How to Play Risk With Only Two Players

Select three sets of armies -- for you, your opponent and the buffer -- and grab 40 infantry pieces of each color.

Shuffle the territory cards and separate them into three face-down piles. Select a pile to use for each army and place one infantry unit on each territory. After completing this, take turns placing one or two additional infantry units on each of your territories. During a turn, each player can also place one of the neutral army units onto a territory near the opponent to serve as a blocker.

Reshuffle the territory cards, along with the two wild cards, to use for drawing during the game. Each time you capture a territory during the game you get to draw a card, and can trade them in for additional armies when you match army unit symbols.

Attack an adjacent territory to one of your own on your turn by rolling the dice as you would in a normal game. Choose up to three red dice if you have at least four armies in your territory. The defender can roll up to two dice if he has two or more armies in the territory being attacked. Ties go to the defender. If a neutral army is being attacked, the other player rolls the dice.

Win the game by eliminating all of your opponent's armies. The neutral army does not have to be eliminated, although it usually is defeated long before the game ends.