The game of RISK is played on a map of the world consisting of 42 territories which we shall call countries. Up to six players can play together. Each player begins the game with a random set of countries scattered around the globe. The object of the game is to conquer the world.
Initial armies are placed on the board in rotation. Each player will receive a decreasing sequence of armies to place. When the initial deployment phase is finished the game begins. Play goes in rotation. A turn has three parts: placing new armies, attacking, and fortifying.
A turn begins with the collection and placement of income earned by countries, continents and card sets. For every three countries owned an additional army of income is earned. For each continent owned extra income depending on the continent is earned.
Next, a player may attack any neighboring country. If they succeed they must occupy the new country. Attacking proceeds until a player choses to stop or has no armies left to attack with.
Finally, a player may fortify his/her position.
Play proceeds with the start of the next player's turn.
The game ends when one player has conquered all 42 countries or when the other players concede defeat.
STARTING A NEW GAME
To start a new game you fill in the new game dialog box. This is what you see when RISK starts up or when "New Game" is chosen from the "File" menu.
You must tell RISK who is playing, what patterns to use, and what type of player each combatant will be. Each player can be human or one of the three Macintosh strategies.
Each player should type their name where it says "Player#". Remember that the order you chose here determines the playing order.
Choose patterns by clicking on the pattern next to your name. Clicking on the left side moves down the pattern list. Clicking right moves up. Two players may not have the same pattern.
Each player has five circles to the right of his/her name. Choose the left most one if the player is human. The next three circles are for the Macintosh strategies: Warrior, Chaotic, and Neutral. The last circle is used for non-players.
The last thing you can do is choose a card set value option. This will determine what card sets are worth during the game.
Click the OK button when you're ready to start the game!
PLACING ARMIES
Whenever you have armies to place on the board they will appear as icons in the placement box near the bottom of the board. There are icons for 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 armies.
You can place armies by clicking or dragging. You can select several icons to place at once either by drawing a box around them or by shift/clicking.
Clicking will place the icons you've selected or a single army.
Keep in mind that you can only place armies in countries that you own. These are the countries which have your pattern.
Two special situations occur: When you win a new country, you may be able to place some of the attacking armies in either the new country or the country they attacked from. When you are fortifying your position at the end of a turn, armies may be placed in neighboring countries.
ATTACKING
You attack FROM a country you own TO an neighboring country which you don't own. Click once in the "FROM" country then in the "TO" country.
If you are attacking from the last country you won or the last country you placed armies in then you have only to click in the "TO" country.
Remember that you must have armies with which to attack. The number of armies is shown by a boxed number in each country.
A country without a boxed number has only one army in it and can't attack other countries.
When you conquer a new country with more than three armies you have a choice of leaving some of your attacking armies behind. The armies appear in the placement box and may go in either the country you just won or the country you were attacking from.
FORTIFYING
At the end of a turn you have the option to fortify your position. If you don't want to fortify just click the DONE button. Otherwise click the FORTIFY button.
Fortifying allows each attacking army on the board to move to a neighboring country. Being clever about the order in which you move armies lets you set up ripple effects which result in armies moving clear across the board.
Click in a country which has unmoved attacking armies. The armies which are free to move appear in the placement box. You can place these armies in any neighboring country.
Click the DONE button to end your turn.
CARDS
The RISK card deck has a card for each country and two jokers. Each card has its own country and an icon, except the jokers which have just three icons. The icons can be a horse, cannon or soldier.
Each time you finish a turn in which you win at least one new country you get a card from the deck.
You can press the CARDS button during your turn to see which cards you have. Other players should turn away to avoid peeking.
The importance of the cards is that at the beginning of your turn you can turn in a set to receive extra armies. A set is any three cards which have either three different icons or three identical icons. Note that a joker or five cards automatically makes a set.
When you turn in a set, you get the number of extra armies indicated by the set value option you chose on the "New Game" dialog, plus two armies in every country you own which appears on one of the cards.
Normally RISK will choose the three best cards for you to hand in. In special situations you may want to override its recommendation by clicking in the check boxes under each card. Checked cards will be turned in.
When you eliminate another player you receive all his/her cards. If this gives you more than four cards, you must immediately turn in a set.
When the deck has been exhausted it is shuffled and the game continues.
COMBAT OPTIONS
Each player can set their own Combat Options via the "Actions" menu.
The first three options let you choose how cautious you want to be.
ONLY ONCE means that you can lose at most two armies in an attack (you can also only win two.) UNTIL WIN OR LOSE means to keep attacking until either you win or you have less than three armies left to attack with.
UNTIL WIN OR LOSSES EXCEED lets you set the exact number of casualties you're willing to take before you call off the attack.
MANUAL army advancement means you want to decide whether to advance extra armies each time you attack.
AUTOMATIC, moves all extra armies into the new country when you attack.
NUMBER OF ATTACKING ARMIES can be set to 1, 2, or 3. Your chances of winning are better the higher the number you choose. When you win a new country you must advance this number of armies from the attacking country. The only reason to choose 1 or 2 is if you need the extra armies to attack another country. Remember, the actual attacking force is the smaller of this number and the armies you really have.
PLAYER INFO
Player Info on the "Actions" menu lets you change patterns, change player types, and shows you game statistics.
SHORTCUTS - THE SHIFT KEY
When placing armies, holding down the shift key will place all available armies where you click.
When attacking, holding down the shift key will toggle the Army Advancement setting in your Combat Options.
MACINTOSH STRATEGIES
Aggressive - The aggressive strategy will do its best to win the game.
Chaotic - The chaotic strategy will try to win but is primarily interested in mixing things up.
Neutral - The neutral strategy desires only to hang on to what its got (or gets).
