Risk (game)

Risk

Players	2–6
Setup time	5–15 minutes
Playing time	1–8 hours (player dependent)
Chance	High (5 dice , cards)
Skills	Tactics, Strategy, and Negotiation

Risk is a commercial strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro). It was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957, as La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World), in France.

Risk is a turn-based game for two to six players and is played on a board depicting a stylized Napoleonic-era political map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, which are grouped into six continents. Players control armies with which they attempt to capture territories from other players. The goal of the game is "world domination," to control all the territories—or "conquer the world"—through the elimination of the other players. Using area movement, Risk ignores limitations such as the vast size of the world and the logistics of long campaigns.

Equipment and its evolution in design

File:RiskSoldier.jpg

Infantry, the basic unit of Risk, represents one army.

File:RiskCavalry.jpg

Cavalry represents five armies.

File:RiskCannon.jpg

Artillery represents ten armies.

Although the maker of the game was from France, he created it while on vacation in Holland. There are disputes, therefore, as to the country in which it originated.

Each Risk game comes with a number of differently colored armies. Individual sets of armies are denoted by three different tokens. Infantry tokens represent a single army unit, cavalry represent five army units, and artillery ten units. The three token types are purely a convenience measure for ease of representing a specific army size. If a player runs out of army pieces during the game, another color may be used to substitute, or another symbolic token to help keep track of armies. Standard equipment also comprises five color-coded dice: two for the defender and three for the attacker.

Also included is a total of seventy-two Risk cards. Forty-two of these depict territories, in addition to a symbol of an infantry, cavalry, or artillery piece. One of these cards is awarded to a player at the end of each turn, if the player successfully conquers at least one territory during that turn. No more than one card may be awarded per turn. If either three cards with the same diagram, or one of each, are collected, the cards may be traded in for reinforcements at the beginning of a player's turn. These cards can also be used for game set-up (see below for details). Also included are two wild cards that depict an infantry, cavalry, and artillery piece, as opposed to one of the three and a territory. Because these cards have all three symbols, they are mainly used to complete a Risk card set in order to receive reinforcements. Twenty-eight Mission cards also come with the game but are used only in Secret Mission Risk.

In the first editions, the playing pieces were wooden cubes representing one army each and a few rounded triangular prisms representing ten armies each, but in later versions of the game these pieces were molded of plastic in order to reduce costs. In the 1980s, these were changed to pieces shaped into the Roman numerals I, III, V, and X. The 1993 edition introduced infantry, cavalry, and artillery pieces, which were made of plastic. The 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition contained the same troop pieces but made of metal rather than plastic. Additionally, the movement route between the territories of East Africa and Middle East was removed; this was later confirmed as a manufacturing error. Subsequent editions reverted to plastic pieces and replaced the missing route. While the European versions of Risk had included the variation "Secret Mission Risk" for some time, the U.S. version did not have this added until 1993. In the 2005 "bookcase" edition playing pieces are once again wooden cubes.

Setup

Standard

Setting up the Risk board for play is more involved than in many other games.

• Each player first counts out a number of playing pieces or "armies" for initial deployment. The number of armies that begins the game depends on the number of players: 40 armies for two players: 35 armies each if three players; 30 armies each if four players; 25 armies each if five players; and 20 armies each if six players.
• Players then take turns claiming territories by placing an army on an unoccupied territory until all the territories are occupied.
• Players then take turns placing their remaining armies on their territories. After all armies have been placed the actual game begins with another roll of a die used to determine the playing order.

Alternative

An alternate and quicker method of setup is to randomly assign starting territories to each player by dealing out the entire deck of Risk cards (minus the wild cards). Each player places at least one army on each territory assigned. The player's remaining armies may be either placed one by one in turn order or distributed at will. If in the midst of distribution at will, there are players who keep moving their massive armies back and forth depending on the placements of the other players' armies, they shall revert to the placement of armies one by one in turn order.

Player turn

There are five phases to a player's turn: placing reinforcements, turning in Risk cards, attacking, fortifying, and receiving Risk cards.

