RisiKo! Master Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Game Components
• The Quadrants
• Base Rules
  • Goal of the Game
  • Setup
  • Initial Occupation of Territories
  • Turn Sequence
    • Reinforcements
    • Card Sets
    • Combat
    • Occupying a Conquered Territory
    • Drawing a Card
    • Strategic Movement
• Expert Rules
  • Reinforcements
  • Limits on the Attack Rule
  • Obligation to Attack
  • Minimum Garrison
  • Strategic Movement
  • Elimination of a Player
  • End of the Game
  • Victory
• Master Rules
  • Placing Reinforcements
  • Production Centres
  • Victory

Introduction

RisiKo! Master can be played at three different levels of difficulty:

• Base – Differs from RisiKo! mainly in the composable board, in the different system for the initial occupation of territories, and in the value of the cards.
• Expert – Many new rules that partly change the strategy of the game.
• Master – The most advanced level, which introduces Production Centres as a new strategic element.

Game Components

• 12 "Quadrants", on each of which as many continents are depicted, divided into territories. By placing these Quadrants together in different combinations, many different scenarios can be created, both in terms of geographic layout and total number of territories.
• 6 armies of different colours, made up of tanks (each tank worth one army), flags (each flag worth 10 tanks) and large tanks (each large tank worth 5 armies).
• 6 sets of three dice, each set in one of the colours of the armies in play.
• 15 transparent plastic half-spherical tokens, representing the "covers" for Production Centres, usable only with the Master rules.
• A deck of 44 special cards.
• A "battlefield", that is, a plastic tray inside which the dice are rolled during combat.

The Quadrants

Before reading the rules, it is necessary to become familiar with the "Quadrants", which are the main novelty and the most original element of RisiKo! Master.

Each Quadrant depicts a series of territories, divided by black and white border lines. Some territories that are not directly adjacent are connected to each other by dashed black lines. These territories are considered adjacent for all purposes. Each territory is characterised by a name, by an abbreviation (made up of the initial letters of its name and of the name of its Quadrant) and by a value. All of this data is printed around a round area, which represents the territory's Capital.

Each Quadrant has a "Sea Border Strip", highlighted by a darker background colour and divided (like the rest of the sea) into square sectors. This Sea Border Strip is very important for determining the connections between territories belonging to different Quadrants that are not directly adjacent.

[Diagram: sea border strip, showing an example of a sea border.]

Three very important pieces of data are also shown on each Quadrant:

• The Quadrant's name.
• The total value of the Quadrant.
• The number of additional armies gained by whoever fully controls it.
• The number of territories contained within the Quadrant.

[Diagram labels in the source: Quadrant name, territory value, territory abbreviation, Capital, Sea Border Strip.]

The Quadrants can be placed in such a way as to create a very large number of game scenarios, forming a planisphere whose territorial borders are determined by the following rules:

1. Land borders: these are obtained by placing two Quadrants so that their border territories match up with each other.
2. Sea borders: territories whose coasts lie within the Sea Border Strip are considered adjacent to each other if they have at least one adjacent sector (not diagonal).
3. The Quadrants form a planisphere, so the outer EAST and WEST edges are adjacent to each other, unlike the NORTH and SOUTH ones.

Base Rules

Goal of the Game

Take possession of at least half of the territories, having complete control of at least two Quadrants.

Setup

Choose 6 Quadrants and arrange them to form the playing area, making sure that the total number of territories in play is a multiple of the number of players and that all borders are consistent with each other.

Each player chooses a colour of army and takes the tanks, flags and dice of the chosen colour.

Shuffle the cards thoroughly and place the face-down deck within easy reach.

Place the Battlefield on the table.

Leave the "covers" (the transparent tokens) in the box.

Initial Occupation of Territories

Each player rolls his three dice. The player with the highest score begins, and the others follow in clockwise order.

The player whose turn it is occupies a territory of his choice with TWO tanks. The next player must occupy, again with TWO tanks, a free territory of his choice, provided it belongs to the same Quadrant. This continues until the Quadrant has been entirely occupied; then the player whose turn it is may move on to another Quadrant of his choice. The initial occupation of territories continues in this way until all territories have been occupied.

Turn Sequence

Reinforcements

The turn of a player begins compulsorily with this phase, during which he may deploy his reinforcements, which he obtains on the basis of the territories he occupies and of any sets of cards he is able to play. To calculate how many armies he may deploy, the player divides the number of territories in his possession by three, rounding the result down (Example as printed: 8 : 2 = 2; the division is by three, and 8 ÷ 3 rounded down is 2). A player with fewer than 3 territories is not entitled to any reinforcements, except for those obtainable with cards (see below).

To these armies must be added those derived from the complete occupation of each Quadrant, according to what is indicated on the Quadrant itself.

Reinforcement armies may be placed on any territory in the player's possession, without any restriction.

Card Sets

In the reinforcement phase, the player whose turn it is may play one or more sets of cards to obtain additional armies to place on the playing area.

• Three identical figures = 8 armies
• Three different figures = 10
• Joker plus two identical figures = 12

[Diagram: examples of card sets, showing three identical figures worth 8, three different figures worth 10, and a Joker with two identical figures worth 12.]

