Why Spreading Yourself Thin Feels Like Winning.

If you’ve ever played Risk, you will know the feeling.

Early on in the game, expansion feels incredible. First you take one country off an opponent, then another, then another. Eventually, you capture a whole continent. Every territory you hold earns you more new armies when your turn comes around again, and it feels good to see the map of the world filling up with your color. It looks like you’re winning.

Then come the counter-attacks.

And because you had to spread your armies thin to grab all that land, you’ve left some territories guarded only by single pieces. The moment your opponent breaks through into one, they can then bulldoze their way through a whole swath of your territory in a single turn.

With only a single die to defend against your opponent, you watch helplessly, a mere spectator, as, one by one, your understrength armies succumb to the onslaught.

And, just like that, the board has flipped, and you don’t feel so good.

That’s the seduction of R…