Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well, me and my mates had our 1st battle a couple of weeks back, with the 2 of them playing Orks vs Marines and myself as the "try and find the section in the rules that covers that bit" bloke...

It went pretty well, but now they want to try a 3 army battle. I'm more of the opinion that we shouldn't run before we can walk, but they want to try it, so I agreed... My question is regarding deployment - on a rectangular field (my dining room table, the gaming board is still to become a WIP) - what's the most fair way to deploy 3 armies (500pts, Orks, CF and BA)? I have some ideas, but thought I'd defer to the collective wisdom of those here assembled...

There is nothing in the rules.

But personally i'd put one army bottom left, one army bottom right, and one army top middle. Try to work out the deployment zone so no-one is closer than 24" to an enemy. Kill points get a bit iffy and sneaky (player 1 kills 9 out of 10 men from player 3's unit, player 2 kills the lone model and gets the KP) I find its easier to have a central objective, or possibly 3-4 that are outside the deployment zones.

There is that mission in the BRB.

I was thinking of something similar myself Dayve. The biggest problem is that the table's not so big so the middle army will be the filling in a boltgun (or shoota) sandwich as they're likely to be in firing ange of at least 1 of the other sides. Unless all 3 deploy withing range of each other!

As fo KPs etc, we're just getting used to the rules and gameplay, so not worried about those sorts of things at this stage...

This guy has a good drawing up of how to deploy 3 armies:

http://dlwdg.blogspot.com/2010/06/5th-ed-40k-carnage-scenario-for-3.html

My group usually does something similar with 3 players.

The mission in the book is interesting, but definitely not for general use. By starting the HQs in the middle like that, it's super biased toward strong close combat HQs. It really only works well for similar armies (e.g., all Chaos like in the book). In this case, at 500 points you don't have much space for special HQs so it should be relatively ok, but the Crimson Fists guy is probably SOL. Both Orks and BA have HQs that will stomp the generic Marines in close combat.

The easier thing to do with three players is to play a 2 vs. 1 game, where the team of two shares one force org chart and has the same combined points as the 1 player. Now that may be tough if you are just starting out and only have 500 points of minis each. But I've found 2v1 games to be much more balanced than free for alls.

That said, you can also try a free for all mission where each player only gets points for killing one of the others. So if you have players A, B, and C. A attacks B, B attacks C, and C attacks A. That way each player has someone to focus on.

Welcome to the hobby!

If you have the full rule book, there is a 3 person mission that is a little bit different.

Or if you wanted to spice things up, you could get a little creative. Have 2 set up, say 1000pts for example as normal. Then on turn 2 start the reserve rolls for the third, but have his army at less points.....say 800pts, and have them arrive via rolling for table edge. It might take a time or 2 to figure out the most balance points for the 3rd guy, but that would be random and pretty fun

The only way I've found of running a 3-way battle that kinda works is to have one objective in the center and have everyone deploy 12" from the objective and 24" from the enemy.

You only fight in CC when it's your turn or your opponent's turn. 3-way CC is not allowed (no multicharging two opponents or charging into a fight between your opponents)