This is a term that I will be using from time to time – I just used it in a post without explaining what it meant, though.

Risk and Diplomacy are both world conquest board games, but each has a different approach.

Risk is all about the dice rolls. There is not a lot that separates a great Risk player from a good Risk player. Some planning is necessary, of course, but more depends on fate and luck.

Diplomacy is all skill. There are no dice, no combat result tables, nothing but the player and his/her brain.

The Risk vs Diplomacy axis is the spectrum along which all strategy games lie. Some lean more towards luck, others towards skill. All are somewhere in the middle.