RuleSage cited table rulings
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You asked

How do I set up the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Riskbg-181-en-1e

The setup process depends on the specific version of the game being played: **For 2-Player RISK:** 1. You and your opponent each select an army [1]. 2. Either player selects a third army color to be "neutral" [1]. 3. Set aside 40 Infantry pieces from each selected army to use as starting troops [1]. 4. Remove the Secret Mission cards and the two "wild" cards [1]. 5. Shuffle and deal the remaining cards, facedown, into three equal piles: one for you, one for your/the opponent, and one for the neutral army [1]. 6. Ensure each player (including the neutral army) receives 14 cards [1]. 7. Place one Infantry onto each of the 14 territories shown on your received cards [1]. 8. Your opponent does the same with their cards [1]. 9. Place one neutral Infantry onto each of the 14 territories that the neutral army received [1]. 10. After all territories on the board have been claimed, you and your opponent take turns placing remaining troops by placing two troops onto any one or two occupied territories until your initial 40 Infantry pieces are exhausted [1]. 11. Take turns placing one neutral troop onto any neutral territory to block your opponent's possible advance until all 40 neutral Infantry pieces have been used [1]. 12. Return the two "wild" cards to the deck, shuffle, and begin play [1]. **For Classic RISK (3-5 players):** 1. Each player selects an army [2]. 2. Count out how many troops each player gets to start the game based on the number of players [2]. 3. Each player rolls one die; the highest roller places one Infantry onto any territory of their choice [2]. 4. Starting to the left, all players take turns placing one Infantry onto any unoccupied territory until all 42 territories are claimed [2]. 5. Once all 42 territories are claimed, each player takes turns placing one additional Infantry onto any territory they have already claimed until everyone has run out of their initial Infantry pieces [2]. 6. Remove the Secret Mission cards and shuffle the deck of territory cards, then place them facedown by the side of the board [2]. **For Secret Mission RISK (3-5 players):** 1. Each player selects an army [3]. 2. Count out how many troops each player gets to start the game based on the number of players [3]. 3. Elect one player to be the General [3]. 4. The General separates the 12 Secret Mission cards from the rest of the deck [3]. 5. If there are fewer than five players, the General removes Secret Mission cards referencing unchosen army colors and places them back in the box [3]. 6. The General shuffles the Secret Mission cards and deals one card facedown to each player, starting to the left [3]. 7. Remaining Secret Mission cards are put back in the box without being viewed [3]. 8. The General removes the two "wild" cards from the territory cards, shuffles, and deals out all territory cards, starting with the player to the left (in 4- or 5-player games, two players receive one extra card) [3]. 9. Each player places one Infantry onto each of the territories they were given [3]. 10. Once all 42 territories are claimed, all players (starting with the youngest) take turns placing one additional Infantry onto any of their territories until initial Infantry pieces are exhausted [3]. 11. The General collects all territory cards, inserts the two "wild" cards into the deck, shuffles, and places the deck facedown by the side of the board [3]. **For Capital RISK (3-5 players):** 1. Deploy troops at the beginning of the game as in Classic RISK [4]. 2. Select one of your claimed territories to be your Headquarters (without telling anyone) [4]. 3. Find the matching territory card for your chosen Headquarters and place it facedown in front of you without revealing it [4]. 4. After everyone has selected a Headquarters, all players turn their cards faceup to reveal the locations [4].

