Risk 2210 AD Variants

[goodmangames]

Anybody else out there play Risk 2210 AD? I just played some two-player games last night. We usually play with 3-4 people, and those games go on forever so we had to come up with a "no politicking" rule. Otherwise, allegiance shifts prevent anyone from remaining the dominant world power for more than one turn, and the game never ends. But the two player games are quite different... no politics, and the only interference is the neutral player.

Last night we were talking about ways to make the neutral player more interactive. One suggestion was to have him attack weaker neighboring countries. After nominating one of his territories, you'd roll 1d6 and add the difference in units between him and his neighbor. For example, if his territory has 3 units and yours beside it has 1, you'd add 2 to the roll. On a roll of 7 or higher, he chooses to attack.

But the question is: How do you choose which neighboring territory to attack? And which neutral territory do you start with? Does the neutral guy always go as turn order 3? Or maybe he gets two turn markers, 3 and 4, and each player can "activate" two of his territories on his turn? Or what?

We ended up shelving the idea and playing normally until we figured out a way to do it. My current favorite is the two-turn-markers approach outlined above, where each player can activate 3 neutral territories and attempt to attack with them.