Risk Board Game Rules | A Simple Guide for Beginners

Risk is a 2 to 5 player war game for ages 10 and up, and a game lasts about 60 to 120 minutes. You claim 42 territories across 6 continents, reinforce with one army for every 3 territories you hold plus a continent bonus, attack with up to 3 dice against 2, and win by owning all 42 territories.

I am Spector, a dad to Alex, 7, and Emma, 10. Risk is the game in our house that gets played when we want a long, loud, back and forth argument with dice. It is also the game where I get talked out of a bad plan by a 10 year old more often than I would like to admit. Albert Lamorisse invented it in 1957 in France, Parker Brothers brought it to America in 1959, and Hasbro still prints it today. The rules have barely changed in all that time, which is why one good rules explanation is enough to get a whole table playing.

The Amazon link is an affiliate link. If you buy through it we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Risk at a Glance

Aspect	Details
Invented by	Albert Lamorisse, 1957, released in France as La Conquête du Monde
Published	Parker Brothers in 1959 as Risk: The Continental Game, now Hasbro
Players	2 to 5 in the current US box, plus a 2 player variant with a neutral army
Ages	10 and up
Playtime	About 60 to 120 minutes for a typical game, and the sources give anywhere from 1 to 8 hours for a slow one
Setup	5 to 15 minutes
Board	42 territories grouped into 6 continents
Cards	56 in the box, which is 44 territory cards, 2 wild cards, and 12 Secret Mission cards
Dice	5 in the box, 3 red for the attacker and 2 white for the defender
Win in the main game	Hold all 42 territories
Hall of Fame	Games magazine 1984, Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design 1995, National Toy Hall of Fame 2021

What Is in the Box

This is the official Hasbro contents list for the current US edition, product number B7404. Most websites get the player count wrong, so here it is in full.

Component	What you get
Gameboard	Tri fold map of 6 continents and 42 territories
Armies	5 sets in different colours, each with 40 Infantry, 12 Cavalry, and 8 Artillery, which is 300 figures
Dice	5, being 3 red and 2 white
Cards	56 Risk cards, split into 44 territory cards, 2 wild cards, and 12 Secret Mission cards
Card box	1, for passing the cards around
War crates	5 cardboard crates so you are not fishing armies out of the box
Game guide	The rules booklet

Each figure stands for a number of armies, not just one. Infantry is 1 army, Cavalry is 5, and Artillery is 10, which is also 2 Cavalry. You can swap a group up whenever you like to tidy the board, and you can always swap back down. The Golden Cavalry piece in older sets is not an army, it is a marker for the current card trade in value.

How to Set Up Risk

The setup is the part where most first time groups go wrong, so do it in this order.

1. Take the Secret Mission cards out of the deck. You only use them for the Secret Mission version. Set all 12 aside.
2. Count out your armies. The number depends on how many players there are. Three players take 35 armies each, four players take 30, and five players take 25. A two player game is different and is covered in its own section below.
3. Roll one die each to set the turn order. Highest roll goes first and plays first.
4. Claim the board. The first player places 1 Infantry on any territory. The player to their left does the same, and you keep going clockwise until all 42 territories have exactly one army on them.
5. Place your remaining armies. Everyone puts the rest of their armies onto territories they already own, two at a time, working around the table. There is no limit on how many armies one territory can hold, so a bad opening can be a very bad opening.
6. Shuffle the 44 territory cards and the 2 wild cards together. That pile sits face down next to the board as the draw pile.
7. Start your first turn. The player who rolled highest takes the first turn.

That is the whole setup. It takes about 5 to 15 minutes, most of which is arguing about where to put the second army.

The Continents and Their Bonuses

Holding every territory in a continent pays you a bonus army every turn: North America 5, South America 2, Europe 5, Africa 3, Asia 7, and Australia 2.

Controlling a whole continent is the single biggest source of extra armies in the game, and the territory counts below matter as much as the bonuses, because Asia is a very different proposition from Australia.