Cards with extra tanks: some cards also show the silhouette of one or two tanks. These extra tanks are added to the total of the set played (they cannot be obtained by playing the cards individually).

Card sets may never be played outside this phase of the game. The cards played are placed face up under the deck. When the deck runs out, the discards are reshuffled.

Combat

After placing any reinforcements, the player may attack an enemy territory adjacent to one of his own territories, using up to a maximum of 3 tanks at a time. The defender, in turn, may defend himself with a maximum of three tanks.

The attacker rolls as many dice as the number of tanks used for the attack, and the defender does the same, considering the tanks used for the defence.

After the roll, the dice of the two players are ordered by score and compared with each other. The attacker's highest die is compared with the defender's highest die, then the second-highest die of the attacker with the second-highest die of the defender, and then the third. If the defender has fewer dice than the attacker, the excess ones are ignored. For each comparison, the one who obtained the higher score wins, removing one tank from the opponent. In case of a tie, the defender always wins.

The attacker must always keep at least one army on guard in his territory. This army may never be used to attack an enemy territory.

Example: the greens attack and the blues defend.

• Tie: the blues win.
• The greens win.
• Tie: the blues win.

After the outcome of the combat has been determined, the player whose turn it is is free to make further attacks, in the same direction or in different areas of the planisphere.

Occupying a Conquered Territory

A territory is conquered at the moment when there are no longer any tanks defending it. The attacker is obliged to move into the newly conquered territory as many tanks as were used in the last attack, but he may, if he wishes, occupy it with a greater number of tanks, provided he always leaves at least one on guard in the territory from which he launched the attack.

This movement of tanks does not constitute a strategic movement (see below for the description of the strategic movement).

Drawing a Card

A player who has conquered at least one enemy territory during his own turn is entitled to draw a card from the deck. However, no more than one card may be taken per turn. The cards, in the appropriate combinations, provide additional armies, but they may be used only at the beginning of the turn, in the reinforcement phase. Taking the card indicates, without any possibility of reconsideration, the decision to end one's turn.

Strategic Movement

Only once per turn, at the END of all combats, it is possible to make a strategic movement of armies.

This movement allows the player to move from one of his own territories (only one) as many tanks as he wishes to any adjacent territory of his own.

[Diagram: example of strategic movement.]

Expert Rules

The special rules for playing at the Expert level are listed below. All other rules are identical to those of the Base level.

Reinforcements

The player whose turn it is always receives a minimum of 3 armies, as long as he owns at least 3 territories. If he drops to 2 territories, he receives 2; if he drops to 1 territory, he receives only one.

Limits on the Attack Rule

The defender must always defend himself with the maximum possible number of tanks available to him.

The attacker may never make an attack by rolling a number of dice lower than that of the defender.

Obligation to Attack

A player who has placed at least 3 armies on the battlefield is obliged to attack at least once during the current turn.

Minimum Garrison

Except for the movement of armies into the territory that has been conquered, which is compulsory, a player may never make a strategic movement that leaves fewer than 3 armies on guard in one of his own territories that borders one or more enemy territories.

In all other cases, the minimum garrison is one tank per territory.

Strategic Movement

A player may move, into one of his own territories, all the armies he wishes that are adjacent to that territory. The reverse action, that is, moving armies from a single territory to several adjacent territories, is not allowed. The strategic movement may be made either at the end of the turn, as provided by the Base rules, or at the beginning, but before any attack. In any case, the player may make only one strategic movement per turn.

[Diagram: example of strategic movement.]

Elimination of a Player

Starting from the fifth turn of play, it is possible to eliminate an opponent by conquering his last territory. The player who accomplishes this takes all the cards that the defender has in hand (although he will not be able to use them until his next reinforcement phase).

End of the Game

The player who first manages to conquer at least half of the territories in play, while having full control of at least two Quadrants, wins the game.

Victory

Before beginning to play, you must calculate the total value of the scenario (it is sufficient to add together the value of all the Quadrants). The player who manages to take possession of a total of points equal to half of the initial total plus one (rounding down), while controlling at least 2 Quadrants, wins the game.

• Example with 6 boards:

  23 Alfa + 31 Delta + 28 Omega + 32 Tau + 45 Epsilon + 16 Sigma = 175 : 2 = 87.5 + 1 = 88.5 = 88

Note on placement: in the source, the points-based Victory rule is printed after the Expert strategic-movement example, immediately before the Master section.

Master Rules

The Master rules make full use of the Expert rules, with the fundamental addition of Production Centres, which introduce a completely new and different strategic level.

To play with these rules, take all the transparent tokens and keep them within easy reach. Each of these tokens represents a "cover" that can be placed on the image of a single city, thereby turning it into a Production Centre.

Placing Reinforcements

On each territory without a Production Centre, only one tank may be placed. On territories where Production Centres are present, the player may place as many reinforcements as he wishes.

Production Centres

A Production Centre costs as much as 3 tanks and may be placed on any territory that does not yet have a Production Centre. The transparent token is placed on the image of the Capital and, once placed, belongs to whoever controls that territory. A Production Centre is never destroyed. The maximum number of Production Centres that can be built is given by the number of transparent tokens contained in the box.

[Diagram: a transparent Production Centre token.]

Victory

The same victory conditions explained in the Expert rules apply.

Good fun!