Can you have a good game with 6 players?

[Alastair MacDirk]

Not a strategy thread. Why is it in this forum?

[SVD997]

One time, some friends and I did a 9 player game. We did it just for the sake of doing it. While it was cool to have an entire dorm room floor covered in HS terrain, and a board covered in characters (we did 500 points), it was chaotic, and I wouldn't recommend doing it more than once.

[sashiel]

Originally Posted by rdhight

Four players is the most I've had in one Heroscape game, and from the amount of downtime there, I'd say anything more would be seriously redlining the patience of my group. Four players is right on the edge of my tolerance for watching other people make their moves. In a six-player game, it would be possible to have 10 of others' turns go by between two of mine. That's unacceptable.

I brought a Heroscape setup to my church's New Year's game night, and I had the maps broken up into a three-player and two two-players and didn't regret it. For one thing, I don't much care for the "kill the leader" politics of big free-for-all games in general. If I played with four or more now, I would either make it a team game or build a very cramped map with vulnerable starting zones so that everyone is worried about immediate tactical survival under the guns of armies on their left and right.

But more than that, if I had 5-7 players and we all wanted to sit down around one board together, I'd go for Arkham Horror or Shadows over Camelot before looking to Heroscape.

When I get the opportunity to play HeroScape, it's as much of a social gathering as it is a strategy game. The time between my turns is well spent chatting with friends or getting another beer, etc. Thus, games with 5+ players don't become boring when I'm waiting for my turn to come back around.

[kolakoski]

Originally Posted by Faustus

The game is over as soon as ONE player is eliminated. You get points for your kills and the army you have left alive.

Good system for shortening games, or just to keep everyone in 'til the end!

When I was much younger, I always got creamed early in games like Diplomacy and Risk in the manner of many of the players herein. I anticipated this in Heroscape, but it hasn't played out like that for me. Part of it is in the construction of my armies especially for FFA. And my confidence in their play.

As far as a "good game" is concerned, I suspect that my, and the rest of the Gang of Five's members', enjoyment of our FFAs is due to our mature attitudes towards the game. No long-winded, whiney, stalling, suicidal players among us (or any from that list of bad-news types of players I remember reading about in someone's (can't remember name ) post on the subject. Yes, our games tend to be long, but we're fine with that, scheduling our once-a-month gatherings on Fridays in anticipation of just such an occurrence.

[hivelord]

I have done on every year and a half or so. My group would play long campaigns which would culminate in a megabattle which would usually be 4v4. The maps for these can be found in my mega-maps thread. They are a blast but they take literally all day. We did one of these at a local convention and with setup and takedown we were there from convention opening to closing. It was still a great day.

[Killometer]

I played a 6-person game (300 points) for the first time just the other day, and I have to say that it was a blast. I was the second person eliminated, but the playing style we have in my neck of the woods is very casual, and half the fun of the game is the jaw-jacking that goes on, so everyone stayed at the table after they were done playing. The ending was so exciting, even, that as the other games in the room wrapped up everyone at the get-together came and watched instead of starting new games. The last couple rounds came down to just tshill12's Q9 and Jerry22's Charos slugging it out, with the Major eventually coming out on top.

[kolakoski]

Many of the posts herein refer, one way or the other, to drafting. Drafting, like FFA, is an idea that I originally shunned, but now embrace (poorly though I have drafted thus far ). See chas' Importance of Drafting thread in Heroscape General Discussion.

[flameslayer93]

I've played a 6-person game and it was fun! The best way to keep things moving though is if your eating dinner. Then the turns feel like seconds!

[Chardris1287]

I've played 6-player games before. The board was so big, basically whoever we sat next to was the person we were gonna fight with the whole game. We try to fix this problem by implenting a capture the flag scenario. In the middle of the board is a flag from the castle expansion set, and an artifact of brandar glyph next to it. any person who can be on the flag at the end of the final round is declared the winner regardless of points. This adds an air of strategy into the mix. It makes high defense and/or high mobility figures more valuable. Cyprien really shines in this scenario.

[Fen_Hydra]

When I played a 6-player game, it took quite a while for it to be your turn. It mainly had a lot of waiting. Overall, not so fun.

[Freezie]

CVN had some good ideas about epic HS games here

[Tornado]

Team games open up some interesting synergies. 3v3 can be a blast. The main thing is to keep the number of figures down, so using Marvel is not a bad idea but also not a must. Use mostly heroes and reduce the squads. If you do use squads try limiting it to ones that bond. Also a small simple map helps to speed things up. Adult beverages are the enemy. peace