Risk board game - Risk rules

The classic World Domination RISK military board game strategies In the game, you must fight to conquer the world. To win, you must launch bold and tenacious attacks, defend on all fronts and conquer all the great continents with your courage and cunning. But remember that despite the great achievements, there are also very great dangers. Just when it looks like the whole world is in your hands, your opponent may suddenly counter-attack and take it all away! See below for the Risk Rules.

Preparing for the game

❓How many people can play Risk?

According to the rules on this page, you can play from 3 to 6 players.

❓At what age can I play Risk?

Risk board game suitable for players from 10 years.

❓What is the duration of the Risk game?

The Risk board game usually lasts about 120 minutes.

❓What is the category of Risk game?

The board game Risk belongs to military strategies for the games category.

Game set

• Game board;
• 5 dice: 2 white and 3 red;
• 56 card deck;
• 6 army sets, each in a different colour.

Game board

This is a map of 6 continents, divided into 42 territories. Each continent is coloured differently and consists of between 4 and 12 territories.

Armies

There are 6 full army outfits, each consisting of 3 army members:

• Infantry (worth 1);
• cavalry (worth 5 infantry);
• artillery (worth 10 infantry or 2 cavalry).

You will start the game with infantry, which you can later swap for cavalry or artillery. This will be done once you have collected the required number of infantry.

Playing Cards

• 42 of them are marked with a specific area and a drawing of infantry, cavalry or artillery;
• 2 wild cards with drawings of the three army elements, but no territory marked.

Board game Risk - Strategy

All Risk board games can do without the following 3 basic nuances of the game: play, add armies and reinforce existing forces:

1. Conquer all continents: this will allow you to acquire more armies. (This tip does not apply to the game's secret missions)
2. Keep an eye on your enemies: if they are massing forces in nearby territories or continents, they may be planning an attack. Be careful! 
3. For better defence, reinforce walls in areas close to the enemy's territory, so that the border is better protected in case a neighbour decides to attack you.

The aim of the game

Conquer the world by taking over the entire board to eliminate all your opponents.

How to play Risk? Home

Unlike most games, careful planning is required before you even start playing the Risk board game. After all, the initial deployment of troops will be the location where the battle will be fought later.

The initial deployment of troops consists of the following phases:

1. Choose a colour and, depending on the number of players, count all the "armies" you need to start the game.

• If there are 3 players, each player gets 35 pawns.
• If there are 4 players, each player gets 30 pawns.
• If there are 5 players, each player gets 25 pawns. 
• If there are 6 players, each player gets 20 pawns.

2. Use one die in the game. Whoever scores the highest number takes one pawn from his/her army and places it on any territory on the board, declaring it to be his/her territory.
3. Starting with the first player from the left, each player voluntarily places one warrior in any unoccupied territory. Continue until all 42 territories are occupied.
4. Once all 42 territories are occupied, each player will independently assign an additional soldier to any territory already occupied. Continue this until everyone has run out of troops. There is no limit to the number of troops you can place in a territory.

To complete your preparations for the game:

1. Shuffle the Risk board game cards and place them face down next to the game board. This deck of cards is made up of different drawings.
2. The player who placed the first warrior can also make the first move of the game.

Game

During your turn, you must attempt to conquer territories by defeating opposing armies. But be careful: winning a battle depends on careful planning, quick decisions and bold moves. You'll need to position your forces wisely, attack at the right time and strengthen your defences against all enemies. 

Remark: At any time during the game, you can buy cavalry or artillery for infantry at certain values, and you can exchange them if you need and want to do so. 

Once the Risk table game has started, each of your moves consists of three steps in the following order: 

1. Receiving and establishing new armies; 
2. Attacks, if you choose, roll the dice; 
3. Strengthening your position.

Acquisition and introduction of new armies:

At the start of each turn, calculate in advance how many new armies you will bring into your territory. This depends on:

1. The number of territories you occupy; 
2. The values of the continents you control; 
3. Values of sets of risk cards that you can exchange;
4. Specific territories, as shown on the cards exchanged.
   

Territories

At the beginning of each turn (including the first), count the number of territories you currently occupy, then divide that number by three (ignore if you get an irregular number). The resulting number is the approximate number of your troops. Place new troops in the territory you have already occupied.

Example: 

• 11 territories = 3 armies;
• 14 territories = 4 armies;
• 17 territories = 5 armies.

You will always have at least 3 armies, even if you occupy less than 9 territories.

Continents 

In addition, you will receive weapons for each continent you control at the start of your turn. (To control an entire continent, you need to capture all its territories at the start of your turn.) To find out the exact number of armies you will receive for each continent, look at the table in the bottom left corner of the game board.

Risk board game - cards

Collect your cards. At the end of each turn in which you have captured at least one territory, you will earn one (and only one) Risk card. You can collect 3 sets of cards with any of the following combinations:

3 cards of the same design (Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery)

One of each of three different cards

Any two cards + wild card

If you have collected a set of three Risk playing cards, you can turn them in at the start of your next turn or wait. But if you have 5 or 6 cards at the start of your turn, you must exchange at least one set, and you can exchange both sets if you wish.

Purchase armies with cards

At the start of subsequent turns, you will be able to exchange the card sets you have collected and buy additional armies based on the total number of sets you have collected so far. If you want to quickly find out their value, keep the collected cards stacked under the edge of the game board so that you can easily find out the value of the armies during the next transaction.

