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Risk (game)

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Risk is a commercial strategic board game produced by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. It was invented in the early 1950s by the French movie director Albert Lamorisse. Risk shares many characteristics with war games, yet relative to other war games, it is simple and abstract. It makes little attempt to accurately simulate military strategy, the size of the world, the logistics of long campaigns, or real-world luck.

Contents

Overview and most common rules

Risk is a turn-based game for two to eight players. It is played on a board depicting a stylized political map of the Earth, divided into 42 territories, which are grouped into six continents. To start, each player rolls one die. The player who rolls the highest number plays first and the sequence goes clockwise. Each player in turn places an army on a territory to claim it until all territories have been claimed; following this, the players position among their territories the armies remaining from their starting number of armies (varying depending on the number of people playing; for six, each gets 20; for five, 25; four, 30; etc.).
The infantryman, the basic unit of Risk.
Enlarge
The infantryman, the basic unit of Risk.

The game is played by allocating armies to the territories that you control, and then attacking neighboring territories in order to conquer them. The outcome of battles is decided by rolling dice. The attacking player selects up to three armies from his/her territory to participate in the attack, with the caveat that at least one army must be left behind. The attacker rolls one die, usually red, for each attacking army. The defending player may select up to two armies to participate in the defense of the territory (including their last army), and rolls that number of dice, usually white or blue. The attacker's highest roll is then compared to the defender's highest roll. The player with the higher of the two is deemed successful, and the opposing player must remove one army from the territory. If both highest rolls are equal, the defender is deemed successful, and the attacker must remove one army. The process is then repeated with each player's second highest roll. If the attacker is using more dice than the defender, the remaining dice are ignored. If an attacker succeeds in removing the last defending army, they move any attacking armies into the conquered territory.

The cavalryman which is equal to five infantry units.
Enlarge
The cavalryman which is equal to five infantry units.

Players may reinforce their armies at the beginning of their turn. First, a player receives additional armies each turn based on the territories in their control. The player will receive one army for each three territories under their control, with a minimum of three per turn. Additional armies are given for controlling all territories in a continent or continents (see table below). Second, players collect cards, drawing one card from the deck on any turn during which they captured a territory. At the start of their turn, a player may turn in any sets of three identical cards, or any sets of one card of each of the three types, for additional armies. The number of armies awarded increases as sets of cards are turned in. At the end of each player's turn, they may move any number of armies from one (and only one) territory they control into one (and only one) neighboring territory they already occupy, again always leaving at least one army in each territory.

The cannon which is equal to ten infantry units, or two cavalry units.
Enlarge
The cannon which is equal to ten infantry units, or two cavalry units.

Since playing Risk with two players is not always as engaging as games with more players, some versions of the rules recommend having some territories occupied by neutral armies to come close to the strategic value and fun of an actual three-way game.

Rules and differences

Risk was designed by Albert Lamorisse and released in France in 1957. From the pre-1959 version, Parker Brothers and Hasbro have included many different rules for the game. There are many computer and Internet versions which have different rules, and hundreds of Risk clubs which also have their own "house rules" or competition-adjusted rules. It would be arduous to include here all the different sets of rules, or to list every rule or goal that differs from place to place or version to version.

Strategy for standard rules

Continent # of Extra armies
Africa
3
Australia
2
Asia
7
Europe
5
North America
5
South America
2

The strategy of Risk is to have the largest number of armies in the place where they will be the most effective. One of the easiest ways to gain armies is to hold continents. If you hold an entire continent for an entire turn, you receive a number of extra armies, which is dependent upon the continent (see the table to the right).

A common strategy is to secure Australia or South America early in the game and sit back and build up armies. This strategy allows for a quiet and rapid way of getting reinforcements. A good strategy after taking the two continents is to cautiously work one's way up North America. The player must be careful not to over-extend him- (or her-) self and allow himself to be taken in a sweep by someone who puts down cards. Another popular strategy is to simply take Australia and South America and let the other players kill each other off, and striking when the other players are at their weakest. If more than one player attempts to follow this strategy it can lead to an internecine bloodbath. This strategy can backfire if the game develops into a stalemate, where all the players build up in larger continents waiting for someone to make a move. The controllers of the larger continents will receive considerably more men than the controllers of the smaller continents. Also if a player uses this strategy and another player gains control of the larger continent above them, they will be his or her next target, because they receive fewer men each turn, and are therefore usually an easy target for invasion.