Continent	Territories	Bonus armies	Entry points
North America	9	5	3
South America	4	2	2
Europe	7	5	4
Africa	6	3	3
Asia	12	7	5
Australia	4	2	2

Asia pays the most and asks the most, with 12 territories and 5 ways in. Australia pays the least and is the easiest to lock down, because it has only 2 entrances, Siam and Indonesia, and if you hold both you can pile almost everything into one of them.

How Do You Play Risk? The Three Parts of a Turn

Every turn has three parts and you take them in this order. Attacking and fortifying are both optional.

Part 1: Reinforce

Count your territories, divide by 3 and round down, then add the bonus for every whole continent you hold. You always get at least 3 armies, even with 8 territories or fewer.

Place all of those armies before you do anything else. They can go anywhere you already own, in any combination you like. Holding cards is the third source of armies, and it is covered in the cards section below.

Part 2: Attack

Attack from a territory you own into a territory an opponent owns. You may attack a neighbour that shares a land border, or a territory connected by one of the dashed sea routes on the board. You cannot attack anything else.

Four conditions apply before any dice are rolled:

1. You need at least 2 armies in the territory you are attacking from, because 1 must stay behind.
2. The attacker can roll 1, 2, or 3 dice, and never more dice than armies available, so 3 dice needs 4 armies.
3. The defender can roll 1 or 2 dice, and needs at least 2 armies in the territory to roll 2.
4. The defender may defend with their very last army.

Both players say how many dice they are rolling and roll at the same time. Sort each set from highest to lowest, then compare the highest die of each side. The attacker removes a defender army only on a strictly higher die, and the defender wins every tie. Then compare the second die of each side the same way, and if the numbers of dice were different, ignore the lowest die of the player who rolled more.

Part 3: Fortify

Fortifying is the free move at the end of the turn. Move any number of armies from one territory you own to another territory you own, leaving at least 1 army behind, and every territory on the board must still hold at least 1 army at all times. Modern rules let you move along a path of your own territories in one move, so you can shift troops three spaces in a single turn as long as the route is all yours. Older printings only allowed a single adjacent hop.

The Dice Rules That Decide Most Games

Most new players attack on a hunch. Here are the exact numbers, taken from every possible dice outcome, and they explain why a 3 to 2 attack feels good and a 1 against 1 feels terrible.

Attacker dice vs defender dice	Attacker loses nothing	Attacker loses 1	Attacker loses 2
1 against 1	58.3%	41.7%	Not possible
2 against 1	42.1%	57.9%	Not possible
3 against 1	34.0%	66.0%	Not possible
2 against 2	44.8%	32.4%	22.8%
3 against 2	29.3%	33.6%	37.2%

Three things fall straight out of that table. Ties go to the defender, so 1 against 1 is a coin flip weighted against you at 41.7%. Rolling more dice is better, so 3 against 2 is the strongest attack in the game and it is the one worth building a turn around. And a big army advantage is what makes Risk winnable, because two or three attackers against one defender flips the odds hard.

If you enjoy working out the maths rather than trusting a hunch, our guide to dice and randomness in tabletop games goes deeper on why some games feel fair and some do not.

How to Capture a Territory and What the Cards Do

When the defender’s last army is removed, you take the territory. The modern rulebook wording is that you move your remaining attacking armies into the territory you just took, leaving at least 1 army behind in the territory you attacked from. Many guides still repeat an older line saying you must move at least as many armies as dice you rolled, which is where the confusion comes from, and the two rules are not always printed the same way. Either way, in practice almost everybody moves the whole attacking force across, which is the only thing that makes a captured territory worth anything.

Capture at least one territory in a turn and you draw 1 card from the draw pile, and only 1 no matter how many you took. Those cards are the late game army engine.

Three ways to trade a set of cards

You can trade in three cards that all show the same figure, so 3 Infantry or 3 Cavalry or 3 Artillery. You can trade 1 of each figure, so 1 Infantry, 1 Cavalry, and 1 Artillery. Or you can trade 2 matching cards plus a wild card, and the 2 wild cards in the deck show all three figures.

The trade in ladder

The first set traded in by anyone in the game is worth 4 armies, then 6, 8, 10, 12, and 15. Every set after that adds 5 more than the one before it.

The value counts every set traded in by every player, not just yours, so the seventh set traded in anywhere in the game is worth 20 armies. Some sets also print a Golden Cavalry marker showing where the ladder is up to.

