Never Get Involved In A Land War In Asia

"Never Get Involved In A Land War In Asia" ~Vizzini

This sage bit of advice comes courtesy of the Princess Bride.  Whether gathered around the kitchen table playing Risk or in real life, you should always avoid going to war in Asia.  In 1962, British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery addressing the House of Lords said this: "Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives."  For the purpose of this advice, I am going to (as Montgomery did) include Russia as part of Asia.

Let's start with Risk.  Yes, Asia is worth 7 armies a round, but if you're defending Asia, you could be defending Asia's borders from 6 different regions!  Much better strategy: try capturing North America (5 armies) and Australia (2 armies).  You're only defending against 4 different regions.  If you must fight in Asia, target the border regions: Middle East, Southeast Asia and Kamchatka. Another game where you shouldn't try to fight in Asia is Axis & Allies.  As the Americans, you start the game with a limited number of units in China.  Your best bet?  Reinforce the Soviets in Russia and/or the UK in India.  As the Soviets, you definitely don't want to be fighting in Asia; the more you fight the Germans in Europe, the better the game is going to go for the Allies.  On the Axis side, sadly, you need to fight in Asia if you're going to have any hope of winning.  Knocking the Soviet Union out of the game early is your best bet.

Moving on to real life, here's a partial list of military commanders who have been defeated in Asia: Alexander the Great, General Douglas MacArthur, Napoleon, General Field Marshall Wilhelm List, General Paul Harkins, General William Westmoreland, and General Creighton Abrams.  America fought and failed to win two separate military conflicts in the last half of the 20th century: The Korean War (almost 35,000 US casualties) and the Vietnam War (close to 60,000 US fatalities).  The Soviet Union spent millions of dollars and lost close to 15,000 men trying to invade Afghanistan.