Office RISK (v1.

0)
Nathan G. Martin
6-18-2012

Abstract
Risk with capitals, leaders, and a streamlined economic/production system. Intended for use in a persistent game
where all players may not always be immediately available to roll their moves.

Objective
- Mild complexity ramp-up suitable for a longer persistent game
- Zero player involvement required on defense

Components needed
- Traditional RISK board, cards and pieces for six players
- 5-15x Cities
- 5x Industry for each side
- 3x Leaders for each side, one each marked Rank I-III
- 3x Artillery units for each side
- 2x Fortifications for each side
- 1x Capitol for each side

Setup (for six players)

Initial City Placement

After removing the ‘wild’ territory cards from the deck, shuffle the cards and then turn the top 15 of them face up.
Place a ‘City’ on each of these territories.

Determine turn order for the game using either past RISK history or the highest # of countries visited. Consider
having each player place a unit at the top of the board to indicate this order.

Territory Selection
Territory selection is done manual, ‘boomerang’ style (see below), until all territories are claimed.

Beginning with the highest roller and proceeding to the next highest, each player claims an unoccupied
territory and places a single unit of theirs onto that territory. Proceed in this way from the highest roller to
nd
the lowest roller, who will select two territories before passing the selection back to the 2 lowest roller
(the ‘boomerang’), proceeding back to the highest roller, who also selects two territories and passes
nd
selection back to the 2 highest roller.

As each player claims territories, they should also take the territory card for each territory claimed.
Office RISK v1.0 Nathan G. Martin

Unit Placement:
Based on player order, have each player count out the following number of units:

1. 20 4. 23
2. 21 5. 24
3. 22 6. 25

Each player shall then separate his units into six groups of at least one unit each.

After each player has created his six groups, beginning with the first player and proceeding in boomerang style,
each player should place the entirety of one of their six groups into a territory they control until no more groups
remain to be placed.

Capitol Placement
After all units are placed, each player should secretly select the location of his capital, placing the corresponding
territory card face down in front of him. All players reveal their cards simultaneously, placing their capitals in the
corresponding territory. Players should then return all territory cards and shuffle the deck.

Gameplay
Each turn in Office RISK has four phases: Produce, Deploy, Attack and Redeployment.

Produce:
In the Production phase, players simply determine how many resources they will have at their disposal in the
Deploy phase. Three factors are added together to determine a player’s resource pool:

1. Territory Count: # of territories owned, divided by three (round down)

2. Continental Bonuses
3. Structures

Deploy:
In the Deploy phase, players use cards and buy units, leaders, and structures with their resource pool. Unspent
resources are lost and cannot be saved. Units and structures purchased are placed immediately on the board and
may be used immediately. There a few restrictions on unit/building placement:

- No structure or unit may be placed in a territory that already contains that structure or unit
- Fortifications cannot be built on Capitols
- Players cannot build more units/structures than they have in their reserves.
- New leaders may only be built at Rank I; if a player already has a Rank I leader on the board a new leader
cannot be built.

Below is a table detailing the cost and abilities for each unit/structure.

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Unit/Building Cost QTY Ability/Notes

City --- --- +1 resource, immobile
Capitol --- 1x +2 resources, +1 bonus die on defense, immobile
1
Industry 2 5x +1 resource, immobile
Fortification 5 2x +1 bonus die on defense, immobile
Basic Unit 1 ∞ ---
2
Artillery 5 3x +1 bonus die on attack, moves only during redeployment
3
Promotes to next level when defeating a leader of equal or greater level (on the
Leaders 3 3x 4
attack only), gets a free redeployment (with units).
5 6
Rank I: Colonel 1x +1 to highest die (on attack and defense), survives defeat on 2 or less
Rank II: General 1x +2 to highest die (on attack and defense), survives defeat on 4 or less
Rank III: Marshall 1x +3 to highest die (on attack and defense), always survives defeat

1
Industry costs 2 for the first, 4 for the second, and so on up to 10 for the fifth
2
Artillery only moves at the end of the turn, where it gets one free redeployment
3
Leaders are promoted immediately when they successfully invade a territory held by a leader of equal or higher
rank. A leader may only be promoted once per turn, and only if the player has a leader of the next rank available
in his reserve.
4
Leaders redeploy for free at the end of the turn, taking any number of units in their current territory with them.
See “Redeployment” below
5
Only the most experienced leader in a given territory contributes his bonus to a die-roll (leaders do not stack with
other leaders on the same side)
6
A leader that has their territory successfully invaded by another side may attempt a retreat, as long as there is an
adjacent friendly territory. Roll a die and compare to that leader’s ‘survives on’ number. Marshalls always
survive defeat so long as there is an eligible territory to retreat to. Leaders always retreat towards their capitol,
and do so by the shortest possible route. If two routes are equally direct, the attacker chooses the leader’s
destination territory.

Cards
If a player has captured at least one territory on his previous turn(s), he may have one or more cards at his disposal.

Except in the event of a Capitol capture, cards may only be played during the deploy phase.