Set number traded in the game	Armies
1	4
2	6
3	8
4	10
5	12
6	15
7	20
8	25
Every set after that	Add 5 to the previous set

If a card in the set you trade shows a territory you currently own, you get 2 extra armies that must go onto that territory. You can only claim those 2 bonus armies once per set, even if two of the cards show territories you hold.

The timing rule is what trips people up. You may trade at the start of your turn whenever you like, but if you start your turn holding 5 or 6 cards you must trade in at least one set, and if you have two sets you can trade both. If the draw pile runs out, the current rules are silent on what happens, and older printings just shuffle the spent cards back in to make a new pile.

How Do You Win Risk? Elimination and Win Conditions

A player is eliminated the moment their last army comes off the board, and there is no way back in. The player who did it takes every card the eliminated player was holding. If that leaves the winner holding 6 or more cards, they must trade in sets immediately until they are back to 4 cards or fewer before they continue attacking, because once you are at 4 or fewer you cannot trade again until your next turn.

There are three win conditions in the classic rules, and they are worth knowing before you sit down, because they produce very different evenings.

World Domination, the standard game

The last player standing wins, which means holding all 42 territories. In practice you win by eliminating the other players one at a time, since the last one has nothing left to hold. This is the game most people mean when they say they are playing Risk, and it is the one every rule reference means unless it says otherwise.

Secret Mission Risk

Each player is dealt 1 of the 12 Secret Mission cards face down before the territory cards are dealt, and if you are playing with fewer than 5 players, remove any mission that names a colour nobody is using. Missions ask for things like holding a set number of territories, holding specific continents, or eliminating a particular player colour. Complete your mission and reveal the card to prove it, and you win immediately, even if it happens on somebody else’s turn because they gave you the territory you needed. It ends games much faster, which is why it became the standard in Europe.

Capital Risk, edition specific

Some editions print a Capital Risk variant where each player has a capital city in one of their starting territories and you win by capturing every capital at the table. It produces shorter games. It is not in the current US rule set as the main game, so treat it as a variant to read up on rather than a rule to expect.

How to Play Risk With Two Players

The two player setup is where most online guides are vaguest, and it is the one our own two player games use.

1. Each player takes 40 armies in a colour of their choice, and you also pick a third colour as the neutral army with 40 armies.
2. Take the Secret Mission cards and the 2 wild cards out of the deck, shuffle the rest, and deal it into 3 piles of 14 cards. Each player takes one pile and the neutral army takes the last.
3. Place 1 army on each of the 14 territories named by your cards, and 1 neutral army on each of the neutral territories.
4. Players take turns placing 2 more armies each, either both in one territory or one in each of two territories.
5. The players then take turns placing 1 neutral army each, which is the first real decision of the game because the neutral pieces are walls.
6. Put the 2 wild cards back in, shuffle everything into the draw pile, and play the main game as normal.

The neutral army never attacks and never has a turn. When you attack a neutral territory, your opponent rolls the defending dice for it. Eliminating the neutral army does not win you the game, so you still have to beat the other human.

Our House Strategy, Not Rules

Everything above is the rulebook. This part is mine, learned the expensive way.

Take a continent early or do not bother. Australia is the easiest lock in the game, and if you cannot hold it in the first two turns you are playing for scraps. Asia is the opposite. It pays 7 a turn and it is 12 territories with 5 ways in.

Stop when the maths says stop. A 3 to 2 attack is 37.2% to kill 2. Against a defender sitting on 2 armies in a corner you cannot win quickly, and losing 2 of your 4 attackers for 1 of theirs is a bad trade. If the table is strong, our Monopoly strategy guide covers the same idea in a different game, where counting the maths before you commit also decides the game.

Watch the cards, not the board. The player holding 5 cards is the threat. Every set they trade in late is worth 25 or 30 armies, and the cleanest way to kill someone is to take their cards before they cash them.

Do not open war on a 7 year old. Alex lasts about two turns in the elimination game and then wants to quit, which kills the whole evening for everyone. When we play as a family, Emma and I play the real game and Alex runs the war crates, which he will tell you is the most important job on the table.

