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Home ▸ How To Guides ▸ Risk

How to play Risk:

board game’s
rules, setup and
how to win
Get a recap of the classic strategy
game’s rules.

Image credit: Image:

stock.adobe.com/Steve Cukrov

How To by Matt Jarvis,

Editor-in-chief
Published on Dec. 6, 2022

Follow Risk

About Risk
Released: 1959 | Players: 2-5 | Playing
time: 120 mins | Rules complexity: Low |
Strategic depth: Low | Publisher: Hasbro

Risk is one of the most famous board

games of all time. Invented in the late
1950s by French filmmaker Albert
Lamorisse, the strategy game of
battling armies and global domination
has become a true tabletop classic,
inspiring various spin-offs, editions
and even spawning the legacy game
genre. Even so, the classic rules have
remained largely untouched for the
last 70 years - so learning how to play
Risk is as simple as it was decades
ago.

How to play Risk board

game

• What do you do in the Risk board

game?

• How many people can play Risk?

• How long does Risk take to play?

• How to set up Risk

• How to play Risk

• How to win Risk

• How to play Risk with two players

• Risk Secret Mission rules

The rules of Risk ultimately boil down

to a simple game of dice-rolling
combat, as players move their armies
around the board before engaging in
battles determined by the roll of the
die. Even so, there are a number of
specific rules you should know before
diving in, to ensure that things are kept
fair and you’re able to enjoy the board
game as it was intended.

Here we’ll be running through the

original rules for Risk, rather than
those of its many editions based on
popular films or that relocate the
board game’s battles to the distant
future.

What do you do in the Risk

board game?

In Risk, players are competing to

achieve world domination by
eliminating their opponents. Players
strengthen their occupied territories -
representing regions around the globe
- by adding additional troops, before
rolling dice to attack and capture
neighbouring territories.

How many people can play

Risk?

Up to six people can play classic Risk.

The standard game also includes a
rules variant to support just two
players. Some of the board game’s
other editions have varying player
counts, but typically support from two
to four players.

How long does Risk take to

play?

The amount of time needed to play

Risk can vary greatly depending on
players’ dice rolls and decisions
around the table. The game can play in
as little as one hour, or can last for up
to eight hours - or more! - depending
on the number of players and what
they roll.

How to Play Risk

Learn how to play Risk

How to set up Risk

To set up Risk, each player should

begin by choosing a colour to play.
Depending on the number of players,
each player will have a different
number of infantry pieces (also called
armies):

• Two players: 40 infantry (see How

to play Risk with two players)

• Three players: 35 infantry

• Four players: 30 infantry

• Five players: 25 infantry

• Six players: 20 infantry

(Infantry pieces can be traded at any

time for cavalry or artillery pieces.
Cavalry pieces are worth 5 infantry.
Artillery are worth 10 infantry, or 2
cavalry.)

Place the board on the table. Each

player should roll a die. The player who
rolls highest should place one infantry
piece on any territory. Then, the
person on their left places a piece on
any unoccupied territory.

This repeats until all 42 territories on

the board have been claimed. Once all
the territories are claimed, players can
add additional pieces to their
territories until all players’ pieces have
been placed. There is no limit to the
number of pieces that can occupy one
territory.

Remove the secret mission cards from

the deck. Shuffle the deck of Risk
cards. Place the shuffled pile
facedown next to the board, forming
the draw pile. You’re ready to play!

During setup, players take turns to

claim unoccupied territories.

How to play Risk

Starting with the player who rolled

highest during setup, followed by the
player on their left and going
clockwise around the table, players
perform three steps on their turn:
placing new armies, attacking and
fortifying.

Placing armies

Each player starts their turn by

working out how many armies they
can add to their territories on the
board. This is calculated in the
following way:

Count the number of territories you

occupy, divide by three and round
down. For example, if you occupy 11
territories you will receive three
armies. A player will always be able to
place at least three armies, even if
they occupy fewer than three
territories.

For each continent a player controls -

by occupying every territory at the
start by their turn - they receive a
specific number of armies (also listed
in the bottom-left corner of the board
or next to each continent, depending
on your edition):

• Africa: 3

• Asia: 7

• Australia: 2

• Europe: 5

• North America: 5

• South America: 2

Players can trade sets of Risk cards to

receive extra armies. If you have five
or six cards at the start of your turn,
you MUST trade in at least one set,
with the chance to trade twice; if you
have fewer cards, it is optional.

To trade cards, you must trade three

cards that all show the same infantry,
cavalry or artillery icon; three cards
that have one of each icon (infantry,
cavalry, artillery); or two matching
cards plus a wild card (wild cards show
all three icons).

Players receive a number of armies

based on the number of sets traded by
all of the players so far (Tip: place
traded sets under the edge of the
board to help keep count!):

• First set: 4 armies

• Second set: 6 armies

• Third set: 8 armies

• Fourth set: 10 armies

• Fifth set: 12 armies

• Sixth set: 15 armies

After the sixth set, each set of cards

receives five more armies than the
previous set. For example, the seventh
set would receive 20 armies, the
eighth set 25 and so on.