Another rule of thumb players follow is never to take Asia early in the game; it is the largest continent and the least defensible, and trying to hold it leaves the player open on too many fronts. If a player does attempt to take Asia, they should hold Ukraine, because otherwise they have to guard from invasion in 3 different border territories (Ural, Afghanistan, Middle East). If they do not hold Ukraine the opponent need only have enough force to invade one of these territories to stifle the player's income of men for that turn.

In terms of values of each continent, North America is one of the most valuable of all continents to take early, or at all, throughout the game. The reason for this lies in the fact that North America has only 3 ways in and out of it, those being: Alaska, Greenland and Central America. North America proves to be a crucial part of the game as time goes on due to its 5+/per turn reinforcement rate. Once North America is secure, another common strategy is to attack South America. The conquest of this continent allows for the addition of two extra armies per turn, while adding no extra vulnerable point (Alaska, Greenland, and Central America become Alaska, Greenland, and Brazil).

A good rule is to always take at least one territory per turn, even if you expect to lose it the next. By taking a territory, you gain a Risk card. Combinations of 3 Risk cards can be played in future turns in exchange for more armies (this being a "reward" of sorts for aggression). A sudden influx of armies at the beginning of a turn can change everything. Every turn a player successfully gains another territory, he or she also gains one-third of a new set. For example, if the next set of cards will grant a player 30 armies, then the card earned is essentially worth 10 armies.

After winning a battle, it is tempting to leave a single, occupying army in a territory and push all others into the newly defeated territory. This leads a strong front line with no reserves. If an opponent breaks the leading edge of the player's advance, they can often run deep into his or her rear area as they only have to defeat a single army in each territory. Leaving two or three armies in each territory will slow your advance, but it minimizes the damage if an opponent breaks through.

Once a player has become dominant in a particular session, the endgame becomes more or less inevitable. Risk is a game of numbers, and, consequently, the game can "tip" very hard in a player's favor once he or she controls enough territories and continents to build up a steady stream of reinforcements each turn. When this happens, there is very little that can be done strategically to stop them. Although, many times when this situation arises, the opposing players will ally against him to quelch the strongest player, which generally works quite well.

Because cards in the standard rules quickly build to high value, some players, in games of 5 or 6 people, manage to play a very effective game by mostly ignoring continents, focusing instead on wiping other players out and seizing their cards. If two or three weaker players with 3 or 4 cards each can be defeated in the space of a few turns, without hopelessly weakening the attacker in the process, he or she can often win the game, even against strong-entrenched remaining opponents.

Politics and alliances

Whenever there are more than two players remaining in the game, alliances will be an important — perhaps the most important — part of Risk strategy. There are no rules restricting the formation or break-up of alliances. A good Risk player will use diplomacy to arrange alliances to take down stronger opponents and will similarly attempt to use diplomacy to avoid alliances being made against him/herself. The importance of this should not be underestimated. This "meta-game" is perhaps the single most important factor determining the outcome of Risk games amongst players who have already grasped basic Risk tactics and strategy.

Dice odds

Odds of winning in Risk
(various dice combinations) 		Attacker
one die two dice three dice
Defender one
die 		Attacker wins 15 of 36
(41.67 %) 		125 of 216
(57.87 %) 		855 of 1296
(65.97 %)
Defender wins 21 of 36
(58.33 %) 		91 of 216
(42.13 %) 		441 of 1296
(34.03 %)
two
dice 		Attacker wins 55 of 216
(25.46 %) 		295 of 1296
(22.76 %) 		2890 of 7776
(37.17 %)
Defender wins 161 of 216
(74.54 %) 		581 of 1296
(44.83 %) 		2275 of 7776
(29.26 %)
Both win one 420 of 1296
(32.41 %) 		2611 of 7776
(33.58 %)

List of territories

North America Europe Asia
South America Africa
Australia 

¹On some versions sold in Canada, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are known as Western Canada, Central Canada and Eastern Canada respectively.



Official games



Derivative board games



Computer implementations and Video Games



Pop culture and trivia










"In the '30s, Hitler: Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Second World War... Russian front not a good idea... Hitler never played Risk when he was a kid. Cause, you know, playing Risk, you could never hold on to Asia. That Asian-Eastern European area, you could never hold it, could you? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn't f****** hold it. Australasia, that was the one. Australasia. All the purples. Get everyone on Papua New Guinea and just build up and build up...



External links






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