Which Risk Should You Actually Buy?

Most of what gets sold as Risk is not the classic game, and several of the licensed versions have different rules and different player counts. If you came here for the rules above, you want the plain classic box.

Game	What it is	Players and ages	Buy it if
Risk	The current Hasbro classic box, 2 to 5 players, with 12 Secret Missions	2 to 5, 10 and up	You want the rules on this page. This is the one to buy
Risk 1959	Winning Moves reproduction of the 1959 Parker Brothers version with wood pieces	2 to 5, 10 and up	You want the original look and the original rules text
Risk 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition	Metal pieces and a presentation box	2 to 5, 10 and up	You want metal armies as a gift piece
Risk Legacy	5 factions with persistent changes that carry between games	2 to 4, 12 and up	You want a campaign, not a one night war
Risk 2210 A.D.	Futuristic moon and ocean map with commanders and expansions	2 to 5, 10 and up	You want the same game on a different map
Risk Junior	Small box island game scored on points, no elimination	2 to 4, 5 and up	Your players are under 8 and the real game is too mean

If Risk is the right idea but the wrong execution, Blokus is the one we reach for when the mood is claiming territory without the dice or the elimination, and it finishes in 30 minutes rather than two hours.

Is Risk Just Luck?

Partly, and it is worth being honest about which part. If you are in a straight dice fight for a territory, you are at the mercy of the table above, and a 1 against 1 is a 41.7% coin flip. Everything before the dice is not luck at all: which continent you hold, where your reinforcements go, whether you fortify a border or leave it open, and when you trade your cards in are all choices that compound. Our guide to luck against strategy in tabletop games covers the wider argument. Risk is a game where the dice decide battles and the players decide the war.

Should You Buy Risk in 2026?

It is still worth buying, with one caveat. The rules have not meaningfully changed since 1959, the game is on a shelf in most homes, and it is the cheapest way to give a group of older kids a real strategic game. Buy it for game night with adults and older children, not as a game for the whole family at once.

If your youngest players are under about 8, Catan Junior teaches the same trading and territory ideas without wiping anyone off the board. And if the elimination is going to end your evening early, our guide to keeping family game night peaceful covers how to run games that people actually want to finish.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many players can play Risk?

The current US box is 2 to 5 players, and Hasbro’s own product page says 2 to 5. Most websites say 2 to 6 because older and European boxes shipped six army sets, and Wikipedia still lists 2 to 6 as the general range for the game across editions.

How long does a game of Risk take?

About 60 to 120 minutes for a typical game at three or four players, with setup at 5 to 15 minutes. The reference sources give a much wider range of 1 to 8 hours, because a five player game where nobody attacks can run a very long time.

What is the minimum number of armies you get each turn?

Three armies, whatever happens. You also get one for every 3 territories you hold rounded down, plus the bonus for each whole continent you control, plus whatever your card trades are worth.

Do you have to attack every turn?

No. Attacking is optional and so is fortifying. A turn of placing reinforcements and then fortifying is a perfectly legal and often smart turn, especially early on when you are small and somebody is next to you.

Can you attack with just 1 army?

No. You need at least 2 armies in the territory you attack from because 1 must stay behind. To roll 3 dice you need 4 armies in the territory, since the number of dice can never exceed your armies minus 1.

Who wins a dice tie in a battle?

The defender, always. The attacker has to roll strictly higher to remove an army, which is why 1 against 1 is 41.7% for the attacker and not 50%.

What happens when a player is eliminated?

They are out for the rest of the game, and the player who removed their last army takes every card they were holding. If that gives the winner 6 or more cards, they must trade sets immediately until they are back to 4 or fewer before they attack again.

Can you play Risk with two players?

Yes, with a third neutral army. Each player takes 40 armies, a neutral army of 40 is set up as a blocker, the deck is dealt into 3 piles of 14 cards, and the other player rolls the neutral defence dice whenever you attack a neutral territory.

How many cards are in a Risk deck?

56 in the current box, made up of 44 territory cards, 2 wild cards, and 12 Secret Mission cards. You take 1 card from the draw pile for any turn in which you capture at least one territory.