Information about Risk (game)

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A typical game of Risk in play.
Players	2–6
Age range	10+
Setup time	5–20 minutes
Playing time	1–8 hours (player dependent)
Random chance	medium-dice, cards
Skills required	Tactics, Luck, Strategy, and Negotiation

Risk is a commercial strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro). It was invented by French movie director Albert Lamorisse. It was originally released in 1957, as La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World), in France.

Risk is a turn-based game for two to six players, and is played on a board depicting a stylised Napoleonic-era political map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, which are grouped into six continents. Players control armies, with which they attempt to capture territories from other players. The goal of the game is to control all the territories—or "conquer the world"—through the elimination of the other players. Using area movement, Risk ignores realistic limitations, such as the vast size of the world, and the logistics of long campaigns. Compared to other military board games, Risk is relatively simple and abstract.

History and development

Risk is based on the French game La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World), invented by Albert Lamorisse in the early 1950s. In 1957, it was published by the game manufacturer Miro, after a few slight modifications.^[1][2] Due to a relationship between Miro and Parker Brothers, Parker Brothers was able to introduce a slightly modified version of the game, by the name of the RISK Continental Game, into the United States in 1959.^[3] Although slight variants on game's title have surfaced with newer editions, e.g. in 1996 its name was changed to Risk: the Game of Global Domination,^[3] it is commonly referred to as simply Risk.

Equipment and its evolution in design

Each Risk game comes with six sets of armies, each of a different colour. Individual sets of armies consist of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. If a player runs out of armies during the game, another colour may be used to substitute, or slips of paper to help keep track of his or her armies.^[3] Standard equipment also comprises five dice; two for the defender, and three for the attacker, both sets being colour coded as well.

Also included is a total of fifty-six Risk cards. Forty-two of these depict countries, in addition to a symbol of an infantry, cavalry, or artillery piece. One of these cards is awarded to a player at the end of his or her turn, if he or she successfully conquers at least one territory during that turn. No more than one card may be awarded per turn. If a player collects three cards with the same diagram or one of each, he or she may trade them in, at the beginning of his or her turn, for reinforcements. These cards can also be used for game set-up (see below for details). Also included are two wild cards that depict an infantry, cavalry, and artillery piece, as opposed to one of the three and a territory. Because these cards have all three symbols, they are mainly used to complete a Risk card set, in order to receive reinforcements. Twelve Mission cards also come with the game, but are used only in Secret Mission Risk.

Originally, the playing pieces were wooden cubes representing one army each and a few rounded triangular prisms representing ten armies each^[2] but in later versions of the game these pieces were molded of plastic in order to reduce costs. In the 1980s, these were changed to pieces shaped like the Roman numerals for I, III, V, and X. The 1993 edition introduced infantry, cavalry, and artillery pieces, which were made of plastic. The 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition contained the same troop pieces, but made of metal rather than plastic. Additionally, the movement route between the territories of East Africa and Middle East was removed; this was later confirmed as a manufacturing error. Subsequent editions reverted to plastic pieces, and replaced the missing route.^[4] While the European versions of Risk had included the variation "Secret Mission Risk" for some time, the U.S. version did not have this added until 1993.^[5]

Standard setup

Setting up the Risk board for play is more involved than in many other games. Players take turns claiming territories by placing armies on them until all the territories are occupied. Remaining armies are placed onto strategic territories to strengthen them. Once armies have been placed the actual game begins. A popular variation is to deal out the "Risk" cards randomly. The players then occupy the countries they are dealt and then set up their troops until all troops have been placed. The two-player game is identical to this version in that the players use Risk cards to determine where armies are placed. Similarly, in Lamorisse's original version, all players claimed territories based on the Risk cards they were dealt.

Player turn

Reinforcements

At the start of each player's turn, the player adds reinforcements to his or her armies. A player receives additional armies based on the number of territories he or she controls, the value of continents they control, and the value of any Risk card sets they turn in. The player receives one army for every three territories under his or her control, with a minimum of three armies per turn. The number of reinforcements for holding a continent varies. For holding Asia, the player receives seven extra armies; for North America and Europe, five; for Africa, three are given; and for the continents of Australia and South America, two reinforcements are placed on the board.

