Noob Queston 3 player format

[trucker bob]

Sorry if this has been answered in a previous post, but my search-fu is weak. Are there any game formats for Malifaux that allow for more than 2 players? Yesterday a group of us tried out Malifaux for the first time (basically just a lets get used to the base mechanics rules, didn't worry about terrain or schemes/scenarios). And since there was only 3 of us, one guy had to sit out the game, so was just wondering. The wording on some of the rules seemed to indicate the possibility of multiple players (beyond the normal 2 players that is). Anyway, we had a lot of fun and look forward to expanding to the scenarios and schemes.

[UberGruber]

I don't think there's anything official but I think you could do a three player game by using Shared Strategies (a few might need minor tweaking with regard to 'table halves' and suchlike and using Corners deployment (three corners, obviously) and Schemes more or less as normal (again there might be a couple that are unsuitable or would need slight tweaking).

The problem most three player games that use designed for two players encounter is two players 'ganging up' on the third but I'm not certain that would be as big a problem in Malifaux as in some others because of the way the turn sequence and victory conditions work.

The alternative is to play 2 vs 1. Perhaps a 40SS brawl with the single player playing as normal and the two man team playing to fulfil the same schemes and with shared soulstone pool, control hand and deck but each having their own 20SS crew.

[Barnaberible]

We did a couple of 3 player games and a 4 player once, I found it best to use individual strategies (so no attacker and defender) and to use a larger board (say 4x4) and just to tailor the deployment zones so you don't end up starting on top of each other. Being as you are going for individual strategies / schemes it makes it interesting to keep an eye on what 2-3 other people are trying to achieve

[Requirement]

Best thing we came up with is an equilateral triangle board with each deployment zone in a corner. We had to tweak some of the strats and schemes to fit the needs of a three player game (The Viks specific one needed some reworking.) but other than that making sure there was no ganging up is the only forseeable problem. It doesn't happen frequently anymore now that we have played a few 3 or 4 player games since you eventually realize that noone benefits from ganging up.

Utilizing a 2 on 1 brawl format has also been fun in the past. The only problem we have had is using the card mechanic. We have usually used a shared ss pool and separate decks for each player with the 2-player team drawing half hands and sharing the hand only. This works out better for a 2-on-2 scenario.