How to Play Risk: Rules, Setup and Strategy

Risk is a strategy board game of global conquest for two to six players, and you win by eliminating every opponent until you control all 42 territories on the world map. This guide explains how to play Risk from the box up: what is in the game, how to set it up for your player count, the three parts of every turn, how combat dice are resolved, how the card sets and continent bonuses work, and the mistakes that cost new players their armies. The rules below are the standard (classic) rules used in most editions; where newer editions differ, that is flagged at the end.

What is Risk?

Risk is an area-control war game in which players command coloured armies and fight over a stylised map of the world. The map is divided into 42 territories, which are grouped into six continents: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Each turn you receive new armies, attack neighbouring territories by rolling dice, and try to expand your empire while defending what you already hold.

The game was designed by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse and first released in France in 1957 as La Conquête du Monde (“The Conquest of the World”). Parker Brothers published it in North America in 1959 as Risk, and it is now sold by Hasbro. It is one of the defining titles of the war-game genre and a gateway into heavier strategy games. If you are brand new to tabletop gaming, our beginner’s guide to how to play board games covers the shared basics first.

What is the goal of Risk?

The goal is world domination: be the last player left by capturing every territory on the board. In practice most games end earlier, when it is clear that one player cannot be stopped and the others concede. Some editions also include shorter mission or objective modes, covered under variants below.

What you need to play

A standard Risk set contains everything you need for a full game:

• The game board — a world map showing 42 territories, the connections between them, and the bonus value of each continent.
• Army pieces in six colours — one colour per player. Pieces come in three values: Infantry (worth 1), Cavalry (worth 5) and Artillery (worth 10). These are just denominations, like coins — a Cavalry simply saves table space by standing in for five Infantry.
• Five dice — three red dice for the attacker and two white dice for the defender.
• 42 territory cards plus two “wild” cards. Each territory card names one territory and shows a symbol: Infantry, Cavalry or Artillery.

Before your first game, punch out the pieces, set the dice aside by colour, and shuffle the territory cards into a face-down deck beside the board.

How to set up Risk

Setup decides who starts with which territories, and it matters more than beginners expect. The procedure depends on how many people are playing.

How many armies do you start with?

Each player counts out a pool of starting Infantry based on the number of players:

• 2 players: 40 armies each (using the neutral-army variant below)
• 3 players: 35 armies each
• 4 players: 30 armies each
• 5 players: 25 armies each
• 6 players: 20 armies each

Setup for 3 to 6 players

1. Each player picks a colour and takes their full pool of starting Infantry.
2. Everyone rolls one die; the highest roller goes first, and play then passes to the left.
3. Starting with the first player, each player in turn places one Infantry on any unclaimed territory. Continue until all 42 territories have been claimed — there are no neutral spaces in this version.
4. Once every territory is owned, keep taking turns placing one remaining army at a time, but now only onto territories you already control. Continue until everyone has placed all their starting armies. You may stack as many armies on a single territory as you like.
5. Shuffle the territory cards into a deck. The first player then begins turn one.

A common optional method is to deal out the 42 territory cards evenly at the start so each player is simply assigned their starting territories at random, then place armies on them. Agree on which method you are using before you begin.

Setup for 2 players

Two-player Risk uses a third, “neutral” army as a buffer so the map is not half empty. Set up like this:

1. Each player takes 40 armies in their own colour, and together you take 40 armies in a third colour to act as the neutral force.
2. Remove the two wild cards (and any mission cards) from the deck, shuffle the 42 territory cards, and deal them into three equal face-down piles of 14.
3. Each player takes one pile; the third pile is the neutral pile. Place one of your armies on each of your 14 territories, your opponent does the same, and then place one neutral army on each of the 14 neutral territories.
4. Players now alternate placing their remaining armies: on your go, place two of your armies onto territories you own, then place one neutral army onto any neutral territory (use these to block your opponent).

During play, the neutral armies never take a turn and never receive reinforcements. When you attack a neutral territory, your opponent rolls the defence dice for it. You win by eliminating your opponent — you do not need to wipe out the neutral armies. For more on how games are tuned for exactly two people, see our explainer on two-player board games.

