Play Risk

Risk is a game unlike any other. It's fun as both a casual game among friends, as well as a serious strategy game with dedicated students worldwide. The object of Risk is to conquer the world by controlling every territory on a board that's a map of the world. Since you can't take over the world in real life, why not do it in a board game? Read on for a detailed discussion of the rules of and strategy behind Risk.

Steps

Preparing to Play

1. Understand the basic objective of the game. The objective of the game is to conquer the world by controlling all of the countries on the board. You do this by attacking other players and taking over new territories on the board. All the while, you need to make sure that your own territories are well-defended.
2. Check the game’s components. Before you start your game, make sure that you have all of the game components. The game of Risk comes with a foldable game board, a set of 72 cards, and various army tokens.
   • The Risk board has 6 continents — North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Australian Archipelago — and 42 countries.
   • The Risk armies come in six basic colors, along with different kinds of tokens, denoting size of the army. Each set has Infantry (which represents 1 “army”), Cavalry (5 armies), and Artillery (10 armies).
   • A pack of 56 Risk cards should be included. 42 cards are marked with countries as well as an infantry, cavalry, or artillery symbol. There are two "Wild" cards, and 12 "Mission" cards that come with the Secret Mission Risk variant. There should be five dice (three red and two white).
3. Determine how many people are going to be playing. Before you get started, figure out how many people will be playing the game. The total amount of armies you start the game with depends on how many players there are:
   • 6 players - 20 armies each
   • 5 players - 25 armies each
   • 4 players - 30 armies each
   • 3 players - 35 armies each
   • 2 players - 40 armies each (this varies between editions)
4. Set up your initial territories. This will determine the starting points for all players. Each territory must have one “army” in it at all times. There are two ways to determine the initial territories:
   • Have each player roll a die (Standard Rules). The player that rolled the highest value will choose an open territory and place one soldier in it. Moving clock-wise, each player will select an open territory until all territories are occupied. Once players have claimed all the 42 territories on the board, players place their remaining armies onto territories they already claim in any order they choose.
   • Deal out the deck of cards (Alternate Rules). Deal out the entire deck of cards, minus the two Wild cards. Have each player place one of their army pieces in each territory according to the cards they are holding. Take turns doing this.
5. Roll the dice to determine who goes first. The player who rolls the highest number starts the game. Then the play order goes clockwise from the starting player. The game starts after the order of play has been determined.

Getting and Placing New Armies

1. Select army units. Each player can redeem his armies in whatever unit s/he wants (infantry, cavalry, or artillery), provided they all add up to the same number of armies. So if a player gets seven armies at the beginning of his turn, he can redeem them by getting either seven infantry pieces or by getting one cavalry piece and two infantry pieces (which add up to seven).
2. Get your new armies at the beginning of each turn. At the beginning of each turn, players receive more armies. The number of armies is determined by:
   • The number of territories you own. For every three countries, the player gets one army. For example, if you had 11 countries, you would receive 3 armies; if you had 22 countries, you would receive 7 armies.
   • Turning in cards. Cards can be turned in when you have a three of a kind (e.g. all three cards have artillery pictures) or all three types of armies (soldier, cavalry, artillery). For the first set of cards you turn in, you receive 4 armies; 6 for the second; 8 for the third; 10 for the fourth; 12 for the fifth; 15 for the sixth; and for every additional set thereafter, 5 more armies than the previous set turned in. If you have 5 or more Risk cards at the beginning of a turn, you must turn at least one set of them in.
   • Owning all the territories of a continent. For each continent that you completely dominate (no other enemy armies are present), you receive reinforcements. You receive 3 armies for Africa, 7 armies for Asia, 2 armies for Australia, 5 armies for Europe, 5 armies for North America and 2 armies for South America.
   • Note: if the amount of armies you would receive at the beginning of your turn is less than three, round up to three.
3. Place your armies. You may place the armies you received at the beginning of your turn wherever you have an army presence, in whatever proportion. If you wish, you can place one army in each of your territories; or you can place all of your armies in one territory. The choice is up to you.
   • If, during the beginning of your turn, you turned in a set of cards with a territory that you owned, you receive two extra infantrymen. You must place those infantrymen on the territory specified by the card.

Attacking

1. Attack adjacent territories. You may only attack other territories that are adjacent to a territory you own or that are connected to a territory you own by a sea-lane. For example, you cannot attack India from the Eastern United States because the territories are not adjacent.
2. Attack any number of times from any one of your territories to any adjacent territory. You may attack the same territory more than once, or you may attack different territories. You can attack the same territory from the same adjacent position, or you can attack it from different adjacent positions.
   • Understand that attacking is optional. A player may decide not to attack at all during a turn, only deploying armies.
3. Declare that you are going to attack. When you want to attack another territory, you have to declare your intentions out loud. For example, you could say "I'm attacking Eastern United States from Western United States."
4. Decide how many armies you are going to use in your attack. Because your territory must be occupied at all times, you must leave at least one army behind. The number of armies you attack with will determine how many dice you get to roll when you square off the opponent whose territory you are defending.
   • 1 army = 1 die
   • 2 armies = 2 dice
   • 3 armies = 3 dice
5. Roll the dice. You roll up to three red dice, depending on your troop size. The defending player rolls the same number of white dice as the number of troops in their defending territory, with a maximum of two.
   • Match up the highest red die with the highest white die, and match the second highest red die with the second highest white die. If there is only one white die, only match up the highest red die with the white die.
   • Remove one of your pieces from the attacking territory if the white die is higher or equal to its corresponding red die.
   • Remove one of your opponent’s pieces from the defending territory if the red die is higher to its corresponding white die.
6. Occupy the territory if you win it. If you successfully wipe out all of the defending armies in the area you are attacking, then will need to occupy the territory with at least as many attacking armies as used in the attack. If you attack with three dice (or three armies), you must colonize the newly-acquired territory with at least three armies, although you can choose to colonize it with more if you wish.
7. Get a Risk Card if you can. If at the end of your attacking turn you've conquered at least one territory, then you have earned a Risk card. You cannot earn more than one Risk card for this. The goal is to collect sets of three “Risk” cards to exchange them for new armies.
   • If you manage to wipe out an opponent by destroying his or her last army, you gain possession of all the Risk cards he or she may have had in their hands.

