– 1 board, risk game pieces, 3 black/red dice, 2 white dice, objective cards, goal cards, territory cards, special cards
Horses are marked as transport ships or can be representing 5 infantry. If the horse is on land, it represents the 5 infantry, and if it is in space standing up, it is used as a transport ship. If it is lying down in space next to a transport ship, it represents the 5 infantry in that transport ship.
Cannons work similar to horses, except they represent 10 infantry or a battleship.
Gameplay:
To start the game, shuffle the territory cards and divide them up between the number of people playing. The territories that are recieved by each player are that player’s starting territories. Space starts off as unoccupied. Each player starts out with 25 infantry, two objective cards, and one goal card. They may place these at will on their starting territories, as long as there is at least one infantry in each of the territories, negating space. After all starting infantry are placed, roll a D6 and the player with the highest roll may begin play.
Turns are taken in an offensive manner. When it is your turn, you may if you choose, first turn in territory cards and recieve all additional reinforcements. After this has taken place, you are allowed to attack adjacent territories to attempt to gain control. To attack, use the 3 red/black dice and the defender uses the 2 white dice. The higher numbers win, one infantry is killed for each dice lost. In the event of tied dice, the defending dice win. Attackers may not lose all infantry on an attack, as defenders may not control new territory when it is not their turn. As such, the attacker may not roll all 3 dice if he cannot lose 2 men without sacrificing the territory. If he only has 2 infantry, the attacker may only use 1 die. When a defender loses all infantry in the territory he/she is defending, the attacker wins and must move at least one infantry into the newly controlled territory. Players may attack as many adjacent terrritories as desired on their turn.
At the end of the turn, the attacker recieves one territory card if he wins and any number of new territories. He/she does not recieve one territory card for each territory taken, but one per turn. The player may also consolidate infantry between one adjacent territory, but nust not be done more than once.
The territory cards may be turned in when 3 of the same or 3 of a different style (infantry, horse, cannon) are acquired. The number of infantry recieved is based upon the “card trade-in” table located on the bottom of the board. For each set of cards turned in, the number of reinforcements increases for the next set to be turned in. 2 additional reinforcements are recieved for cards that you turn in with territories that you control.
If an entire planet is controlled for a round (every player takes a turn) then they recieve an allocated number of reinforcements as shown on the “planet net-worth” table located on the bottom of the board.
At the beginning of each turn a player recieves reinforcements for territories controlled. This number is decided by counting the number of territories owned and dividing by two. The quotient is the number of infantry recieved. If the quotient is not evenly divisible, the number is rounded down for number of infantry recieved. There is a minimum of 2 infantry recieved for each turn.
Once objective cards are completed, the allocated reward is recieved, and that player picks up a new objective card. This is the same for goal cards.
There are spaceports on each planet except for Dramethan. A spaceport may be used every other turn to build a battleship or a transport ship if you control the spaceport.
Transport ships are the main method of carrying infantry through space. They can carry a max of 15 infantry. As they are slow and not meant for battle, they have a -2 on their attacking dice rolls and a -1 on their defense rolls. If a transport ship attacks land, it acts as a base that the infantry attack from. The infantry have no attacking hindrance. If the transport ship itself loses to a battleship, then the ship and all men inside it are lost.
Battleships are the main method of attacking in space. They cannot carry infantry, but do not have any bonus or hindrance on their dice rolls. Battleships may not attack land, but they can be used as transport ships in the sense that it can drop infantry to a planet to fight. If a battleship is beaten in space combat, it is lost.
All ships must wait one turn before moving when they are built. At the beginning of every turn, each ship can move one territory. Space may not be occupied by two different players, but can be fought in like a normal terriroty, except between ships.
There are four asteriod fields on the board. These act as normal space territories, except all defending dice rolls are +1 when defending in that territory.
A maximum of 15 infantry can occupy a given territory.
Modified start: to divide territories, whoever starts first places 1 infantry on the territory of his/her choice. The second player follows suit, and so on. When all territories are claimed, players may put the rest of their starting infantry on territories they just claimed. Gameplay continues as normal after all starting infantry are placed.
Testing, results, general feedback:
Overall I think testing went well. Players seemed to enjoy this modification on the regular risk game. Between the group of designers including me, kyle smith, tyler and mike, there were some discrepensies as far as details in the rules. Mainly everyone wanted different numbers for the dice rolls to make everything more even. The rules posted are the revised rules after playtesting a couple times and realizing that we needed to change some things. Moving around in space proved difficult, and the asteroid spaces were pretty much useless.
How we came up with the game:
We decided almost immediately upon recieving the challenge that we wanted to do a modified RISK game. Originally we wanted to just use another existing world or series of worlds such as Warhammer or the like. Eventually we came to the conclusion that we should make our own worlds, with space between them. We had to create new rules to the RISK game to be able to use space, but it worked out in the end.