Yes, teh campaign map is very much like risk, but the battles themselves are epic real time strategy. perosnally, i have played every total war game, and empire is probably my least favorite, but i play it purely for the battles, which are somewhat boring compared to games like Medieval 2 total war. You tedn to end up just watching the armies fire back and forth. it lacks the intensity. Id say buy either Medieval 2 total war, or ROme total war. The graphics on medieval are better then rome, but rome is great for its actual gameplay. Of course, if you are lookign for the specific era of RISK. then go ahead and get empire. but i got bored of it quick.
also, you need a great machine to run empire on good graphics.
also, you should be able to pick up roime and medieval for under 25$, whereas empire is about 35-40
