Strange Aeons multiplayer

[The Bibliophile]

So, I have a bit of an odd problem in that it is rare that I can ever run a skirmish game with just two players. We almost always have at least three and sometimes four or five players. Any guidance on how to run "Strange Aeons" with more than two players? Curious how others have handled these sorts of games.

Thanks for any insight or help!

Joe

[Ballardian]

 SA doesn't creak too badly with multiple participants - the lurker player can just take the aggregate value of the other players Threshold bands. The only thing to be a little wary of is that if the Threshold bands are largely entry level characters it's probably not a good idea for the Lurker player to run some of the upper level nasties (it can suddenly be easy to find the points for that Godling when you've got three or more Threshold bands) - though whoever's running the game could find a narrative reason for a big nasty & make sure that the Threshold teams had equipment that at least gives them a chance (quite often it's dynamite).
 You could also split the Lurkers between a couple of people (my group has played plenty of games using both approaches) - again being careful to not create too powerful a force (one player with the commander in their group, the other with a Lieutanant - that way chaining 'Command' lets both Lurker players move minis).
 So go for it, with a little forward planning multi-player games aren't really any harder to run, they just take longer (& depending on how many extra players you want to squeeze in, you could also limit the number of Threshold characters each player has - to two or even one if there're a lot of you).
 I hope thats of some use & that you have fun with it, it's a great game.

[The Bibliophile]

Thanks so much for the advice. Ill give it a go and report on how we fared.

[Keeper Nilbog]

I've run games with multiple Threshold teams against lurkers. I tend to build the Lurkers with one leader type for each threshold team (so three teams would be against a lurker group with 2-3 models with leadership), and then just let all the threshold teams activate as one (players decide each turn in what order).

I have tried it with multiple teams with alternate activations between players and lurkers, not sure about that to be fair, but fun (as are any games of this).

Fully agree with the 'do not go with the silly big monsters just because you have the BP' comments, though if your building themed lurkers, that should not be a problem. As a rule, I tend not to allow any model with a BP value of equal to the highest team level + number of teams (say 3 teams, highest one with 17BP, would limit you to a 20pt Lurker model). 

[Grumbling Grognard]

Our group has done both of the below approaches and they work but we have decided that this game really, really shines when it is kept to 2'x2' with 2 players.  So, with our game session next week already booked with 5 players it will be 3 sets of games for us (and me as referee, odd player if we have another show).

I hope to play at least 2 games each, switching sides.

[WallyTWest]

The last two "seasons" we played ended with 3 on 3 "Government Raid" matches- Team A vs The Town of Innsmouth, Team B vs Cult of Dunwitch... it really maxed out the system, things ran very slow and the powergamers in the group really took liberties and brought the most insane lurker lists...

I doubt I will participate in a game with that many points again, simply too much. 2v2 might work- better if the participants stay in the spirit of the game.