Placing reinforcements

At the start of each player's turn, the player adds reinforcements to any of the territories occupied by the player. The player receives these additional armies based on territories and continents.

• The player receives one army for every three territories controlled (rounding down), with a minimum of three armies per turn.
• The player receives armies for occupying all of a continent. The reinforcement amounts are: Asia, seven armies; North America and Europe, five; Africa, three; and for the continents of Australia and South America, two.

Turning in Risk cards

The player may also receive armies if he turns in a set of Risk cards. He then places the armies on any of his territories. If he has five cards, he must trade in a set.

A set of Risk cards consists of one of the following:

• three cards depicting the same unit (eg. all three cards have cavalry pictures)
• three cards showing one of each type of Risk unit (soldier, cavalry, cannon).

The first set to be turned is worth 4 reinforcements; the second is worth 6; third 8; fourth 10; fifth 12; sixth 15 and for every additional set thereafter 5 more armies than the previous set turned in. Also, turning in a card with a pictured territory owned by the player awards two additional armies that must be placed in that territory.

Attacking

Example of matching up attacking (left) and defending (right) dice

Attacks can only occur between two adjacent territories, one owned by the attacking player, and the other owned by a different player. The outcomes of battles are decided by rolling dice. Each roll of the dice is considered an individual attack, and the attacking player may attack any number of territories any number of times (including switching back and forth between targets).

The attacking player may roll one, two, or three dice (but at most one less than the number of armies in the attacking territory). The defending player rolls either one or two (but at most the number of armies in the defending territory).

• The attacker's highest die is compared against the defender's highest die.
• The attacker's second-highest die is compared against the defender's second-highest die (if each rolled at least two dice).
• Any other dice are disregarded.

Higher numbers win, with the defender winning the tie. For each loss, the loser removes one army from his territory.

If an attack successfully eliminates the last defending army in a territory, the attacking player moves his armies into the conquered territory. He must move at least the number of dice he attacked with. There is no limit to the total number of armies that may be moved, so long as at least one unit remains in the attacking territory.

If an attacking player occupies a defender's last territory, thus eliminating them from the game, the attacker is awarded all of the defender's Risk cards. If the conquering player now has five or more cards, he must trade in sets until he has fewer than five. The gained armies are placed immediately.

Fortifying

When finished attacking, a player has the option to move any number of armies from one of their territories into an adjacent territory that they occupy. The player must still leave at least one unit in each territory. You can also play with chain fortifying where you can move to any part of your connecting territory.

Receiving a Risk card

If the player has conquered at least one territory, he draws a Risk card from the deck. He must wait until his next turn to trade in any cards.

Play then proceeds clockwise to the next player.

Strategy

File:P2200009.JPG

Risiko (Italian version) in play

Basic strategy

The official rulebook gives three basic strategic tips for the classic rules.

• First, players should control entire continents to get the bonus reinforcement armies.
• Second, players should watch their borders for buildups of armies that could imply an upcoming attack.
• Third, players should build up armies on their own borders for better defense.

Common strategies

Besides basic strategies listed in the official rulebook, there are several other strategies which can be applied, many of which revolve around the tactics of fortification.

• Continents Holding continents is a great way to increase reinforcements. Players often attempt to gain control of what the game manual calls Australia (Australasia) early in the game, since Australia is the only continent that can be successfully defended by heavily fortifying one country (either Siam or Indonesia). Generally, continents with fewer borders are easier to defend as they possess fewer points that can be attacked by other players. South America has 2 access points, North America and Africa each have 3, Europe has 4, and Asia has 6.

• Borders Usually, it is best to hold territories within a compact area in order to facilitate both defense and attack. Spreading territories across the board is risky, since it usually leads to fighting on many fronts and the rapid depletion of forces.
  • A good strategy would be to attempt to control North and South America together. This eliminates the southern entry into North America as well as the northern entry into South America. The attacking points become Greenland, Brazil, and Alaska. The player should then attempt to conquer Iceland, North Africa, and Kamchatka and then control them with heavily fortified armies to prevent or slow an attack on the Americas.

