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i was hoping that you guys can point me towards some mini games that play well with three players. i know you can do 2 vs 1 etc but i'd like to go 3 player free for all.
any thoughts?

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
i was hoping that you guys can point me towards some mini games that play well with three players. i know you can do 2 vs 1 etc but i'd like to go 3 player free for all.
any thoughts?

Freebooter's Fate is really good at multi-player free for all games. That's actually mostly what I have played with the rule set.

I guezs Malifaux might work with 3 players. Activation is one model per player then swap, so you'd just need to rotate rather than swapping back and forth, but that should be more than doable. The mini count is also low enough that even on a standard board it;s not going to get crowded with 3 full crews battling it out (unlike, say, 3 Deadzone teams or 40k armies)/ You'll want a Deck of cards for each player, and maybe want to increase the size of your 'hand' for each turn simply as you'll be potentially burning cards twice as fast (drawing against 2 opponents rather than one), but I csn't see anything in the core rules that would get in the way of a 3-side game.

The fact that each side will be running a different Scheme (mission) will also help, as even once 1 side has claimed 'victory' the others can still fight it out to reach their objective first.

Infinity seems to work fine as 3 player FFA. Though a common problem with 3 player games (generally speaking, not just in infinity) is that they often end up in a 2 vs 1. There isn't a mechanic built into infinity to prevent that, but you could perhaps come up with a scenario/mission that encourages players to be more hostile.

City of thieves is a miniature based board-game that works well with three players.

There's some great encounters for three players in Malifaux, the guys in my local shop were playing them a while back. Plus, if it gets you in Malifaux, all the better!

I don't know if you'd consider it a miniatures game, but X-Wing certainly lends itself to being played with 3 people.

Fuzzy Heroes. It's a great miniatures game, totally fun, and there's no functional limit on players!

It's probably not what you're looking for, but there's a 3/6 team pitch for Dreadball, with rules in rulebook 2, I think.

X wing works mechanically as players simply go through the ship PS order to activate (you just need to spend a bit more time working out an initative order at the start).

We actually discussed a 3 way game of Infinity the other day. My concern was that there would be twice as many potential ARO pieces to threaten the active player, probably from unconventional angles. You would have to (moreso than in Infinity normally) have objectives that required moving out and being more aggressive I think.

Any free for all situation has the inherent risk of ganging up followed by a two player battle.

You might want to consider a scenario where there is one bigger force against two smaller allied forces to keep things fairer and engaging for all. This would work for any system.

Alternatively you might want to look at a cooperative game like Zombiecide.

Monsterpocalypse by Privateer Press works really well as a three player game, conveniently I have some available in the Swap Shop.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/643870.page

It has a very Rampage feel about it with 3 players.....

I have found that 3+ player games of Freebooter's Fate generally don't wind up as a gang up.

The scenarios tend to lend themselves towards movement and positioning, so getting bogged down in a fight can be sort of unhelpful. Maybe its the people I play with.

Victory is often not closely linked to how many enemies you take out. Playing Mordheim with the same folks tends to wind up in a gang up, as you can usually win a Mordheim game by beating the stuffing out of your opponent(s), and there are incentives to take out models even if you are losing the game.

The way we played 3-way with M:TG was that each player could only attack the person to their left.

With 40k, we start on a long table edge and the opposite 2 corners. Build up LoS-blocking between the starting forces, and put the objectives near the middle. Dawn of War had some good types of map for multiplayer like that.

The original Space Marines from Fantasy Games Unlimited can be played with any number of players.

Game Designers' Workshop's Striker and Striker II can both be played with any number of players greater than one (assuming a GM is present. Striker II can be played without a GM, and it is claimed that the original game can be played without a GM as well, but I do not recommend it.

We used to playSpace Hulk with three to four players, with a team of Eldar or Orks trying to steal stuff from the hulks as we'll pitting all of the invading sides against a swarm (or swarms - sometimes competing as well) gene stealers, or entire Tyranid Hives.

Depending upon how they are set up, pretty much any of the Ancients rules can be played with three players.

Laserburn the direct ancestor to 40K can be played with more than 2 players, as can 40K (at least the editions prior to third, as far as I know - we used to play First Edition with up to five players). But the factions in Laserburn are essentially the same as in 40K.

There are a lot of Naval Combat games that can be played with more than 2 players.

I know that Portsmouth Miniatures' Bloody Broadsides can be played with more than two sides. BTW, it makes an excellent Space Combat Game for Victorian Sci-Fi as well.... And most Pre-Dreadnought Naval Warfare games do so as well.

MB

Batman the miniatures game works very well with more than 2 players, due to it having lots of objectives it prevents the whole 2v1 scenario that pops up in most games.

Also one of the best rulesets Ive had the joy of playing.

Freebooter's Fate was actually the first one that came to my mind as well, Weeble. It works really well as a 3P game.

I've not played any 3P Batman yet, but based on the rules I agree that it should work well with 3P, too.

Song of blades and Heroes works well at 3 players. Ganging up isn't generally an issue if you're using scenarios. We've played 3 player games pretty often.

It seems to bog down when you get to 4 players though.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
i was hoping that you guys can point me towards some mini games that play well with three players. i know you can do 2 vs 1 etc but i'd like to go 3 player free for all.
any thoughts?

The Battlefield is specifically built to handle up to 8 players and, in addition to its normal modes of play, it even has some special options for 3 players. Additionally, if you have 4 or more players, there are even options to have a game within the game.

Me and my friend use to do 3 player Warhammer 40k all the time... sometimes it would be a kind of 2v1 but that's towards the end of the game when 1 guy has way more troops left then anyone else. You cant really play any of the games in the BRB but you can make up your own, and that's always fun!

I've done 40k where all three of us alternate phases. For example, I move, opponent 1 moves and opponent 2 moves. Do this for each phase. It's a little difference but I can safely say it has been the most fun playing 40k I've ever done. We made custom missions by putting an objective in the middle and do a king of the hill style where you generate points for being in the center. Forces epic battles and little opportunity for teams to gang up on each other. You're playing for fun so ganging up does not really occur as you are trying to keep everything equal.

I'll add that, even when playing with a full 8 players, Battlefield keeps all players in the action, engaged, and involved until the game ends. So, you don't have anyone sitting around not playing while the game drags on. I always feel that's something important to consider when looking for a multiplayer game as hobby time is so valuable. Right?

I can't say I really recommend X wing. It does, as other people have said with other games, turn into a 2v1. Whichever two players have lost the most ships proceed to stop shooting at each other, even sometimes when they have a perfect shot and no shot on anyone else, for fear of being up against the stronger player 1v1 with no resources to work with. You stand to benefit from leaving the other player in the game even if you could potentially knock them out of the game. I think for a game to properly be (odd number of players) FFA, it would have to reward you for knocking out other players. Such as picking up their better weapons or gaining your own potential resource for use against the other or final opponent. You could easily houserule this in lots of games, so you might try that with whatever game you enjoy, then explore options that natively have such a mechanic. The other possibility is to just play a Co-Op vs AI game

Ganging up is a risk inherent in any game with more than two players. In fact it is worse in a four player game than a three player game since there is the possibility of a 3:1 ratio of forces.

I can't remember any tabletop rules specifically written for three sides, but most rules can easily be adapted for this format of play. It helps if the activation sequence is not IGO/UGO/HE GOES.

We tried a hunter/prey scenario in warmachine before (like in
Magic the Gathering), but the time it took to test that one game
made me not try to run it again hehe.