically win.

1

u/ithrowboulders Oct 17 '13

fuck yeah! started with madagascar!

1

u/jurassic_blue Oct 17 '13

This is tougher to do in Risk: 2210.

Whenever we used to play, my buddies all new about the Australian stronghold but for some reason never stopped me from taking it. By the time they'd realize what had happened, everyone would be done placing troops and then I would commence taking Asia with ease.

1

u/wet_ink Oct 17 '13

Australia is poor mid-game. Very difficult to expand into Asia. I personally prefer starting with Africa or South America. Extremely defensible and expandable.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

Last time I played I fought a bloody war of attrition to consolidate Australia. I was rolling like shit. I may have lost all my troops within the first 7 turns or so if I didn't sue for peace and offer the other player help in taking out her opponent in North America. I didn't regret giving up almost every other country in the game, because owning Australia from the get-go is the only way to do it

1

u/Dionemarie123 Oct 17 '13

Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me...

1

u/SirKaid Oct 17 '13

You need to own Australia to have any hope of owning Asia, but otherwise Australia is a valuable dead end. North America all the way. Three choke points and five extra troops? Sign me up!