• Geography Geography also plays a large role in strategy. For example, Australia offers better defense, while South America offers better offense. Australia can be easily defended, since it has the fewest borders, yet its only neighboring continent is Asia, which is the most difficult to maintain. By contrast, South America is more difficult to defend, since it has two borders and the same value of bonus reinforcements as Australia, yet its neighboring continents are North America and Africa, which are both easier to obtain and defend, compared to Asia.

• Risk cards Generally, it is thought advisable to hold Risk cards until they can be turned in for maximum reinforcements. This is especially true earlier on in gameplay, because extra armies make a greater difference in the beginning of the game. Eliminating a weak player who holds a large number of Risk cards is also a good strategy, since players who eliminate their opponents get possession of their opponents' Risk cards. In this case, trading in Risk cards earlier may help acquire the necessary troop. If the conquering player has five or more Risk cards after taking the cards of another player, the cards must be immediately turned in for reinforcements until the player has less than five cards and then may continue attacking.

• Territory Another common tactic is to simply control the most territories. This is especially effective when the game is deadlocked - or no player is able to attain a continent. More territories may not necessarily mean more reinforcements, since every player is guaranteed at least three per turn. Thus a player with one territory and a player with 11 each earn only three reinforcements. In games with more opponents, it is often the case that territory numbers and reinforcement are almost essentially independent.

• Choke points It is also common to control "choke points" in order to simultaneously defend a country and to prevent another country from being captured. For example, if a player controls North America, he may choose to control Iceland as well in order to force players to conquer Iceland before attacking North America. Moreover, since the player is controlling Iceland, other players are unable to control Europe.

Alliances

No official alliances or truces exist in the game, although players often form unofficial treaties or "gentlemen's agreements" to safeguard themselves from attacks while they concentrate their forces elsewhere, or to eliminate a player who has grown too strong. There are no rules protecting these agreements, and therefore these agreements are often broken. Alliance making/breaking can be one of the most important elements of the game, and it adds human interaction to a decidedly probabilistic game.

Dice probabilities

Defenders always win ties when dice are rolled. This gives the defending player the advantage in "one-on-one" fights, but the attacker's ability to use multiple dice often offsets this advantage, as indicated in the dice probability chart below. Actually capturing a territory depends on the number of attacking and defending armies and the associated probabilities have been studied using Markov Chains.

It is advantageous to always roll the maximum number of dice. (Exception: In some cases, an attacker may not wish to move men into a 'dead-end' territory. If this is the case, he might choose to roll fewer than three.)

The table below states the probabilities of all possible outcomes given different combinations of dice:

Probabilities of winning a dice roll in Risk (various die combinations)			Attacker
			one die	two dice	three dice
Defender	one die	Attacker wins	41.67%	57.87%	65.97%
		Defender wins	58.33%	42.13%	34.03%
	two dice	Attacker wins	25.46%	22.76%	37.17%
		Defender wins	74.54%	44.83%	29.26%
		Both win one	n/a	32.41%	33.58%

Thus when rolling three dice against two dice (the most each player can roll) the attacker has a slight advantage. (The defender has a 52.84% chance of winning with the highest die, but the attacker has a 55.08% chance of winning with the second highest.) In other words, for every 6 armies the defender eliminates, on average the attacker eliminates about 7. When large armies face off, a player will tend to gain a greater advantage over his opponent by attacking rather than defending. (Multiple opponents can change the prudence of such a strategy, however.)

Card set probabilities

The following is the probability of having a Risk set based on the number of Risk cards held.

• This is calculated assuming that there are 44 cards available. 42 cards divided evenly among the three categories (infantryman, cavalryman, and cannon) as well as 2 wild cards.

Number of Cards	Probability of having a Risk Set
0–2	0%
3	42.3%
4	81.7%
5	100%

• Note: A wild card in combination with any 2 other cards will always form a set.

Differences of rules

Over the years, Parker Brothers and Hasbro have published many different editions of rules for the game.

Two-player Risk

The rules for this 2-player game were developed by Michael Levin of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and were included within the Official Rules published in 1975.

