RuleSage cited table rulings
← Risk

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Riskbg-181-en-1e

The instructions for playing depend on the specific version of the game being played:
2-Player RISK
1. Each player selects an army and selects a third army color to be "neutral".[1]
2. Set aside 40 Infantry pieces from each of the three armies to use as starting troops.[1]
3. Remove the Secret Mission cards and the two "wild" cards.[1]
4. Shuffle and deal the remaining cards facedown into three equal piles (one for you, one for your opponent, and one for the neutral army), with each receiving 14 cards.[1]
5. Place one Infantry onto each of the 14 territories shown on your cards.[1]
6. The opponent does the same with their cards.[1]
7. Place one neutral Infantry onto each of the 14 territories received by the neutral army.[1]
8. After all territories on the board have been claimed, players take turns placing their remaining initial 40 Infantry pieces by placing two troops onto any one or two territories they occupy.[1]
9. Players then take turns placing one neutral troop onto any neutral territory to block the opponent's advance until all 40 neutral Infantry pieces have been used.[1]
10. Return the two "wild" cards to the deck and shuffle.[1]
11. On a turn, you may attack any territory adjacent or connected by a sea-line to one of your own.[1]
12. When attacking a neutral territory, the opponent rolls to defend.[1]
13. To win, be the first to eliminate your opponent by capturing all of their territories.[1]
Classic RISK (3-5 players)
1. Each player selects an army and counts out starting troops.[2]
2. Each player rolls one die; the highest roller places one Infantry onto any territory of their choice.[2]
3. Players take turns placing one Infantry onto any unoccupied territory until all 4/42 territories are claimed.[2]
4. Players take turns placing additional Infantry onto any territory they have already claimed until all initial troops are used.[2]
5. Shuffle the territory cards (after removing Secret Mission cards) and place them facedown.[2]
6. The player who placed the first troop takes the first turn.[2]
7. Every turn consists of three actions: Receive new troops, Attack (if you wish), and Maneuver your troops (if you wish).[3]
8. To win, eliminate all opponents and occupy every territory on the board.[2]
Secret Mission RISK (3-5 players)
1. Each player selects an army and counts out starting troops.[4]
2. Elect a General.[4]
3. The General separates the 12 Secret Mission cards from the deck; if there are fewer than five players, the General also removes Secret Mission cards for unused army colors.[4]
4. The General shuffles the Secret Mission cards and deals one facedown to each player.[4]
5. The General removes the two "wild" cards from the territory cards, shuffles, and deals the remaining cards to players (in 4 or 5-player games, two players receive one extra card).[4]
6. Each player places one Infantry onto each territory they were given.[4]
7. Once all 42 territories are claimed, players (starting with the youngest) take turns placing one additional Infantry onto any of their territories until initial troops are exhausted.[4]
8. The General collects the territory cards, inserts the "wild" cards back into the deck, shuffles, and places the deck facedown.[4]
9. Each player rolls one die; the highest roller goes first.[4]
10. To win, be the first player to complete the secret mission described on your card.[4]
Capital RISK (3-5 players)
1. Follow the setup and deployment steps of Classic RISK.[5]
2. Select one of your claimed territories and make it your Headquarters (without telling others).[5]
3. Find the matching territory card and place it facedown in front of you.[5]
4. After everyone has selected a Headquarters, all players reveal their cards faceup.[5]
5. Gameplay follows Classic RISK, but if you capture an opposing Headquarters, you place their card faceup in front of you.[5]
6. To win, be the first to capture all opposing Headquarters while still controlling your own.[5]
Rules for Attacking (All versions)
1. An attack starts when you roll the dice and ends when you decide to stop, maneuver, and pass the dice to the left.[6]
2. You may attack any adjacent territories as long as you have at least two troops in the territory you are attacking from.[6]
[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.6 · ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions:
[4] 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 · …
[5] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook · p.8 · GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · …
[6] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook · p.8 · FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

That's the page. Back to the table.

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from
outcome
ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile
live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)
gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings
search 77 ms · ask 10244 ms · total 16258 ms
single-flight (PR-5)
queued 5933 ms · generation 10325 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read
[{"page": 7, "score": 0.048412, "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": 6, "score": 0.048131, "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": 8, "score": 0.047163, "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": 7, "score": 0.046898, "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": 2, "score": 0.04598, "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": 5, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "No matter what you've done on your turn, you may, if you wish, end your turn by maneuvering your troops. You'll want to maneuver your troops to put them in a better defensive position, or to set up future attacks. Note: You are not required to win a battle or even to try an attack to maneuver your t", "headingPath": "3. MANEUVERING YOUR TROOPS · HOW TO EARN ADDITIONAL TROOPS", "sharpsignalDocId": 165}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.030303, "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": 3, "score": 0.02967, "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) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show
[{"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": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions:", "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}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS", "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)
answer fence
passed — letter density 0.89966 of 3558 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded
Aug 25, 2026 10:27 UTC

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

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 0.048412 (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) ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions: p.6 0.048131 (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) GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · … p.8 0.047163 (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) 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 0.046898 (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) INTRODUCTION · HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE · THE GAMEBOARD · THE ARMIES p.2 0.04598 (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) 3. MANEUVERING YOUR TROOPS · HOW TO EARN ADDITIONAL TROOPS p.5 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
#7 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) THE BATTLE: p.4 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
#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 0.02967 (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

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 14 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — not armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read atdocumentheadingpage fused rankfused RRF scorecarried byhow it got its slot
#1 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING p.7 #1 0.048412 (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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#2 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) INTRODUCTION · HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE · THE GAMEBOARD · THE ARMIES p.2 #5 0.04598 (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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#3 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS p.8 #11 0.014085 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one)) vector the re-ranker chose it
#4 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) THE BATTLE: p.4 #7 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)) vector + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#5 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 #8 0.02967 (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)) vector + full-text the re-ranker chose it
#6 RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions: p.6 #2 0.048131 (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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#7 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 #4 0.046898 (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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#8 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 #3 0.047163 (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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it

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) ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions: p.6 no quote on the wire
[4] 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
[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 no quote on the wire
[6] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS p.8 no quote on the wire
timing split
retrieval 77 ms · first delta 2563 ms · total 16258 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown
queued 5933 ms · retrieval 77 ms · ask 10244 ms · gateway work 10325 ms · total 16258 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
3583
tokens out (what the answerer generated)
1024
tok/sec
133.0 tok/sec — 1024 output tokens in 7.698 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child)
answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 29s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage)
reachable (for 22h, checked 8s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask)
node1
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.
outcome
ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered)
answered — no abstain rationale applies
decision
NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

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.