Section 2: Components
A complete game requires a world-map game board, army playing pieces in distinguishable colors, territory cards, and six-sided dice. The exact shape and denomination of army pieces may vary by edition without changing their value in play.
Game Board
The game board contains 42 territories grouped into six continents. Borders and connection lines show which territories are adjacent. A territory separated by water is not adjacent unless the board displays a connecting line between it and another territory.
| Continent | Territories | Reinforcement Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 9 | 5 armies |
| South America | 4 | 2 armies |
| Europe | 7 | 5 armies |
| Africa | 6 | 3 armies |
| Asia | 12 | 7 armies |
| Australia | 4 | 2 armies |
Army Playing Pieces
Each player needs a supply of playing pieces in one color. Pieces may have different shapes representing different quantities, commonly one army, five armies, and ten armies. Players may exchange equivalent denominations whenever useful. The physical number of pieces does not normally limit the number of armies a player may command; use substitutions or agreed markers if a color runs short.
Territory Cards
There is normally one card for each of the 42 territories. Each territory card also displays an army symbol, traditionally infantry, cavalry, or artillery. Wild cards display all three symbols and do not correspond to a territory. Cards are shuffled into a face-down draw pile after they have been used to assign starting territories.
A valid card set consists of three cards with the same symbol, one card of each of the three symbols, or any otherwise valid combination completed by a wild card. Some editions replace these symbols with stars or use a different reward table; those cards should be handled according to one agreed system for the entire game.
Dice
Risk uses ordinary six-sided dice. The attacker needs up to three dice and the defender needs up to two. Differently colored attacker and defender dice are helpful but not essential. Each die must produce results from one through six with equal likelihood.