Just because it is slow and inelegant is no reason to avoid a war of attrition. Now, if you don't have the highest production of anyone, a war of attrition is just a way to beat your current enemy, only to be destroyed by the guy who's been growing while you've fought your slow battle. But, if you have the highest production on the board, and it will be difficult for others to grow to the same level of production, then a war of attrition can be to your advantage.

Of course, if your production exceeds the combined production of everyone else on the board, then absolutely fight a war of attrition. It's the least risky option to gain victory in the end.

A war of attrition can be a great path to victory. It offers:

• A sure way to keep an army in being
• The chance to nibble away strategic objectives on your borders
• The chance to attack and gain a card, then retreat the armies you just advanced into a large concentration that is unattackable
• The guaranteed opportunity to attack later, with better odds
• The chance to build armies so large that the trade of a Risk card set doesn't make a strategic difference

Effective tactics in a war of attrition include:

• Attacking a single lightly-defended objective every turn, then withdrawing and letting the enemy take it back . The longer the game lasts, the larger your advantage. Taking a single objective every turn keeps you even in the Risk card competition while allowing you to build up your forces. (Avoid this strategy if you're playing with card set turn-in rules that give massive increasing returns.)
• As your advantage grows, attack to destroy one of your enemy's concentrations every turn. After attacking, withdraw to your strong border position. This will ensure that, when you finally attack, they'll have fewer large armies with which to respond.
• Send in "suicide squads" -- smaller forces that can punch through a weak spot in the border and penetrate deeply to take away a couple of continents. Even if you don't have a large enough army to hold the positions you take, you enhance your productive advantage. (Obviously, this won't work if you regularly lose more armies each turn than you take away from your opponent.)

Of course, all of these advantages pertain to the player with the productive advantage. If that's not you, then avoid the war of attrition. You must decide either to attack your largest enemy now, hopefully with allies, or find some other direction in which to grow in order to turn around again with the productive advantage. You must do one of those now -- otherwise, you'll ultimately be attacked with even worse odds than you currently face.

If the odds against you are already steep, look to concentrate your armies and build one force that can cut a deep swath through your enemy and equalize the terms of the conflict, even if you have to give up some short-term production to do so; you need to do something now, not later, when the odds are even worse.