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I was thinking a 3 player game could be really fun. I was just wondering what special rules would have to be in place so players could survive going 3rd and stuff like that. Any players who have tried this or have an idea please post here.
For the guy who leaves it all on the field (because he doesn't pick up after the game).
Keep on rolling
I have actually found the biggest difficulty in 3 man games is board placement.
There is always someone who is in range of both armies and in a more prime position for being attacked. This I think makes it the hardest to play. Going 3rd can have its advantages if you can survive the first 2 rounds. Usually it turns into 2 people destroying each other and the 3rd player sweeping in to claim an easy victory.
Maybe some sort of rule kind of like in the Kill Box scenario in warmachine where if your caster is not in the kill box by a certain turn you automatically lose. Forces players to move towards each other and creates more options for attacking.
The only major rules change that would be required is firing into close combat that doesn't involve any of your guys; the simple patch is that it's allowed and you randomly split the hits between the units in the fight. Beyond that the hurdles are scenario design.
I play 3 man games regularly. Sadly, the most satisfying way to play so far was to have 2v1 games with the 1 dude taking the points of the 2 combined.
Other than that we have stumbled across some missions for 3-man free for all but most of them involve one guy coming later on the board or something like that.
It's not the rules/missions that makes 3-player games hard, it's the deployment.
You don't have to be happy when you lose, just don't make winning the condition of your happiness.
Play smaller games (3 way kill team, or 250-500 points) and make sure deployment is in a perfect triangle. Lots of terrain and 1 objective in the middle (or no objective).
Just make sure everyone is well aware, that someone will die, leaving only 2 behind to finish the game.
I've come up with a couple of three player all-on-all missions that my group enjoy.
The main key to them is a reasonably complicated setting up of deployment zones that makes it as fair as possible for all sides and a killpoint mechanic that prevents two players ganging up and also stops kill stealing.
I've put them below, I'd be interested to hear what you think. Slight disclaimer in that I haven't updated them for 7th edition as yet so there could be some rules clashes but none that come to mind.
Spoiler:
Three Way Fight
A scenario for 3 players using objectives and kill points.
It is representative of a three way alliance that has broken down as different armies neared a particular goal or objective. Or just to represent the point when three separate armies all converge as they go after the same prize.
Objectives and Deployment
Place one objective in the centre of the table, this is the neutral objective.
The players then roll off.
The winner chooses to place his objective first, second or last. The next highest roller then chooses from the remaining options and the player who rolled the lowest takes the final option.
The player who places his objective first may place it anywhere not within 18” of the centre objective. The next two players then place their objectives anywhere not within 18” of the centre objective or 30” of another players objective.
Your table edge is defined by finding the point on the table edge closest to your objective, 12” either side of this point (going around the table edge) is considered your table edge.
This is also where you units fall back towards.
The player who placed his objective last then deploys his forces, followed by the player who placed the second objective then the player who placed the first objective.
This is also the turn order.
Units can be deployed anywhere within 12” of their own objective or their own table edge (as defined above), but not within 24” of an opponents unit or an opponents objective.
First Turn
The player who deployed first takes first turn, followed by the player who deployed second.
Game Length
Use the standard rules for random game length.
Victory Conditions
In this scenario victory points are scored for the following.
Controlling the centre neutral objective at the end of the game = 5
Controlling a home objective at the end of the game = 3
Causing the majority of wounds to a wiped out unit or removing/exploding it = 1
(Draws go to the player who killed the last model/caused the last wound/hull point)
You may score the Slay the Warlord secondary objective for each enemy warlord you kill.
You score the Linebreaker secondary objective if you end the game contesting or controlling an opponents home objective.
The First Blood secondary objective is not used.
Special Rules
3 player rules:
Shooting into close combat: In the shooting phase, a player may fire into an assault that does not include his own units. To do this, nominate the target unit as normal. Having rolled to hit, you will need to determine which of the units engaged in the swirling melee that are actually struck. Roll another dice for each hit. Each dice that rolls 4+ results in a
hit against the target unit, while any other result means the target's opponents are hit instead. If they have more that one opposing unit then randomly decide which is hit.
Fighting in close combat: When it comes to the Assault phase, only those assaults involving units controlled by the player whose player turn it is are fought.
If all three players have units in an assault then it takes place every turn.
Only one challenge can be onging in a single combat, the player who's turn it is has first option to issue a challenge then the other two players following turn order.
Optional:
The central objective can be treated as a relic (see rulebook P131) which is worth 5VP.
Spoiler:
Three way advance
Three forces rush to the site of a crashing satellite to recover the critical data from its scattered remains.
Deployment: The players roll off and choose from the following in order of their rolls, if you have any ability to re-roll or alter your or your opponents dice rolls to decide deployment zones, deployment order or ability to seize the initiative you instead get a single +1 to this roll.
First choice of deployment zones, deploy forces third, take third turn.
Second choice of deployment zone, deploy forces second, take second turn.
Third choice of deployment zone, deploy forces first, take first turn.
To choose a deployment zone players place a small deployment marker at any point on any table edge that is at least 42” away from another player’s deployment marker.
You may deploy your units anywhere that is within 12” of your deployment marker and not within 24” of an opponent’s unit.
A player’s table edge is defined as 24” either side of their deployment marker (going around the table edge). This is where units fall back towards and reserves enter from.
