First game last night, and ending conditions...

[Evil Doctor]

We had a three-player game last night, our first game. The Necromancer Cyril the Ill led his band against Flaming Eric the Unsteady (my elementalist) and Puddleglum (Chronomancer).

It was fast and very deadly. Although less of my soldiers died in game, with the campaign rules three men died due to rolling a 1, 2 and 3 post game. One opponent who lost his wizard, apprentice and three men in the game only lost one soldier in the end. The other faction didn't lose anyone in game. Nightmare for me! We all got enough experience to go up a level, although I ended up with 50gp, which means replacing the dead will be tricky! Good stuff though.

One thing we pondered on - as is typical in a three-player game, two factions kicked each other in, while the third skulked in the shadows. Near the end of the game, the skulker had the opportunity to basically pinch five treasures, which along with losing no men, meant he would be in a great position for the next game. Being a gentleman, he withdrew with two treasures like the rest of us, and balance was restored.

We thought one way to get round this was to say that the game would end as soon as one faction had retreated off the board or lost to 0 health all of it's troops. At this point, each faction would claim whatever treasure tokens it had taken off the board or were being carried. The idea is this would a) make rushing after treasure a worthwhile pursuit, b) make taking out soldiers carry treasure worthwhile, and c) mean that one faction having really powerful soldiers will not roll over their enemies.

What do you all think?

[JamWarrior]

One opportunist holding back and then finishing off two wounded opponents is indeed the natural order for a three player free-for-all game.

If not using some kind of fixed game length your idea of the game ending when one player is off the board sounds a good one.  Encourages the third player to get in the game early and also stops one player being left with nothing to do for the final few turns!

[Calmdown]

Are you talking about this specifically as a rule for a 3 player game? Because that's tricky to balance always (especially the 1v1 with 1 guy sitting out factor - that problem plagues all 3 player games!)

I would suggest though, that the answer to your problem is the same answer to the issues in the standard 2 player version of the game; a time limit, and a rule where only escaped treasures count. See here:

http://www.bad-karma.net/downloads/

This pretty much solves your issue I think.

[Evil Doctor]

Hey I like those proposed rule changes! I think that would solve the issue and also add something extra to the game, very good!

Just point out that I loved the game, great fun! Ulric the unfortunate, my man at arms, was indeed unfortunate - took a bone dart in turn one which took him out and then ended up dying post-game, to the hilarity of all!