In addition to reinforcements from holding territories, players also gain reinforcements by turning in Risk card sets. During the attacking phase of his or her turn, if a player conquers at least one territory, he or she may claim a Risk card, which is a card showing one of the forty-two territories, and a picture of an infantryman, a cavalryman, or a cannon. There are also two wild cards, which have a picture of all three Risk units, but no territory diagram; these may be used as either infantry, cavalry, or cannon, in order to finish a set of cards. A set of Risk cards is three cards showing the same unit (eg. all three cards have cavalry pictures), or three cards showing one of each type of Risk unit. The number of reinforcements awarded for a turned-in set increases as sets of cards are turned in. Also, turning in a card with a pictured territory owned by the player awards two additional armies to be placed in that territory. [A player may receive only one card per turn.]

Attacking

After deploying reinforcements, the player may attack to gain territory and get a Risk card. Attacks occur between only two adjacent territories, one owned by the attacking player, and the other owned by a different player. The outcomes of battles are decided by rolling dice. Each roll of the die is considered an individual attack, and the attacking player may attack as many times as he or she likes, provided the attacking territory maintains enough armies to attack. If an attacking player occupies a defender's last territory, eliminating them from the game, the attacker is rewarded with the defender's Risk cards.

If an attack successfully kills the last defending army, the attacking player is required to move armies from the attacking territory to occupy the defeated territory. The minimum number of armies is equal to the number of dice rolled, and there is no limit to the total number that may be moved, so long as at least one army remains in the attacking territory. Thus, if the attacker has three armies in a territory, he or she may roll only two dice, because only two armies are free to occupy the attacked territory. The defending player can roll a die for each army stationed on a territory, up to two. Thus, a territory defended by a single army is weaker than one defended by more. After occupying the defeated territory, the player is free to continue attacking any number of other enemy territories from adjacent territories that the player controls.

In a typical attack in which both the attacker and defender have several armies, the attacking player may roll one, two, or three dice. The defending player rolls either one or two. The attacker's highest die is compared against the defender's highest die, and the attacker's second-highest die is compared against the defender's second-highest die (if the defender rolled two dice). The attacker's lowest die is disregarded. The defender loses an army if the attacker's dice is greater than the defender's own, but the attacker loses an army if the defender's die is greater than or equal to his own. This gives the defending player the advantage in "one-on-one" fights, but the attacker's ability to use multiple dice often offsets this advantage. For more details, see the probability chart below.

Fortifying

When a player has finished attacking, he or she has the option to move any number of armies from one, and only one, of their territories, into a single adjacent territory that they occupy. The player must still leave at least one army in each territory. If the player captured at least one territory during the course of their turn, they must draw one Risk card from the deck. A player may not hold more than five cards at a time, therefore, after drawing their fifth Risk card, he or she will be required to turn in a Risk set upon his or her next turn. One may only attack the territories adjacent to your own existing territory. Play then proceeds clockwise to the next player.

Strategy

Basic strategy

The official rulebook gives three basic strategic tips for the classic rules. Firstly, players should control entire continents to get the bonus reinforcement armies. Secondly, players should watch their borders for buildups of armies that could imply an upcoming attack. Thirdly, players should build up armies on their own borders for better defense.

Common strategies

Beside basic strategies listed in the official rulebook, there are several more strategies one can apply, many of which revolve around the tactics of fortification. For instance, players often attempt to gain control of Australia early in the game, as Australia is the only continent that can be successfully defended by heavily fortifying one country (either Siam or Indonesia).^[6] Generally, continents with fewer borders are easier to defend as they possess fewer points that can be attacked by other players.

Usually it is best that your possessing territories are all in one continent or area so it is easier to defend or overtake a continent. Spreading your territories is dangerous and leads you into fighting in many fronts which will deplete your army. Aside from that, geography plays a big role in strategy. Although Australia can be easily defended since it has the fewest borders, its only neighboring continent is Asia and is the most difficult to maintain. South America on the other hand has two borders and the same value of bonus reinforcements as Australia. Although it is more difficult to defend, its neighboring continents are North America and Africa which are both easier to obtain compared to Asia. Australia offers better defence while South America offers better offense.

