How to Play the Game of Risk

Set Up

• 1

  Open the game board and have each player choose a color for her pieces. The pieces are usually in a tray, but if they are loose, players should set them aside into a reserve from which they can draw reinforcements during play.

• 2

  Draw your initial forces from the tray or reserve. If there are three players, everyone takes 35 units; for every additional opponent, players draw five fewer pieces.

• 3

  Roll a die to determine who starts first. Play proceeds clockwise from that person.

• 4

  Claim your countries by placing an army on them. Each player may place a piece on a country of his choice, starting with the first player and moving clockwise. Alternately, players may remove the two wild cards from the "Risk" deck, shuffle the deck and distribute the cards to the players.

• 5

  Reinforce your armies with the remaining armies from your initial batch. Place them in turns until they have all been distributed. Any country that a player owns must have at least one army in it.

• 6

  Replace the wild cards in the "Risk" deck and shuffle the cards.

Game Play

• 7

  Take three armies for each country you possess at the beginning of your turn. Receive additional armies for each continent you control.

• 8

  Trade in sets of cards with the same symbol. The first set of cards passed in earns any player four armies; each consecutive set traded in earns the player an additional two armies, up until 12 armies. The sixth set earns the player 15 armies, and each set after that is worth five armies more than the previous.

• 9

  Enter the attack phase of the turn. You can send a territorial army to attack any country that borders your own. For example, a player who controls Kamchatka can attack Japan, Baikal, Yakutsk and Alaska.

• 10

  Attack by rolling up to three dice. The defending player rolls up to two dice. Match the highest attacking die with the highest defending die, and so on. The higher number wins, and defeated armies are removed from the board. You can attack until you are done.

• 11

  Enter a movement phase. Move armies between adjacent territories, if you choose. When you are finished, announce the end of your turn. Take a "Risk" card if you have claimed any territory on your turn.

• 12

  Pass the dice to the next player. Repeat Steps 1 through 4 for each player until one player has claimed all territories on the board and wins.