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STRATEGY

RISK: HOW TO ACTUALLY WIN A WORLD CONQUEST

Conquer territories by rolling more dice than the defender. Eliminate other players or be the last continent-bonus collector standing.

DIFFICULTYINTERMEDIATE
PLAYERS2–6
PLAY TIME2–4 hours
AGE10+
RISKSTRATEGYAREA CONTROL
STEP 1

SETUP

  1. 1Each player picks a colour, takes their armies and dice.
  2. 2Determine starting armies: 2p = 40 each; 3p = 35; 4p = 30; 5p = 25; 6p = 20.
  3. 3Shuffle territory cards; deal them all to players to claim starting territories (1 army each).
  4. 4Players take turns placing remaining armies on their territories (minimum 1 per).
  5. 5Set Risk cards face-down nearby; place the troop trade-in chart visible.
  6. 6Highest dice roll goes first.
STEP 2

HOW TO PLAY

EACH TURN: 3 PHASES

1. REINFORCE: receive armies = max(3, owned territories / 3) + continent bonuses + traded-in cards. Place them on your territories. 2. ATTACK: declare attacker (max 3 dice) and defender (max 2 dice). Highest dice compared 1:1; ties go to defender. Continue or stop. 3. FORTIFY: move armies between any two of your connected territories (one move per turn).

CONTINENT BONUSES

Hold every territory in a continent at the start of your reinforcement phase for bonus armies: Australia +2, South America +2, Africa +3, Europe +5, North America +5, Asia +7. Australia and South America are the easiest to defend.

CARDS & TRADE-INS

Capture at least one territory on your turn to draw a Risk card. Trade in 3 cards (3 of a kind OR 1 of each type) for bonus armies. The trade-in value escalates: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, then +5 each. Cards alone can swing a game in the late stages.

BLITZ RULE (recommended)

An optional house rule: when attacking, the attacker may declare 'blitz' and auto-roll until they take the territory or have 1 army left. Cuts game length by 40%. Use it.

★ WIN CONDITION

Standard: eliminate all other players (capture every territory). Mission Risk: complete your secret mission card first. Risk Legacy: 15-game campaign with permanent map changes.

STEP 3

QUICK TIPS

  • ▸Australia first. One choke point (Siam) to defend, +2 bonus armies forever.
  • ▸Don't over-extend across multiple continents. Concentrate, then expand.
  • ▸Hold cards until you can trade for a big set. Don't trade at the 4-card rate.
  • ▸On your turn, attack until you've captured at least 1 territory — guaranteed card.
  • ▸Eliminate weak players to claim ALL their cards — major swing.
  • ▸Risk: Legacy (15-game campaign) is the modern community-recommended version.
DEEP DIVE

STRATEGY NOTES

Risk is the most-recognised conquest game in the world, and one of the most-criticised on r/boardgames. The fundamental tension is that Risk has real strategic depth — Australia first, control bonus continents, manage your reinforcement rate — but the experience is undermined by extreme game length and player elimination.

A standard six-player Risk runs four hours and eliminates two or three players before the end. Once you're out, you sit and wait. This is the single most-cited reason groups switch to Risk: Legacy, Twilight Imperium, or modern alternatives like Scythe.

The community-recommended fix is the "blitz" rule (attacker keeps rolling automatically until they win or have one army left) which speeds up the dice gauntlet. With blitz + a 3-hour timer, Risk becomes a Saturday-night game again.

Risk: Legacy (2011) and Risk 2210 A.D. are universally considered improvements on the base game. Legacy in particular — a 15-session campaign that permanently changes the board and rules — is one of the highest-rated games on BoardGameGeek and worth owning even by people who hate the original.

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