This 2-player version is played according to the traditional rules of Risk. Each player takes 40 armies and alternately places one army on an unoccupied territory until each has occupied 14 territories. The remaining armies are alternately distributed on the occupied territories. The remaining 14 territories are occupied by a force called the Allied Army. These armies are composed of playing pieces different in color from those used by the two players. Two Allied Armies will be placed on each unoccupied territory for a total of 28 armies.

Each player accumulates armies in the traditional manner. At the beginning of each turn, the Allied Army is entitled to one half the number of armies the player receives. Fractions do not count, so, if a player obtains a total of nine armies, the Allied Army is entitled to four. Each player places the armies on the board according to the traditional rules. After a player has accumulated his armies, placed them on the board and completed his attacks (but prior to his free move) the opposing player places the number of Allied Armies (determined above) in Allied occupied territories.

Each player attacks according to the traditional rules. A player may attack the other player or the Allied Army. When a player attacks the Allied Army, the other player rolls the dice for the Allied Army. Immediately after the Allied Armies are placed, the player who placed them may act as the Allied Army and attack the other player's armies. He need not use the armies immediately but may allow them to accumulate in a territory. However, if they are not used, the other player may use them to his advantage when he gets the use of the Allied forces. When a player is commanding Allied forces he may not attack his own territories. Allied forces do not pick up RISK cards, and they accumulate armies only in the manner described above.

The first player may take his free move only after the second player has stopped attacking with the Allied Army. The Allied Army is not entitled to a free move.

The game ends when one player loses all his territories. If the Allied Army loses all its territories it may no longer obtain additional armies and game play is continued according to the traditional rules.

Capital Risk

Each player has a "capital" in one of their initial territories. The player to capture all capitals wins. Capital Risk often leads to much shorter games.

Secret Mission

The "Secret Mission Risk" variant, which has been the standard game in European editions for some decades, gives each player four specific missions short of complete world domination. Missions include various tasks such as

• conquering two specific continents, eliminating one specific other player
• conquering any twenty-four territories, or conquering any 18 territories but maintaining at least 2 troops in each

Players do not reveal their missions to each other until the end of the game, which is after the first player to complete his mission shows his Secret Mission Card and wins the game.

Rule variations

The official rulebook suggests variations to the gameplay mechanics for "Risk experts," any or all of which can be used depending on player preference. These suggestions include:

• Reducing the rate at which Risk card sets increase in value so that they only go up by 1 each time
• Allowing for armies to move to any owned territory during reinforcement (rather than an immediate neighbor), if there exists a connected path of owned territories.
• Allowing no more than twelve armies per territory. Thus, reinforcements may be forfeited because a player has nowhere to place them.
• Granting an attack advantage when attacking from or to a territory for which the attacker holds a Risk card
• Simulating a "commander" in a battle by changing an attacking die to a 6 once per turn

In addition to these official variations, many computer and Internet versions have different rules, and gaming clubs often use house rules or competition-adjusted rules. These may include structure such as forts, freeplay (players take turns simultaneously), or other rules.

Territories

The following is a rough representation of the Risk game board, with a table of the corresponding continent and territory names. The territory and continent links refer to the general use of those terms, outside of the context of the Risk board game.

A representation of the Risk game board, showing the different territories, an approximation of their borders, and an approximation of their usual coloring.

The territories of Risk

Template:Multicol North America (5)

1. Alaska
2. Alberta*
3. Central America
4. Eastern United States
5. Greenland
6. Northwest Territory
7. Ontario*
8. Quebec*
9. Western United States

South America (2)

1. Argentina
2. Brazil
3. Peru
4. Venezuela

Template:Multicol-break Europe (5)

1. Great Britain
2. Iceland
3. Northern Europe
4. Scandinavia
5. Southern Europe
6. Ukraine
7. Western Europe

Africa (3)

1. Central Africa
2. East Africa
3. Egypt
4. Madagascar
5. North Africa
6. South Africa

Template:Multicol-break Asia (7)

1. Afghanistan
2. China
3. India
4. Irkutsk
5. Japan
6. Kamchatka
7. Middle East
8. Mongolia
9. Siam (i.e. South-east Asia)
10. Siberia
11. Ural
12. Yakutsk

Oceania (2)

1. Eastern Australia
2. Indonesia
3. New Guinea
4. Western Australia

Note: The numbers in parentheses represent the number of additional armies granted during the reinforcement stage of a player's turn who controls all of the territories in that continent.