In regards to tactics concerning Risk cards, it is recommended that one holds one's Risk cards until one can cash them in for maximum reinforcements.^[6] This is especially true earlier on in gameplay as extra armies make a greater difference in the beginning of the game.^[6] Eliminating a weak player who holds a large number of Risk cards is also a good strategy,^[6] as players who eliminate their opponents get possession of their opponents' Risk cards. Additionally, if a player has more than five Risk cards after taking the cards of another player, he or she must immediately turn the Risk cards in for reinforcements and continue attacking.

Alliances

No official alliances or truces exist in the game, although players often form unofficial treaties to safeguard themselves from attacks while they concentrate their forces elsewhere, or to eliminate a player that has grown too strong.

Dice probabilities

The attacker can use up to three dice and the defender can only use up to two dice. Since the defender wins the tie between two dice, it is to the advantage of the attacker to use more dice than the defender. The table below demonstrates the probabilities of the outcomes given different combinations of dice:

Probabilities of winning a dice roll in Risk (various dice combinations)[7]			Attacker
			one die	two dice	three dice
Defender	one die	Attacker wins	15/36 = 41.67%	125/216 = 57.87%	855/1296 = 65.97%
		Defender wins	21/36 = 58.33%	91/216 = 42.13%	441/1296 = 34.03%
	two dice	Attacker wins	55/216 = 25.46%	295/1296 = 22.76%	2890/7776 = 37.17%
		Defender wins	161/216 = 74.54%	581/1296 = 44.83%	2275/7776 = 29.26%
		Both win one	n/a	420/1296 = 32.41%	2611/7776 = 33.58%

Differences of rules

Over the years, Parker Brothers and Hasbro have published many different editions of rules for the game. In the most recent rulebook, three variations are given. Since playing Risk with two players is not always as engaging as games with more players, "World Domination Risk for 2 Players" recommends occupying some territories with neutral armies, to come close to the strategic value and fun of an actual three-way game. "Capital Risk" is recommended for a shorter world domination game in which each player has their "capital" in one of their initial territories, and the player to capture all capitals wins.^[8]

The "Secret Mission Risk" variant, which has been the standard game in European editions for some decades,^[5] gives each player specific missions short of complete world domination. Missions include various tasks such as conquering two specific continents, e.g. Asia and South America, eliminating one specific other player, e.g. all the blue troops, conquering any twenty-four territories, or conquering any 18 territories, but maintaining at least 2 troops in each. Players do not reveal their mission to each other until the end of the game, which is after the first player to fulfil the condition of their mission displays his Secret Mission Card and wins the game.

The official rulebook suggests variations to the gameplay mechanics for "Risk experts," any or all of which can be used depending on player preference. The official variations reduce the speed at which Risk sets increase in value, allow for much faster redeployment of armies at the end of one's turn, disallow more than twelve armies per territory, give an attack advantage when attacking from or to a territory for which the attacker holds a Risk card, and simulates the effect of a "commander" in a battle. In addition to these official variations, many computer and Internet versions have different rules, and gaming clubs often use house rules or competition-adjusted rules.

Another variation is the way you play the cards. You can play escalating cards values (i.e. first set traded in is worth 4, the second is worth 6...) or flat rate, which means all cards are worth the same amount of armies. Further variations include having certain types of cards be worth a certain number of armies.

According to the official rules, you must only forify from one territory to an adjacent territory one time per turn. Some variations say you can fortify from any territory to any territory as long as they are linked by territories you occupy, however, you may only do this once per turn. Some even go further and say you can fortify across linked territories as many times as you want.

Territories

The following is a representation of the Risk game board, with a table of the corresponding continent and territory names. The territory and continent links refer to the general use of those terms, outside of the context of the Risk board game.



The territories of Risk ^[9]

Note: The numbers in parentheses represent the number of additional armies granted during the reinforcement stage of a player's turn who controls all of the territories in that continent.