[1] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook · p.7 · HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING
[2] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook · p.7 · GAME 2: Classic RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · SETUP · WINNING · GAME 3: RISK FOR 2 PLAYERS · OBJECT OF THE GAME
[3] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook · p.3 · RISK CARDS · 42 TERRITORY CARDS · 2 'WILD' CARDS · 12 SECRET MISSION CARDS · GAME 1: Secret Mission RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · …
[4] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook · p.8 · GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · …
🔧 debug — where this ruling came from
outcome
ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile
live
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)
gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings
search 233 ms · ask 10590 ms · total 1830849 ms
single-flight (PR-5)
queued 1820017 ms · generation 10832 ms
retrieval refs (raw)
[{"page": 7, "score": 0.04866, "snippet": "You and your opponent each select an army. Then either of you selects a third army color to be 'neutral.' Once three armies have been selected, set aside 40 Infantry pieces from each. These will be the troops you use to start the game. Remove the Secret Mission cards and the two 'wild' cards. Then s", "headingPath": "HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.048652, "snippet": "In Classic RISK, you must conquer the entire world...and be the last army standing. Eliminate all of your opponents and occupy every territory on the board. First each player selects an army. Then count out how many troops each player gets to start the game, depending on how many people are playing.", "headingPath": "GAME 2: Classic RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · SETUP · WINNING · GAME 3: RISK FOR 2 PLAYERS · OBJECT OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.045921, "snippet": "If you eliminate an opponent by defeating his or her last troop on the gameboard, you win any territory cards that player has collected. If winning them gives you six or more cards, you must immediately trade in enough sets to reduce your hand to four or fewer cards, but once your hand is reduced to", "headingPath": "ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions:", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.045235, "snippet": "In RISK, the goal is simple: conquer your enemies' territories by moving your troops in and engaging in battle. Depending on the roll of the dice, you will either defeat your enemy, or you will be defeated. If you defeat all of your enemy' s troops in a territory, you have conquered that territory a", "headingPath": "INTRODUCTION · HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE · THE GAMEBOARD · THE ARMIES", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.045037, "snippet": "Capital RISK is a shorter version of Classic RISK, for those players who want a quicker game or for those who just want to experience a different version of RISK. Before you play Capital RISK, you should read the complete rules for Classic RISK. To capture all opposing Headquarters, while still cont", "headingPath": "GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "First, take the number of troops you want to attack with, and push them across the line into the defending territory. You can attack with up to three troops; no matter how many troops you have in a territory, you can only attack with one, two, or three. An important rule to remember: you can never l", "headingPath": "THE BATTLE:", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "Let's take a closer look at these actions. At the beginning of every turn (including your first), you will receive new troops. The number of territories you occupy. The value of the continents you control. First, count the number of territories you currently occupy; then, divide the total by three (", "headingPath": "On every turn, you will do · 1. RECEIVING NEW TROOPS · This is based on: · TERRITORIES · CONTINENTS · three things, in this order: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "There are: Each marked with both the name of a territory and an image of Infantry, Cavalry, or Artillery Infantry Cavalry Artillery Each marked with all three troop images Note: The 12 Secret Mission cards are used only if you are playing Secret Mission RISK. You will remove the Secret Mission cards", "headingPath": "RISK CARDS · 42 TERRITORY CARDS · 2 'WILD' CARDS · 12 SECRET MISSION CARDS · GAME 1: Secret Mission RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}]
citations (raw)
[{"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME 2: Classic RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · SETUP · WINNING · GAME 3: RISK FOR 2 PLAYERS · OBJECT OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "RISK CARDS · 42 TERRITORY CARDS · 2 'WILD' CARDS · 12 SECRET MISSION CARDS · GAME 1: Secret Mission RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 165 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 165 boosted
answered-before recall
this ruling was answered, so past rulings were not offered
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
debug row retained until
Nov 6, 2026 14:40

retrieval — what the search arm returned

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.

per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

fused rankdocumentheadingpage fused RRF scoresnippet chars
#1 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING p.7 0.04866 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300
#2 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) GAME 2: Classic RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · SETUP · WINNING · GAME 3: RISK FOR 2 PLAYERS · OBJECT OF THE GAME p.7 0.048652 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300
#3 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions: p.6 0.045921 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300
#4 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) INTRODUCTION · HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE · THE GAMEBOARD · THE ARMIES p.2 0.045235 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300
#5 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · … p.8 0.045037 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300
#6 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) THE BATTLE: p.4 0.031746 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300
#7 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) On every turn, you will do · 1. RECEIVING NEW TROOPS · This is based on: · TERRITORIES · CONTINENTS · three things, in this order: · … p.4 0.03125 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300
#8 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) RISK CARDS · 42 TERRITORY CARDS · 2 'WILD' CARDS · 12 SECRET MISSION CARDS · GAME 1: Secret Mission RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · … p.3 0.030303 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) 300

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

#documentheadingpagequote chars
[1] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING p.7 no quote on the wire
[2] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) GAME 2: Classic RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · SETUP · WINNING · GAME 3: RISK FOR 2 PLAYERS · OBJECT OF THE GAME p.7 no quote on the wire
[3] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) RISK CARDS · 42 TERRITORY CARDS · 2 'WILD' CARDS · 12 SECRET MISSION CARDS · GAME 1: Secret Mission RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · … p.3 no quote on the wire
[4] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · … p.8 no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split
retrieval 233 ms · first delta 4071 ms · total 1830849 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown
queued 1820017 ms · retrieval 233 ms · ask 10590 ms · gateway work 10832 ms · total 1830849 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
3889
tokens out (what the answerer generated)
910
tok/sec
136.1 tok/sec — 910 output tokens in 6.686 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child)
answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 59s ago)
stream path
streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
watchdog
first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
num_ctx · think posture
both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.

disposition

outcome
ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered)
answered — no abstain rationale applies

setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render

decision
NO_APPROVED_CHECKLIST — setup-shaped, but no approved setup checklist exists for this game
pattern that matched
SETUP — "setup" / "set up"
matched words (in the normalized question)
set up

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 88), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one

Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.