*On some versions of the board, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are known as Western Canada, Central Canada and Eastern Canada respectively.

Official licensed Risk games

Main article: List of licensed Risk game boards

In addition to the original version of 1959, and a 40th Anniversary Edition with metal pieces, a number of official variants of Risk have been released over the years. In recent years, Hasbro has predominantly based its Risk variants on popular films. The most recent example in this trend is the Transformers version, released in June 2007. In chronological order, the variations of Risk that have been released are:

• Castle Risk (1986) – A version focusing only on Europe in which each player's goal is to protect their castle from attack. Castle Risk was the first version of Risk released after 27 years of production to depart from standard play. Although it was unsuccessful, it introduced many concepts integrated into later versions of Risk.
• Risk: Édition Napoléon (1999) – Adds generals, fortresses, and naval units.
  • Risk: Édition Napoléon: Extension Empire Ottoman (2000) – Adds a sixth player to Risk: Édition Napoléon.
• Risk: 2210 A.D. (2001) – An award winning futuristic version, produced by Avalon Hill, another division of Hasbro. The game features moon territories, ocean territories and commander units and offers a number of official and unofficial expansions.
• Risk: the Lord of the Rings (2002) – 2–4 player version based on northern Middle-earth.
  • Risk: the Lord of the Rings: Gondor & Mordor Expansion Set (2003) – Extension to Risk: the Lord of the Rings, also includes a 2-player Siege of Minas Tirith mini-game.
• Risk: the Lord of the Rings: Trilogy Edition (2003) – Combines the first two Lord of the Rings versions, but does not include the Siege of Minas Tirith mini-game.
• Risk Godstorm (2004) – A version based on the mythological pantheons of various ancient civilizations; produced by Avalon Hill.
• Risk: Star Wars: Clone Wars Edition (2005) – Set in the Star Wars universe during the Clone Wars. The player can fight on the side of the Separatists or the Republic, using either the classic Risk rules or the Clone Wars variations where altruism pays off.
• Risk: Star Wars Original Trilogy Edition (2006) – Set during the Galactic Civil War, players play as the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance, or the Hutts. This version is unique in that each of the factions has a different set of goals and victory conditions.
• Risk Junior: Narnia (2006) – Based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, players can play as either the forces of Aslan or as the forces of the White Witch.
• Risk: The Transformers Edition (2007) - Based on the Transformers film, players can either play on the side of the Autobots or the Decepticons on a Cybertron stylized map.
• Risk: Black OPS (2008) - Limited edition released in early 2008. Print run was limited to a 1000 copies. Most of the copies were given to people in the board game industry to test out new rules for up coming editions.

Computer implementations and video games

Several computer and video game versions of Risk have been released, starting with the Commodore 64 edition in 1988 and the Macintosh (Mac) edition in 1989. Since then, various other editions have been released for PC, Amiga, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance. In 1996 Hasbro Interactive released a PC version of Risk that included a new variation on the game called "Ultimate Risk", which did not use dice but rather implemented the use of forts, generals, and complex battle strategies. Risk II for PC and Mac was released as a 2000 video game. In addition, there are unofficial Risk clones, many of which can be played online, such as Conquer Club.

External links

Official

• Hasbro's official Risk page
• Hasbro's Risk rules
  • 1959 edition of the Risk rules
  • 1963 edition of the Risk rules
  • 1975 edition of the Risk rules
  • 1980 edition of the Risk rules
  • 1990 edition of the Risk rules along with Castle Risk rules
  • 1993 edition of the Risk rules
  • 1999 edition of the Risk rules
  • 1999 Risk 40th Anniversary Collector's edition of the Risk rules