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

Official Risk versions

Main article: List of licensed Risk game boards

In addition to the original version of 1959, and a 40th Anniversary Edition with metal pieces, a number of official variants of Risk have been released over the years. In recent years, Hasbro has predominantly based its Risk variants on popular films. The most recent example in this trend is the Transformers version, which is expected to be available in June 2007. In chronological order, the variations of Risk that have been released are:

• Castle Risk (1986) – A version focusing only on Europe in which each player's goal is to protect their castle from attack. Castle Risk was the first version of Risk released after 27 years of production to depart from standard play.^[4] Although it was unsuccessful it introduced many concepts integrated into later versions of Risk.^[4]
• (1999) – Adds generals, fortresses, and naval units.
• (2000) – Adds a sixth player to Risk: Édition Napoléon.
• Risk: 2210 A.D. (2001) – An award winning futuristic version, produced by Avalon Hill, another division of Hasbro. The game features moon territories, ocean territories and commander units and offers a number of official and unofficial expansions.
• (2002) – 2–4 player version based on northern Middle-earth.
• (2003) – Extension to Risk: the Lord of the Rings, also includes a 2-player Siege of Minas Tirith mini-game.
• (2003) – Combines the first two Lord of the Rings versions, but does not include the Siege of Minas Tirith mini-game.
• Risk Godstorm (2004) – A version based on the mythological pantheons of various ancient civilizations; produced by Avalon Hill.
• (2005) – Set in the Star Wars universe during the Clone Wars. The player can fight on the side of the Separatists or the Republic, using either the classic Risk rules or the Clone Wars variations where altruism pays off.
• (2006) – Set during the Galactic Civil War, players play as the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance, or the Hutts. This version is unique in that each of the factions has a different set of goals and victory conditions.
• (2006) – Based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, players can play as either the forces of Aslan or as the forces of the White Witch.
• (2007) - Based on the Transformers film, players can either play on the side of the Autobots or the Decepticons on a Cybertron stylized map.

Computer implementations and video games

Several computer and video game versions of Risk have been released, starting with the Commodore 64 edition in 1988 ^[10] and the Macintosh (Mac) edition in 1989. Since then, various other editions have been released for PC, Amiga, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance. Risk II for PC and Mac, was released in 2000. The latest version has been created by Encore Company in 2007. In addition, there are hundreds of unofficial Risk clones.

Other computer Risk variants include Dominate Game, Grand Strategy, Final Conquest, Conquer Club, Warfish, and LandGrab, websites that allow players to play the original Risk game or variants online. Email notifications are used to inform players when it is their turn, allowing lengthy Risk games to be spread out over days, weeks and, sometimes, months. Online versions of the game allow members to play games with different maps from the standard world map, and to modify almost every aspect of the game rules.

Facebook also has a version of Risk, called Attack!, as an applications. The game is played by up to 6 players. All rules are the same of that of the board game. However, card values, territory values, and continental value varies.

Popular culture

Risk's seminal influence on strategy conquest board games is reflected by its numerous references in popular culture. While individual references are too numerous to list, the board game Risk has appeared in various songs, movies, and television series; perhaps most notably in an episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, Malcolm in the Middle and an episode of Lost. The character of Arnold Rimmer from the TV series Red Dwarf is also an avid Risk enthusiast; he maintains a "Risk Campaign Diary" and enjoys recounting games turn-by-turn to his crewmates. The band R.E.M. mention a series of popular games, including Risk, in their song "Man on the Moon". Eddie Izzard commented that Adolf Hitler must never have played Risk as a child, due to his failings on the Eastern Front.

References

External links

Official

• Hasbro’s official Risk page
• Hasbro’s Risk: 2210 A.D. page
• Hasbro’s Risk: the Lord of the Rings page
• Hasbro’s Risk: Star Wars: Clone Wars page
• Hasbro's Risk rules
• 1959 edition of the Risk rules
• 1963 edition of the Risk rules
• 1975 edition of the Risk rules
• 1980 edition of the Risk rules
• 1990 edition of the Risk rules along with Castle Risk rules
• 1993 edition of the Risk rules
• 1999 edition of the Risk rules
• 1999 Risk 40th Anniversary Collector's edition of the Risk rules

Unofficial

• Total Diplomacy Guides for beginners and advanced users on how to use diplomacy and cunning tactics to win the game.
• Risk FAQ A long-standing and comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions about Risk with answers.

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