The Risk Sacrilege83 is referring to is Risk 2210. I've played that too, and it's very similar to Godstorm. 2210 is perhaps a little less intense and a little more gentle.

As for Godstorm tactics, I think one of the most important, but often overlooked, skills is being able to manipulate other players. If you can even slightly manipulate as less experienced player, then you're effectively playing with two armies, which gives you a huge advantage.
It's very important in Godstorm to not appear too powerful, or you might gain the unwelcome and hostile attention of the other players. Of course, if you're powerful enough, and are wielding an extensive collection of cards, then you might be able to intimidate players enough not to attack you. However, I prefer to set myself in a lesser but firmer and more comfortable position.
Some players like to sit tight and just build up until the final couple of turns before pouncing. I think this can occasionally work, but the problem is that by sitting back you're letting other players become powerful too. You're also very vulnerable when you're not doing anything and playing defensively. Personally, I like to play aggressively but safely, trying to hit other players as much and as hard as possible but, at the same time, risking little.
My favourite cards are War and Magic. By the end of turn Two I'll probably have four Magic Cards and a couple of War Cards. The Death Deck definitely has very powerful cards, but it also has the worst cards in the game. It's therefore pretty random and ergo I don't really like it. As I mentioned earlier, I don't like to play defensively, and so I don't like the Sky Cards much either.
The final thing I'll say is that the more you win the easier it gets. Not because of the experience you gain, but because of the reputation you develop.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

I have read the rule books but not yet played. From just reading, it looks very good. I don't have actual playing experience of Decipher's Middle-earth RPG, but compared to ICE's MERP this is a completely different thing. One-Ring seems to be the most Middle-earth themed of the three RPGs.

For example, it has a Fellowship system, which lets characters support each other. It takes into account that Middle-earth is a vast and sparsely populated land and has a movement between locations system that sets characters in different roles (guide, scout etc.) and abstracts the travelling quite a bit so that it does not become simple random encounter rolling. And takes corruption into account. And the battle system seems to be quick yet dramatic. All in all, probably a very good system for story telling, not so good for numbers gaming, if you know what I mean.

The designers have clearly asked themselves "how do we do a Middle-earth game?" instead of "how do we glue a couple of Middle-earth special rules onto a generic game system?". MERP was like D&D with some Middle-earth names and requires a lot of work from game master to really make it Middle-earth, but OR seems like you can get to real Middle-earth with a lot less customisation.

I can't wait to finish my current MERP campaign to get a chance to try this out.

-- Pasi