Ruling — Risk — RuleSage

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You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Riskbg-181-en-1e

The setup procedure depends on the version of the game being played:

Classic RISK (3-5 players)

1. Each player selects an army.[1]

2. Count out how many troops each player gets to start the game, depending on how many people are playing.[1]

3. Each player rolls one die, and the highest roller places one Infantry onto any territory on the gameboard they choose.[1]

4. Starting to the left, all players take turns placing one Infantry onto any unoccupied territory until all 42 territories have been claimed.[1]

5. Each player takes turns placing one additional Infantry onto any territory he or she already claimed until everyone has run out of their initial Infantry pieces.[1]

6. Shuffle the deck of territory cards, removing the Secret Mission cards, and place them facedown by the side of the board.[1]

RISK for 2 Players

1. You and your opponent each select an army.[2]

2. Either player selects a third army color to be "neutral".[2]

3. Set aside 40 Infantry pieces from each selected army.[2]

4. Remove the Secret Mission cards and the two "wild" cards.[2]

5. 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.[2]

6. Place one Infantry onto each of the 14 territories shown on your cards.[2]

7. Your opponent does the same with their cards.[2]

8. Place one neutral Infantry onto each of the 14 territories that the neutral army received.[2]

9. After all territories on the board have been claimed, you and your opponent take turns placing your remaining troops by placing two troops onto any one or two of the territories you occupy until you have used all your initial 40 Infantry pieces.[2]

10. Take turns placing one neutral troop onto any neutral territory to block your opponent's advance until all 40 neutral Infantry pieces have been used.[2]

11. Return the two "wild" cards to the deck, shuffle, and begin to play.[2]

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, depending on how many people are playing.[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 the Secret Mission cards that refer to army colors that were not chosen and places them back in the box.[3]

6. The General shuffles the Secret Mission cards and, starting to the left, deals one card facedown to each player.[3]

7. The remaining Secret Mission cards are put back in the box.[3]

8. The General removes the two "wild" cards from the territory cards, shuffles, and deals out all the territory cards, starting with the player to the left.[3]

9. Each player places one Infantry onto each of the territories they were given.[3]

10. Once all 42 territories have been claimed, all players (starting with the youngest player) take turns placing one additional Infantry onto any of their territories until all players have run out of their initial Infantry pieces.[3]

11. The General collects all the territory cards, inserts the two "wild" cards into the deck, shuffles, and places the deck facedown by the side of the board.[3]

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 the territory).[4]

4. After everyone in turn has selected a Headquarters, all players turn their cards faceup to reveal their Headquarters locations.[4]

[1] 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

[2] RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook · p.7 · HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING

[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: · …

One rule clearer, zero feelings hurt.

🔧 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 331 ms · ask 9134 ms · total 9466 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 9466 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"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": 0.047643, "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": 0.032258, "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": 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": 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) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"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": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING", "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)
answer fence: passed — letter density 0.90686 of 3103 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Aug 25, 2026 12:16 UTC

retrieval — what the passage search returned

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 rank	document	heading	page	fused RRF score	snippet 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	0.047643 (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)	On every turn, you will do · 1. RECEIVING NEW TROOPS · This is based on: · TERRITORIES · CONTINENTS · three things, in this order: · …	p.4	0.032258 (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	0.031746 (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
#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

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

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 at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	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	#2	0.047643 (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)	GAME 4: CAPITAL RISK (3-5 players) · OBJECT OF THE GAME · HOW TO PLAY · WINNING · 4 players: · 5 players: · …	p.8	#5	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))	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	#13	0.013699 (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)	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	0.030303 (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)	ELIMINATING AN OPPONENT · WINNING · Remember, every turn is made up of three actions:	p.6	#3	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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165)	TERRITORY CARDS · 3 cards of the same troop design · OCCUPIED TERRITORIES BONUS	p.6	#9	0.030018 (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
#7	RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165)	INTRODUCTION · HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE · THE GAMEBOARD · THE ARMIES	p.2	#4	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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165)	HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING	p.7	#1	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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	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
[2]	RULEBOOK Risk — Rulebook (corpus doc 165)	HOW TO PLAY · ATTACKING · WINNING	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 331 ms · first delta 2577 ms · total 9466 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 331 ms · ask 9134 ms · gateway work 9466 ms · total 9466 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3729
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 887
tok/sec: 130.6 tok/sec — 887 output tokens in 6.792 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 32s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 0s 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.

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): setup

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.