Fortifying Your Territories

1. Understand that you cannot move armies around until your next attacking turn. If you territories are not well fortified, then they will be vulnerable to attack from your opponents. To keep your territories safe from attack during your opponents' attack phases, move your pieces where you want them before ending your turn.
2. Fortify your territories. Move your pieces to different territories at the end of your turn. It is in your best interest to move pieces to your border territories that are more vulnerable to attacks by your opponents. There are two rules on how you can move your pieces:
   • Standard Rule: Move any number of army pieces from a single territory into an adjacent territory occupied by you.
   • Alternate Rule: You can move pieces anywhere, as long as the starting point and destination can be reached by going through a string of adjacent territories under your control.
3. Remember to leave at least one army piece behind. In order to retain control of the territories that you are moving army pieces from, make sure that you leave at least one of your army pieces on each territory that you own. Otherwise, you will no longer have control of the territory.

Strategizing

1. Know the three basic strategies described in the Risk rulebook. Risk is a strategy game, so it rewards players who employ tactics and who outsmart their opponents. The three pieces of strategic advice given to players by the Risk rulebook include:
   • Try to hold entire continents to get the bonus reinforcements. Your might is measured in army reinforcements, so it's a good strategy to get as many reinforcements as possible.
   • Watch your borders for buildups of enemy armies that could imply an impending attack.
   • Make sure your own borders are properly fortified against enemy attack. Cluster your reinforcements mostly along your borders to make it harder for enemies to penetrate your territory.
2. Attack as much as possible early in the game. One way to improve your chances of winning is to go on the offensive right away and attack your opponents every chance that you get. This strategy will help you to gain more territories quickly, which will give you more armies to work with at the beginning of your turns. Attacking often will also take armies away from your opponents, so they will have fewer armies to work with.
3. Eliminate weak players with lots of Risk cards. Eliminating weak opponents with plenty of Risk cards has two benefits: it gets rid of an enemy as well as netting you extra cards. Pay attention to your opponents’ cards in hand as well as their potential weaknesses to determine if there is anyone you can take out during the game.
4. Learn the continent theories. Players who regularly play Risk know that certain continents can be more advantageous to seize control of than other continents. For example, conquering small continents is an advantage because they have fewer territories and are easier to control. Other strategies around continents include:
   • Australia Theory. Start in Australia and hold control of it. This will give you two extra reinforcements per turn, and it can only be accessed by one territory. Build troops and move up through Asia when it begins to weaken.
   • North America Theory. Begin in North America, fortify it against Europe and Asia. Move down to South America, cut through Africa and move up. This operates on the assumption that Asia and Europe are fighting each other to expand.
   • Africa Theory. Begin in Africa, then fortify it against Europe and South America. Move left to South America, cut through North America and move to Asia through Alaska. This operates on the assumption that Asia, North America and Europe are fighting each other to expand.
   • Try not to begin in Asia; it has too many borders to fortify and will quickly lead to over-expansion and spreading your troops thin.
5. Use a defensive strategy to hold onto a cluster of countries that fall across several continents. Instead of attacking as much as you can, you might choose to defend your borders and build up your troops. While you will not receive the continent bonus of armies at the beginning of your turn, having strong defenses will make it harder for your opponents to attack you and win.
6. Create allies. While this isn't outlined as a "rule" in the official book, you may benefit from creating agreements with players to help each other and take out other players. Just keep in mind that you will eventually need to attack each other. A sample agreement might be something like, "Neither of us will expand into Africa until Alexander is out of the game." This will make it easier to concentrate your efforts on other objectives.

Video

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Tips

• There are different methods of playing, and this is only one. There are a few other variations, including one where you choose a capital and have to defend it, and another where you are given a mission card and have to carry it out.
• Once you have six cards, you are required to turn them in. This is to prevent people from hoarding cards until the benefits become a lot better.
• Good territories to hold are Madagascar, Japan, and Argentina, as they only have 2 points, in which means that they are hard to attack, but if they are about to be attacked you can reinforce them or the other adjacent territory.

Warnings

• Never thin your men out to 3 men on your borders. That is asking for a larger force to come and attack you there since it would be a weak spot.
• At the start of the game it may be tempting to pick land all over the board but it is much more effective to focus to one area.
• While having few borders makes a location easier to defend, it will also make it harder for you to expand from there.

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Sources and Citations

See also

• Win at the Game Risk