Cards may be used in one of two ways: They may be played for effect, giving +1 to all friendly dice and -1 to all
enemy dice rolled from the territory they depict; or they may be cashed in for 2 resources each. If ‘played for effect’,
the card(s) remains in effect until the player’s next Deploy phase, when it are discarded.

Cashing cards in during the deploy phase gives the player additional resources to spend on units and structures.

The max hand size for cards is four. A player with four cards in hand cannot draw additional cards at the end of his
turn. If a player ever has more than four cards in hand (which may result from conquering an enemy capitol- see
“Achieving Victory” below), he must immediately cash in or play cards until his size is exactly four. Resources
gained from cashing in cards in this way may only be spent on standard units, which are put into play and may be
used immediately. Any bonuses that result from playing cards in this way likewise go into effect immediately.

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Attack
The attack phase is carried out in the same way as normal RISK, with the exception that the defender always rolls
the maximum number of dice possible and cannot choose to roll fewer dice.

Note that Leaders and Artillery units cannot be selected as casualties and do not contribute to the “unit count” in
a territory for determining the number of dice that may be rolled.

Attacks with ‘Bonus’ Dice

In attacks involving Capitols, Fortifications, and/or Artillery, the defender or the attacker (or both) may roll a ‘bonus
die’. Bonus dice increase a player’s chances of rolling high numbers, but they do not affect the number of potential
casualties in a battle. The total number of potential casualties is always equal to the number of normal dice the
defender throws.

Rolling a bonus die does not affect the minimum number of units an attacker must move into a recently conquered
territory.

See “Battle Examples” below for sample battles of varying complexity.

Redeployment
Once a player has finished his attacks, he may make one redeployment, after which he draws a card (if eligible)
then ends his turn. To conduct this redeployment, the player takes a group of friendly units from one territory and
moves all of those units to a different friendly territory of their choice, provided that the two territories are joined
by an unbroken path of friendly territories.

The player must leave at least one unit behind in the source territory. Players cannot “drop off” units along the
way; all units move together to the same destination.

Placement restrictions for units remain in effect during Redeployment. No unit can end it’s movement in a territory
that already has one of that type of unit.

Redeploy: Leaders and Artillery

After making his normal redeployment, the player may be eligible to make one or more special redeployments as
well:
- Each Leader may redeploy with any troops in his current territory, taking them along with him
- Each Artillery unit may also redeploy (but does not take any troops along for the ride).

Redeploy: Draw Card

After Redeployment, the player draws one card if he captured at least one territory during his turn. After drawing a
card (if eligible), the players turn ends and play is passed to the next player.

Capitols and Achieving Victory

To achieve victory, all enemy capitols must be captured. The first player to control all enemy capitols while
retaining control of his own is the winner.

Players that lose their capitols must forfeit all cards in their hand to the capturing player, but they are still in the
game and may attempt to liberate their capitol on their next turn.
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Battle Examples:

Example 1: Standard Attack

A player attacks an enemy territory with two units. The attacker’s territory has 4 units. The attacker chooses to roll
three dice (the normal maximum); the defender must roll the maximum number of dice possible, so he rolls two
dice.

Attacker’s Roll: Defender’s Roll:

Result: A5 v D5; A loses one unit. A4 v D3; D loses one unit.

Example 2: Special Attack with Fortification

The attacker attacks a territory with 5 units and a Fortification from a territory with 10 units.

Attacker’s Roll: Defender’s Roll:

Result: A5 v D5; A loses one unit. A4 v D3; D loses one unit.

Note that even though three dice are rolled by each side, only the number of normal dice rolled by the defender are
counted by each player.

Example 3: Special Attack with Cards, Artillery, Capitol, and Leaders on both sides
An attacker attacks a capitol with 10 units and a Rank II leader. The attacker has 16 units, a Rank I leader, and an
Artillery unit. In addition, the attacker has played the defending territory’s card, giving that territory -1 to all dice
for this turn. This scenario represents the most complicated battle scenario possible.

Attacker’s Roll: Defender’s Roll:

Result:

A6 + 1(Leader) = 7 v D6 + 2(Leader) – 1(Card) = 7; A loses one unit. A4 v D4 – 1(Card) = 3; D loses one unit.

Note that the defender’s Rank II leader affects only the highest die, while the attacker’s card affects all dice.

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Appendix: Sample set of Bylaws

Below is a sample set of bylaws for use in a persistent game of Office RISK to be played in spurts and left intact
between sessions.

0. All rulings by the game coordinator are final.

1. Show discretion regarding the game.
2. Create an email filter for RISK notifications.
3. Finish the game.
4. Designate a delegate to take your turns/roll your dice if you plan on being absent for an extended period.
5. Take your turns within 3 business days. Failure to do so forfeits your turn.
6. Take no action on the board without a witness.
7. Take no action on the board until after it has been recorded in the game log.
8. Plan and announce your attacks ahead of time to give the defender the opportunity to roll his own dice.

Signed:

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