How to Play Hazard

Hazard is a world-conquest game for two to six commanders, played across an original 40-territory map with no hidden dice and no guesswork about your chances. Every attack shows you the exact odds before you commit, and the map itself — seven regions, seven fortress chokepoints, dashed sea routes between distant coasts — is built to reward patient border play as much as bold offensives. Here is the full rule set, from setup to the final conquest.

Overview and goal

The map is divided into 40 territories across 7 regions, each worth a bonus of armies to whoever controls every territory in it. Seven of those territories are Bastions — fortified chokepoints that defend harder than open ground. Your goal is simple to state and hard to execute: eliminate every rival commander and own the entire map. There’s no point total and no separate scoring track — the last commander standing wins, full stop.

Each turn you draft new armies, spend them attacking neighboring ground with dice, and then make one repositioning move before passing play on. Requisition cards, traded in sets, keep feeding you extra strength as the game escalates.

Components

• The command map — 40 territories in 7 regions, connected by land borders and a handful of dashed sea routes, with 7 Bastions marked on the map.
• Army units — unlimited in supply; each territory always holds at least one.
• Six attacker dice and defender dice — three of each, used two or three at a time depending on the battle.
• 42 Requisition cards — 40 tied to a specific territory (split evenly across three unit types) plus 2 wild cards that complete any set.
• An escalation dial — tracks how many card sets have been traded in and what the next one pays out.

Setup

1. Everyone rolls one die; highest goes first, and play proceeds clockwise from there. Ties re-roll among just the tied players.
2. Starting armies depend on how many are playing — more commanders means fewer armies each, since the map is shared further.
3. Territories are either claimed one at a time going around the table until the map is full, or dealt out evenly and armies placed automatically — the quicker option most online and bot games use by default.
4. The Requisition deck is shuffled, and the escalation dial starts at its lowest payout.

Two-player games use a third, neutral garrison force holding some of the territories, so the map still feels contested even with only two commanders competing.

A turn, step by step

1. Draft. Your reinforcements equal one-third of the territories you own (rounded down, minimum 3), plus the bonus for every region you fully control, plus anything from a traded card set. If you’re already holding five or six cards, you must trade a set before you can place a single army. Place everything on territories you own, split however you like.
2. Attack. Declare an attack from any territory with at least two armies against an adjacent territory you don’t own. You choose one to three dice (you need more armies than dice), the defender rolls automatically, and the highest dice on each side are compared — ties go to the defender. You can attack as many times as you want, from as many territories as you want, including ground you only just conquered this turn, or stop whenever you choose.
3. Occupy. The instant a defender’s last army falls, you must move in at least as many armies as you rolled dice with on the winning attack, leaving at least one behind at the origin.
4. Fortify. You may make exactly one move of any number of armies between two territories you own that share a border, then your turn ends. If you conquered at least one territory this turn, you draw one Requisition card regardless of how many conquests you made.

Worked example: you attack from a border territory holding 5 armies against a rival holding 2, rolling 3 dice against their 2. Your dice show 6, 4, 2; theirs show 5, 3. Comparing highest to highest (6 vs 5, you win) and second to second (4 vs 3, you win), the rival loses both their armies and the territory falls. You move in 3 armies to occupy it, keeping 2 behind on the territory you attacked from.

Special rules and edge cases

• Bastions: the 7 marked territories defend harder when garrisoned with three or more armies — the defender rolls three dice instead of two and keeps the best two results. Below three armies, a Bastion defends normally.
• Ties always favor the defender, on every comparison, at every table size.
• Card sets come in three forms: three cards of the same unit type, one of each type, or two of a kind plus a wild. Any five cards in hand are guaranteed to contain a set.
• Escalating payouts: in the default mode, each traded set pays more armies than the last, and the payout is shared across the whole table — the fourth set anyone trades pays more than the first, no matter who traded it.
• Eliminating a rival hands you all of their cards. If that pushes you to six or more, you must immediately trade down to four or fewer before continuing your attacks.
• A resigning or disconnected commander’s territories become a neutral garrison — they stop acting, but their ground still has to be fought for like anyone else’s.

How the game ends and scoring

Hazard has no victory-point track. The game ends the instant one commander controls all 40 territories, or every rival has been eliminated or has resigned — whichever comes first. For records and stats, eliminated commanders are ranked in reverse order of when they fell, so the first commander out finishes last.

Variants

• Card economy: choose the default escalating payout, where each traded set pays more than the last, or a fixed table where the same set always pays the same amount regardless of when it’s traded — a steadier, longer game.
• Bastions on or off: turn the three-dice defense at the 7 marked territories off entirely for a purely even-handed map.
• Setup style: claim territories one at a time around the table for a slower, more deliberate start, or let the deal-and-place option set the board up instantly.
• Two-commander mode: adds the neutral garrison force automatically so a two-player match still has a contested map from turn one.

Quick-reference summary

• Players: 2–6. Goal: eliminate every rival and own all 40 territories.
• Draft: territories ÷ 3 (round down, minimum 3) + full-region bonuses + card trade-ins.
• Attack: 1–3 attacker dice (need more armies than dice) vs. up to 2 defender dice (3 at a garrisoned Bastion, best 2 kept); ties favor the defender; max two losses per roll.
• Occupy: move in at least as many armies as dice rolled in the winning attack.
• Fortify: one move, one time, between two territories you own that share a border.
• Cards: draw one after any turn with a conquest; sets of three matching, one of each, or two plus a wild.