How a turn works

Every turn has the same three parts, always in this order: get and place reinforcements, attack, then fortify. Only the reinforcement step is mandatory — you may choose not to attack and not to fortify.

1. Get and place reinforcements

At the start of your turn you collect new armies from up to three sources and place them on territories you already occupy:

• Territory armies: count the territories you control, divide by three and round down. The minimum is always three armies, even if you hold only one or two territories. For example, 11 territories give 3 armies and 14 territories give 4.
• Continent bonuses: if you control every territory in a whole continent at the start of your turn, add that continent’s bonus (see the table below).
• Card sets: armies from trading in a matched set of territory cards (explained next).

Add these together and place all of the new armies on any territories you own, in any combination you like.

2. Attack

Attacking is optional, and you may attack as many times as you want, from as many territories as you want, in a single turn. You attack from one of your territories into an adjacent enemy territory (connections include the dashed sea routes shown on the board). Combat is resolved with dice, explained in its own section below. If you capture a territory, you must move armies into it. You may keep attacking until you run out of valid attacks or choose to stop.

3. Fortify

After you finish attacking, you may make one fortification move to consolidate your position: move any number of armies from one territory you own into one adjacent territory you also own, as long as you leave at least one army behind in the territory you moved from. You then draw a card if you earned one (see below), and your turn ends. Building strong borders during this step is a core idea in our wider board game strategy guide.

Continent bonuses

Holding a complete continent is the engine of a winning Risk game, because the bonus armies arrive every single turn you keep it. The bonus is only paid if you own every territory in that continent when your turn begins.

Notice that the smaller, easier-to-defend continents (Australia and South America) pay less, while sprawling Asia pays the most but has many borders to defend. Australia is the classic beginner’s fortress: it has only one land connection to the rest of the map, so a single well-stacked border territory can hold it for the whole game.

Risk cards and trading sets

Risk cards turn successful attacks into a growing supply of armies. At the end of any turn in which you captured at least one territory, you draw one card from the deck — a maximum of one card per turn, no matter how many territories you took.

How do you trade in Risk cards?

Each card shows a territory and one of three symbols: Infantry, Cavalry or Artillery (the two wild cards count as any symbol). On your turn, during the reinforcement step, you may trade in a matched set of three cards for extra armies. A valid set is:

• three cards of the same symbol, or
• one card of each of the three symbols, or
• any two cards plus a wild card.

If one of the cards in your traded set shows a territory you currently occupy, place 2 extra armies directly on that territory (maximum of one such 2-army bonus per turn).

How many armies does a set give?

In the classic rules the value of a set rises each time any player trades one in, so sets become more valuable as the game goes on:

• 1st set traded in the game: 4 armies
• 2nd set: 6 armies
• 3rd set: 8 armies
• 4th set: 10 armies
• 5th set: 12 armies
• 6th set: 15 armies
• each set after that: 5 more than the previous set (20, 25, 30, …)

You may never hold more than four cards: if you begin your turn with five or more cards, you must immediately trade in at least one set. You can also end up with extra cards by eliminating a player, as explained below.

Combat: how the dice work

Combat in Risk is a dice duel between the attacking and defending territories, and understanding the odds is the difference between steady gains and losing your army on a bad roll.

How many dice do you roll?

To attack, the attacking territory must contain at least two armies, because one army must always stay behind.

• Attacker: rolls one, two or three red dice, but always at least one fewer die than the number of armies in the attacking territory. So you need 2 armies to roll one die, 3 armies to roll two dice, and 4 or more armies to roll the maximum of three dice.
• Defender: rolls one white die, or two white dice if the defending territory holds at least two armies.

How are the dice compared?

Both players roll at the same time. Line up the dice from highest to lowest and compare them in pairs: the attacker’s highest die against the defender’s highest die, and (if both rolled a second die) the attacker’s second die against the defender’s second die. In each pair, the lower number loses one army from that territory. Ties go to the defender — if the numbers are equal, the attacker loses the army. Each comparison can cost each side at most one army per die pair, so a single roll removes one or two armies in total.

