Non-Risk player's guide to Risk

[Rho The Badge Slayer]

i did not make up this tut, but it helped a lot of people get the weekly challenge badge so thought i would repost here for any wanting help how to play.

Set up a table:



Here is how I set up my tables. I use the 10 turn limit and 24 territories so that if I am losing, it will be over quickly! I also use automatic game setup. Sometimes I get lucky with where my troops are placed, sometimes I don’t. The nice thing about this is you don’t need to spend time doing it! I disable the battle screen because it takes up more time. This screen is really just your personal preference, but it has worked for me. I chose to have no turn timer for the purpose of this guide, usually I set it at medium (it doesn’t matter with computer players, but it may be helpful to have a slow timer or none at all for new players).

[Rho The Badge Slayer]

Each turn has three parts: Reinforce, Attack, Fortify

Reinforce:
At the beginning of the game, you will have 3 units as shown in the bottom middle of the screen. Place these by clicking on your current units. It is a good idea to build up troops that are next to your opponents (or connected by a line) to make it less likely that they will attack. I like to choose one continent and only focus on that until I have conquered it completely. I completely ignore the rest of my troops until this is done. I’m going to choose North America. I’m going to put 2 units on Ontario (click on the territory twice) and one on Canada. This will give me 5 units on Ontario and 6 on Canada.

[Rho The Badge Slayer]

Attack:
Sometimes I listen to my military advisor, and sometimes I don’t. Here, I’m going to attack Eastern US form Canada. I have 6 and my opponent has 2 so I have a good chance of winning. Click on your territory first, then click on the territory you want to attack. You can only attack a territory if you share a border or if there is a line connecting the two.

[Rho The Badge Slayer]

Yay! I won. Now, I need to decide how many troops to move into my new territory. I had 5 in Canada after the battle, so I’m going to leave 1 there, and put 4 in Eastern US. I don’t want to leave a territory defenseless, especially if there are enemies surrounding it. In this case, Canada is surrounded by my own troops, so there is not as good a chance of it being attacked. The more troops you have, the less likely you are to be attacked. I’m going to stop attacking for now.

[Rho The Badge Slayer]

Fortify:
Here, you can move troops from one territory to another. I don’t do this on every turn, but it is nice for defending your borders. I have 3 troops on Alberta and only 1 on Central America. I’m going to move 2 troops from Alberta to Central America. To do this, I click on Alberta, then on Central America. The numbers on the sides tell you the final size of your troops on each territory.



Now that I have North America, I get an additional 5 troops each turn (until someone takes one of those territories from me.) That is what the red “5 units” next to the continent means. Remember to keep conquering territories. That is how you get cards to trade in for even more units. If you can get 20 or more, put them all in one territory and you can really do some damage to your opponents!

[Rho The Badge Slayer]

Territory cards:
Here, you can get extra troops for one turn. You need to have three symbols that are all the same or all different. I’m going to use these 3 to get 8 bonus units. Notice that the 3 symbols are all different here. I will click on each card and then on OK. If you get lucky, you will get a card with all three symbols. This is a wild card that can be used for whatever you need to make your threesome.

[Rho The Badge Slayer]

I’m going to focus my forces in Brazil, but put a few in countries that border enemies. I’ve found that building evenly (like in Monopoly) doesn’t always work. I make sure my territories are defended, but having 10+ troops in one territory to take over several smaller ones helps more in the long run.



Here is how it looks now. Notice that Purple only has one territory remaining, Great Britain. I’m going to take over that territory. Once that player is out of the game, I will receive any cards that they had, making it easier for me to get three to turn in to get extra troops.