If at least one of the cards traded in a

set shows a territory that you occupy,
you also receive two additional armies
- they must be placed on that region.
You cannot receive more than two
bonus armies for matching territories
in a single set, even if multiple cards
match your territories.

Battles in Risk are resolved using dice

rolls, and can go until one player's
pieces are completely eliminated from
a territory. | Image credit:
stock.adobe.com/Albert

Attacking

Once a player has placed their armies,

they may choose to attack. This step is
optional; a player can choose only to
place armies and fortify.

A player can choose to attack an

adjacent enemy territory that shares a
border with a territory they occupy, or
one connected by a dashed line -
representing a naval attack. In order to
attack, a player must have at least two
infantry pieces in their territory.

The player should declare which

territory they are attacking, and where
they are attacking from. Then, the
attacking player and the defending
player both decide how many dice
they will roll.

The attacker can choose to roll one,

two or three dice. You must have at
least one more army piece than the
number of dice you roll (for example,
to roll two dice you need at least three
armies).

The defender can roll one or two dice.

To roll two dice, they must have at
least two infantry pieces in the
defending territory.

The players should announce how

many dice they are rolling at the same
time. More dice increases the chance
of victory, but also increases losses on
a failed roll.

Once they have declared the number

of dice they will roll, both players
should roll the dice at the same time.

Players can attack regions adjacent to

their troops' location.

The highest single die value from each

player should be compared. If the
attacker has a higher value, the
defender loses a piece; if the defender
rolls higher, the attacker removes an
army. The defender always wins ties.
This is repeated for each die, from
highest to lowest.

If any defending pieces remain once all

dice are compared, the attacker can
choose to continue attacking the
same territory or a different region by
repeating the above steps. A player
can attack as many territories as many
times as they like on their turn, as long
as they have enough armies to attack
with.

If all of a defender’s pieces are

removed, the attacker must capture
the territory. To capture a territory,
they move some of their attacking
troops into the region. This number
must be equal to or greater than the
number of dice they rolled in the final
battle. For example, if you attacked
with two dice you must move two
infantry into the captured territory. At
least one piece must be left in the
territory from which you attacked.
(Every territory must be occupied by at
least one infantry during the game.)

If a player successfully captures at

least one territory on their turn, they
draw one Risk card from the deck. This
can be traded for additional armies on
future turns. Only one Risk card is
drawn per turn, no matter how many
territories were captured.

If you remove a player’s last piece from

the board by winning a battle, that
player is eliminated. The victorious
player adds any Risk cards that the
eliminated player was holding to their
hand. If this means you have six or
more cards in your hand, you must
immediately trade in enough sets and
place armies to reduce your hand size
to under five cards.

There are countless spin-offs of Risk

out there, but the classic rules have
remained largely untouched for
decades.

Fortify

Whether you attack or not, the active

player can end their turn by fortifying.

To fortify, the player can move any

number of armies from one territory
into an adjacent territory. This can only
be performed once per turn, between
two adjacent territories - effectively
acting like a free move. As with
capturing territories, at least one piece
must be left behind in the territory
being moved from.

How to win Risk

To win Risk, you must eliminate all the

other players. This is achieved by
capturing all 42 of the territories on
the board.

When a player’s last piece is removed

from the board as the result of a battle,
they are eliminated from the game.

Older editions of Risk represent armies

using abstract shapes rather than
soldiers, cavalry and artillery. | Image
credit: Ronald/Pixabay

How to play Risk with two

players

To play Risk with two players, you

must make a number of changes to
the regular rules for setup and
gameplay.

During setup, each player should take

40 infantry pieces in the colour of their
choice. Then, the players select a third
colour to serve as a ‘neutral’ player -
set aside 40 infantry in the neutral
colour.

To determine starting territories,

remove the Secret Mission and wild
cards from the Risk deck. Shuffle the
deck and deal cards facedown into
three equal piles. Each player should
choose a pile, leaving the last for the
neutral player.

Each player should place one of their

armies into each of the 14 territories in
their card pile. Place a neutral infantry
piece in each of the territories listed in
the neutral player’s pile. Each player
then adds an additional two infantry in
their colour to the board - in the same
territory, or two separate regions.

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Each player then places one additional

infantry for the neutral player to a
territory it controls - as each player
adds one neutral piece, they can use
this to help block their opponent.

With all the pieces placed, add the wild

cards back to the deck and reshuffle
all the cards together to form the deck
at the side of the board, as usual.

During gameplay, when a player

attacks a neutral territory, the other
human player rolls to defend. The
neutral player will not attack or add
additional pieces.

The game is won by eliminating your

human opponent - neutral territories
do not count directly towards victory.

Risk Secret Mission rules

Using Risk’s Secret Mission rules,

players can win the game by
completing their secret mission.

During setup, before territory cards

are dealt to the players, each player is
dealt a secret mission card facedown.

This mission card determines their

secret victory condition. Victory
conditions can include controlling a
specific number of territories,
controlling specific continents and
eliminating a certain player colour.
(Cards targeting player colours not in
use are removed from the secret
mission deck before being dealt.) Each
card specifies how to win.

In the official rules, a player who

successfully completes their secret
mission immediately wins at the end of
their turn.