Capturing a territory

When you destroy the last defending army, you capture the territory. You must then move in at least as many armies as the number of dice you rolled in that winning attack, and you must leave at least one army behind in the territory you attacked from. You may move in more than the minimum if you want to push your advance forward.

Eliminating a player

If your attack removes a player’s last territory, that player is out and you take all of their Risk cards. If this gives you six or more cards, you must immediately trade in sets until you hold fewer than five.

How do you win Risk?

You win the standard game by controlling all 42 territories — total world domination. Because that can take hours, most groups agree in advance on an end condition, such as playing to a set time and counting territories, or playing until only one player has a realistic path to victory and the rest concede. Mission-based editions offer faster finishes, described below.

Risk strategy for beginners

Risk rewards patient position-building over reckless expansion. A few principles help new players immediately:

• Claim a small continent early. Australia or South America give a reliable bonus every turn and are easy to defend. Steady bonus armies compound over the game.
• Defend your borders, not your interior. Stack armies on the few territories that connect your continent to the outside world, and keep interior territories thin.
• Attack with a numbers edge. The attacker rolling three dice against a single defender has a clear statistical advantage, but ties favour the defender, so avoid attacks where you are evenly matched.
• Time your card trades. Because set values escalate, a well-timed trade late in the game can deliver an enormous reinforcement swing.
• Do not make yourself the obvious leader too early. The player who looks strongest often gets ganged up on. Like Catan, Risk has a strong social and negotiation layer.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most lost Risk games come from the same handful of errors:

• Overstretching. Grabbing lots of scattered territories gives only one extra army per three territories but creates many borders you cannot defend.
• Forgetting the capture move-in rule. You must move in at least as many armies as dice rolled, and leave one behind — plan which territory ends up holding your front line.
• Attacking down to one or two armies. If you conquer a territory but leave it almost empty, the next player reclaims it for free.
• Hoarding cards past the limit. If you start a turn with five cards you are forced to trade, which can waste a set you were saving for a bigger value.
• Chasing a full continent you cannot hold. A continent only pays if you own all of it at the start of your turn; a bonus you lose immediately was not worth the armies.
• Ignoring ties. Remember the defender wins ties, so “equal” odds actually favour the defender.

Variants and editions

The rules above describe standard “world conquest” Risk, which is what most people mean by how to play Risk. Several variants are worth knowing:

• Secret Mission Risk: each player draws a hidden objective card (such as capturing a set number of territories or destroying a particular colour) and the first to complete theirs wins, giving a much shorter game.
• Capital Risk: each player designates a capital; victory can be tied to capturing opponents’ capitals.
• The 2008 Revised Edition: introduced cities and capitals, objective cards, and modes (Basic Training, Command Room and World Conquest). Its shorter modes end when a player completes a set number of objectives, and it changed some timing details such as when reinforcements are placed. If you own this edition, follow its rulebook where it differs from the classic rules here.
• Themed editions: dozens exist (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Game of Thrones and more), usually reskinning the classic rules with small tweaks.

Whichever version you own, the rulebook in the box is the final word for your set. For the wider family of strategy titles and how Risk compares, browse our overview of classic board game rules.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How long does a game of Risk take?

A full world-conquest game of standard Risk typically runs about two to four hours, and large six-player games or a drawn-out stalemate can last much longer. Mission and objective variants are deliberately shorter, often finishing in under an hour.

How many players do you need for Risk?

Risk is designed for two to six players. Two-player games use the special neutral-army setup, while three to six players claim territories directly. Many players feel the game is at its best with four or five.

Can the attacker always roll three dice?

No. The attacker rolls at most three dice and always at least one fewer die than the number of armies in the attacking territory. You need four or more armies there to roll three dice, three armies to roll two, and two armies to roll one.

Do you have to attack on your turn?

No. Only collecting and placing reinforcements is mandatory. Attacking and fortifying are both optional, so you can choose to build up your armies and defend without attacking at all on a given turn.

When do you get a Risk card?

You draw one card at the end of a turn in which you captured at least one territory, and only one card per turn regardless of how many territories you took. You can also gain cards by eliminating another player, inheriting their whole hand.