Reserves are chosen as normal. Out of the units not held in reserve you must deploy a minimum of one troop unit and one other unit on the table at the start of the game (to represent your scouting force). The rest of your units that are not held in reserve arrive via your table edge at the start of your turn 1.
Objectives: D3+2 primary objective markers will be placed at the start of game turn 2. Divide the table into six 2'x2' sections and randomly determine a different section for each objective to be placed at the centre of. If the centres of the sections are occupied by models or impassable terrain, place them as close as possible. Then scatter each objective marker 2D6”, if it ends up in impassable terrain or on top of a model, move it the shortest distance possible back towards its starting position until it can be legally placed.
First Turn: Turn order was decided by the roll off during deployment. In this scenario players may not seize the initiative.
Game Length: Use the standard rules for random game length.
Victory Conditions: At the end of the game the player that has the most victory points wins the game.
Controlling a Primary Objective = 3 VPs Causing the majority of wounds/hull points to a wiped out unit or removing/exploding it = 1 VP (If two players both do the same amount of wounds/hull points to a unit then the player who killed the last model/caused the last wound/hull point receives the VP)
Scoring a Secondary Objective = 1 VP You may score the Slay the Warlord secondary objective for each enemy warlord you kill.
You score the Linebreaker secondary objective if you end the game within 12” of any opponent’s deployment marker
The First Blood secondary objective is not used in this mission.
Special Rules:
Nightfighting: The nightfighting rules are automatically used on game turn 1.
3 player rules:
Shooting into close combat: In the shooting phase a player may fire into an assault that does not include his own units. To do this, nominate the target unit as normal. Having rolled to hit, you will need to determine which of the units engaged in the swirling melee that are actually struck. Roll another dice for each hit, each dice that rolls 4+ results in a hit against the target unit, while any other result means the target's opponents are hit instead. If they have more than one opposing unit then randomly decide which is hit.
Fighting in close combat: When it comes to the Assault phase, only those assaults involving units controlled by the player whose player turn it is are fought.
If all three players have units in an assault then it takes place every turn.
Only one challenge can be ongoing in a single combat, the player whose turn it is has first option to issue a challenge then the other two players following turn order.
I have a 2V1 game scenario It can be adapted for any number of odd players, though I haven't tried for more than 3. It's experimental still, and I've only tested it twice. Overall, it seems relatively okay so far. I've played as the defender and attacker.
I've not tried the optional rules on the last page as we're still getting the other rules dedicated to memory, and they're just for making things a little more silly. I'll attach them to this post.
They should both be identical (unless I've updated the .doc and not the PDF yet, though it's unlikely).
The burning pits of Hades, also known as Sweden in summer
I have found that the biggest problems with 1v1v1 is that people gang up.
No matter who focuses on who, there will always be ganging up, unless you attack in a perfect triangle at each other (Why would you do that? You fight the one who threatens you most) or you attack one foe with each half of your force (Does not really happen).
Can be worse, though. The 1v1v1v1v1v1s of DoWII are gankfests where the strong gang up on the weak and things are generally unpleasant.
Ive played a few 1v1v1 games. We changed the VP conditions a bit.
there are 3 times slay the warlord
first blood and second blood (the 2 first teams to loose a unit gives those, so 1 player could gain them both by attacking and destroying units from both players first)
you can get 2 behind enemy lines.
The army you have the LEAST Killpoints, gain twice the number of VP from kills from that player. (this was the biggest change, its purpose is to spread out the damage between the players and lessen the ganging up factor)
You can shoot at units in melee, as long as you yourself dont have any units there. We originally thought about splitting the shots randomly amongst the combatants, but ended up with just treating them as one big unit. With the biggest change being that characters and IC can look out sir to the closest model, even if its an enemy model.
I like the idea of a centerpiece objective, gets all the players together for a nice shake-up
The best way is to play 2 vs 1. player 1 brings 2k...the other 2 bring 1k.
Another option: KPs, but to score you must kill a unit from each other player. ie. You kill 1 unit from player 2's army and one unit from player 3's army and then you are on the scoreboard!
Ex. You have killed 3 units from player 2's army and 4 from player 3's army; therefore your score is 3.
I play 3 and 4 player games all the time
2v2 we just make 2 teams. Main thing we found was side 1 goes then 2 we alternate players so 1 player from side A goes then 1 from side B main thing is interception. It's based on your turn so I cannot use it for both players or multiple times before its your turn or before your turn and after before the round has changed so you do not get it more then once each rotation.
Some Must Be Told. Others Must Be Shown.
Blood Angels- 15000
Dark Angels-7800
Sisters of Battle- 5000
Space Wolves- 5000
My group regularly plays 3 player games, due to the number of people, and I echo the sentiments of the other posters here: Deployment is an issue, and ganging up is unavoidable.
We have begun playing more 2 vs 1 now, as it causes less arguments and sore feelings.
When we play 1vs1vs1 we often use rules similar to those posted by WisdomLS, under the first spolier tab.
We also sometimes play what we called king of the hill. We used terrain to make a loose 12x12 square in the centre of the board.
VPs are earned by having a unit at least partially in the square at the end of the game. Linebreaker, slay the warlord and other objectives are not used.
We have considered awarding VPs for having units in the box during the game too, to prevent armies like eldar from flooding the box with bikes on the last turn and also change the dynamic of the game.
40,000pts
8,000pts
3,000pts
3,000pts
6,000pts
2,000pts
1,000pts
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