You can exchange these five sets of cards. The next set will be worth 15 armies.

• The first set is worth 4 armies;
• The second set is 6 armies;
• The third set is 8 armies; 
• Fourth set - 10 armies; 
• Fifth set - 12 armies; 
• The sixth set is 15 armies.

After the sixth set is exchanged, each additional set is worth 5 more armies. 

Example: if you want to exchange the seventh set, you get 20 armies; if you want to exchange the eighth set, you get 25 armies, etc. "First" and "second" sets, etc., refer to sets that can be exchanged by anyone during the game. So if you exchange the third set of the game, you will get 8 armies, even if it is the first set you chose to exchange.

Occupied territories

If any of the 3 cards you wish to exchange matches the image of the territory you are occupying, you will receive 2 additional armies. You will have to allow both armies into that particular territory. 

Remark: You can receive up to 2 more armies per turn than you would receive for the collected sets of cards you would exchange. 

Advice: No matter how many armies you get in a turn, you need to deploy them carefully to prepare for an attack, or you'll have to defend against other opponents. You need to prepare a good military strategy on where to move your army to the attacking front and where to reinforce territories adjacent to the enemy's territories.

Attack

At the start of your turn, allocate your armies and decide whether you want to attack at this time. The aim of an attack is to capture a territory by defeating all enemy armies within it. Conflicts are resolved by rolling the dice. Take a moment to study the board in front of you. Do you really want to attack?

If you decide not to attack, pass the dice to the player on your left. You can still reinforce your position if you wish. 

So if you decide to attack, you must follow these rules:

• You can only attack a territory that is adjacent to (touching the border of) one of your territories, or that must be connected to one of your territories by a dotted line. 

Examples: An army in Greenland could attack the Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec and Iceland. North Africa could attack Egypt, Western Europe and Brazil. Alaska borders Kamchatka on the western and eastern edges of the board and could be attacked.

• There must always be at least two armies in the area you want to attack from.
• You can continuously attack one territory until you have eliminated all troops, or you can move your attack from one territory to another. During each turn, you can attack any selected territory as many times as you like.

Risk game - Attack

Firstly, you need to announce two things: the territory you are attacking, and the area from which you are attacking it. Then you have to roll the dice against an opponent who occupies the opposite territory.

• Before rolling the dice, you and your opponent must say how many dice you are going to roll and you and your opponent must both roll the balls together at the same time.
• You, the attacker, must roll 1,2 or 3 red dice: you must have at least one more army in your territory than you roll the dice.
  Tip: The more dice you roll, the more likely you are to win. However, the more dice you roll, the more armies you may lose or be obliged to leave the captured territory.
• The defender rolls 1 or 2 white dice: to roll 2 dice, the defender must have at least 2 armies in the attacked area.
  Tip: The more dice the defender rolls, the more likely he is to win, but the more soldiers he may lose.

The outcome of the battle

Compare the highest value of each die rolled. If yours (the attacker's) is higher, the defender loses one army from the attacked territory. But if the defender's dice roll is higher than yours, you lose one army from the territory you wanted to capture. If you each roll more than one die, you must compare the two highest dice values and repeat the process.

Examples: The attacker's dice are red, the defending player's dice are blue.

1. Whoever defends himself loses one army.

2. Both the attacker and the defender lose one army each.

3. The attacker loses two armies.

4. The defending player loses one army.

Notes: 

• In the event of a tie, the defender always wins. 
• An attacker can never lose more than 2 armies in a single roll.

Conquering territory

Once you have defeated the last enemy army in your territory, you can conquer it and immediately take the territory completely. You will thus be able to move as many armies as you rolled in the last battle. Remember: in most cases it is a good idea to move as many armies as you can, because the armies left behind will not be able to help you. Also remember that you must always leave at least one army in the territory from which you attacked. At least one army must always occupy each territory during the game.

Finish your attack

You can end your attack(s) at any time during the game. If you have conquered at least one territory, first take the top Risk card from the marked pile. (No matter how many territories you have conquered during your turn, you may only take one Risk Game Card.) 

Eliminating an opponent

If you eliminate an opponent during your turn and defeat the last army on the board, you win all the Risk Game Cards that player has collected.

• If you win 6 or more cards, you will have to immediately exchange them for sets to reduce the number of cards to 4 or less. But once they are down to 4, 3 or 2 cards, you will have to stop exchanging. 
• But if you win less than 6 cards, you'll have to wait until your next turn to exchange your set. 
• Note: At the end of your turn, when you draw a playing card from the deck (if you win a battle) and your total number of cards has increased to 6, you will have to wait until your next turn to exchange them.

Strengthen your position

No matter what you did during your move, you can finish your move by strengthening your position if you want to. You don't need to win a battle or even try to attack to do so. Some players call this a "free move". 

To reinforce your position, move as many troops as you want from one (and only one) of your territories to another (and only one) adjacent territory. Don't forget to move your troops closer to the borders of your territory, where they can help with attacks! 

When moving your armies from one territory to another, you must leave at least one army behind.

Risk board game - winning 

The winner is the player who first eliminates all opponents and conquers all 42 territories on the game board. For more pictures and reviews of Risk, see here.