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Hey guys, got a game coming up this weekend, and we've got an odd number of players, any ideas for odd numbered games for 40k, and WFB... will be 5 in this instance, but sometimes its only 3!

Assuming a standard table being rectangular or square, you could do a team up, 2 v 1 and the two man team bring half the points each to equal the other.

Or divide the table into fourths and play a scenario but with three players.

Five man would be harder, but imagine a 5 way free for all; kill points or most points eliminated wins, or a kapture the objective football kind of game. Anything over 1000 points in this case could take awhile to play, as your turn may be a half hour away at the least.

For both, I would advise the mission in the back of the BRB. It is really cool, not sure if it will fit with 5 though

I've always had the best luck playing with an equal number of points per side. But yes, you could have 2 vs 3 this way while still only having 2 sides.

IE tell everyone to bring 1000 points. The host brings TWO 1000 point armies. If you end up with an even number of players, the host only plays with one of his armies. If an odd number show up, the host plays with BOTH of his armies. This way, you will always have the same number of points per side.

In all honesty, I've NEVER had success with a 3-player "free for all".

Not in 40k, not in Mordheim, never.

Someone *always* gets ganged up on, and that person usually gets angry. Ruins everything.

Instead, divide the points value up between the players. 3v2, 2500 per side, something like that.

Yeah, encourage the ganging up, but have the 'defender' with twice the points

we did a 5 way where two guys had 1500 pt armies as allies and the other 3 had 1000 point armies. Worked just fine.

A fun gamemaster style is to set up a story, with SM and eldar fighting over an objective and on turn 2 the first half of a daemon or necron army starts deep striking in going FFA, knowing that they can't win, but make the others loose.

My buddies and I played a 3 way FFA game with 5 objectives and 2k pts each. We had to make up some rules on the spot (multiple assault involving all 3 armies we ruled that only the person who's turn it was could choose who was "participating" in the combat that turn. Ie if you were getting attacks directed at you then your unit could fight back.) We allowed temporary alliances with the full understanding that we were all going to lie in order to win. Just understand if you have a FFA game, it's not going to be "fair."

3 player works with quarters as long as the guy "in the middle" is playing daemons or keeps a fair amount in reserve. Really though, it's hard to go wrong with a king of the hill game (each scoring unit "within" the center 12" gets 1 VP for their player at the end of each turn or some variant). King of the hill favors no one when you score points off of it every turn because every upside has a down side then.

The 3 player scenario in the back of the BRB is actually pretty questionable---it can work well with some people/armies, and not so much other times. Definitely only to be used among friends for a relaxed game. The problem is that not all HQs are equal. If I put my SM Captain out there against your Warboss, I'm basically asking you to take 100+ points from me. You can combat it a bit if you plan against it, e.g., bringing a Command Squad, but if you bring your Swarmlord then I'm basically asking you to take 250 pts from me...

We play a fair number of 3, 4, and 5 player free for alls in the local club. There is usually some amount of kingmaking going on, but it usually all works out provided it's clearly for fun. The key is to make sure they're all space somewhat evenly and there's a fair bit of terrain evenly spread. It's probably also better to run an objective mission rather than annihilation, that way you can still win even if ganged up on. Give everybody one objective and put one in he center to encourage free for alls. We've also a couple times had someone join in after the start, like someone mentioned above, when people show up late. Definitely tips the balance of the game, but can be a fun, dramatic time.

Make sure to spell out how things work, notably:
- Can you shoot into assaults involving other players? I'd say yes, and just randomize the hits between units, ignoring the actual unit sizes for simplicity's sake.

- When are assaults evaluated? On every turn? On every turn of the players involved? The former is ok, but makes assaults super bloody and fast, so you might want to run the latter.

- What is the turn order? You could use a lot of clever schemes here, but we've found it best to just set an order and stick with it. The problem with a lot of random and rotating schemes is that someone can get two turns in a row, which is devastating on the other players.

You can avoid some of the issues by doing a phase based order, where there is one move phase, one assault, and one shooting phase and players take turns nominating a unit in that phase to act until all units have done something.

For added spice use the old epic rules where you have chits in a cup according to your army I values, so a player can't count on being able to move shoot and assault first with a favored unit.

But really all 3 way games will involve players trying to stay out of the middle. There is no way not too.

We've run some phase based games as well a couple times, and found that it was ok but had similar issues. It balanced some things out but really changed some other things. You just can't plan the same way in that kind of system. In standard phases, you know where your opponents are going to be in each phase and can plan your moves, your shooting, and your assaulting around that. In the phase scheme you don't have that. That doesn't mean the scheme's bad, but it's very different and has to be played as such; it doesn't support a lot of standard 40k unit combos and tactics. I personally was a huge proponent of that kind of setup for our big multiplayer games, but in the end even I eventually settled on the standard arrangement being basically what's most reasonable for 40k.

A good 3 way battle is fighting over a set terraign objective. You could easily refight a battle based on the Ia Drang Valley, but have the armies come in from different directions and have to fight to hold the LZ, the upper artillery positions, or the Command posts.

You can set an extra point as an airfield, and if you have the time, you can give an additional nugget to the objective, such as an additiona artillery barrage if you hold the artillerey, an Airstrike, or Deep strike reserves if you hold the iari field, or an additional recovery of a unit in the event that you hold the LZ.

Another good fight to have would be to refight the battle for Alamo-426. Basicly its a combination Cityfight/ take and hold mission where you have to fight what is essentially the battle for the Alamo in an urban setting. Firsat stage is to fight your way into the city and take over a deserted fortress, then you have the second stage as a straight leg defense, and the final stage is to get yourt army out of there and fight your way off the table.

Alamo 426 had the only working antenna that the unit needed to use to call in air support, artillery strikes, and eventually dust off to get out of dodge, because the place was going to get nuked because of the ork incursion.

That one can get kinda bloody, so you might consider making sure you have extra baby wipes, because there's always someone who is going to bring the weaksauce that they got the shaft and blah blah blah.

I still say giving VPs for holding the center every turn solves the dilemma of the guy in the middle dying. He got his points first as well.

I've had them normally before, and it worked fine, but one time the other 2 players went to a solo war and I picked up the remains of both armies, the other at 850 points a side I single-handedly took out both of my opponents.