From: Allan Bell Subject: Re: Three Player Games (long) >- (*) Rise and Fall (EMS) Last games night we had only three of us so we tried Rise and Fall as a three player game. We've played it a number of times with six but not with three. We had one player as Western Rome and the other two as Barbarians. We used the western map. Anyway, it was an excellent game and we will definitely try this again. Western Rome stacked North Africa with troops to convince us not to choose Western Africa. He was successful - I came is as Western Germany and the other barbarian as Eastern Germany. Rome then depopulated North Africa to save on costs knowing he would have plenty of warning before he needed to spend down there. In Gaul, Western Rome kept a stack behind the gaul/german border as a mobile defence (which era did he think it was!) which I thought was a mistake. Far better to have at least three units per area on "the wall". There are no interlocking zones of control so units are easy to pull out on your turn. As the defender, the Romans gets the first roll and the stacking limit of 5 means you are in with a chance to knock off a couple of barbarians before they even get a shot in - 3 barbarians against a fort and two roman armies is not pleasant for the huns. Losses were heavy for the Romans the first turn. East Germany saw West Germany clog up the lanes of attack into Gaul and decided to make fleets and capture the North Sea - the following turn Britain was invaded. In Gaul the Romans were focusing on me (West Germany) and my losses were heavy. But each turn Rome's production fell - in a good turn it only fell slightly but fall it did. The writing was on the wall and it was latin! Eventually Western Rome got very greedy and overtaxed and his people rose in revolt. I just managed to go out of the game after being the fall guy for East Germany before Western Rome collapsed. Going out first gave me first pick of the Independent Kingdoms when I reentered two turns later. I came back in as the Northern Africa/Southern Spain kingdom. Western Rome ironically came back in as the East German barbarians. He then took revenge on East Germany's now civilised brethren who had meanwhile occupied all of Britain and most of Gaul. Spain/North Africa (me) was slugging it out with Britain/Gaul. My naval leader had taken a fleet all the way to Britain which while not capturing any areas meant that Britain had to build a long expensive fortress frontline along the Gaul seaboard to stave off invasion. Without capturing a thing I had cost him a lot of production. Meanwhile the former East Germans attacked his navy from the East squeezing him in our pincer movement - ouch. They also found the tricky back door by coming down the British east coast through Scotland (they were still a barbarian at the time and Britain forgot they could march through fellow barbarian lands with their fleets). Britain was not pleased (to say the least). I saw this opening at the same time as the East Germans and we both stared off into other directions to keep from laughing. Always check your opponents expressions before finishing your move to see if you've missed anything. While Spain/North Africa (me) fought it out with Britain/Gaul (with its capital in Wales!) the barbarians occupied Eastern Gaul and Italy and upgraded to a kingdom. Their diplomatic leader took Rome without a fight so no unnecessary blood was spilled on Rome's normally difficult 5 kingdom troop defence. Naturally while Britain/Gaul and Spain/North Africa were slugging it out we realised one turn too late that we had to watch the now civilised East Germans who were chomping on Eastern Gaul, occupying the entire Italian peninsula and threatening Britain. By the time we saw our mistake (this always happens one turn too late) and made a hasty peace the former East Germans were nearly as large as both of us combined. We had to stop as it was by now 2:30am. Each of us could claim some chance of winning but the East Germans were going to be hard to stop. I like this game because if you get minced you can always come back in as another race and take revenge on your former allies/enemies. A good three player game makes it hard for one player to get strong enough to wipe out the other two and there are enough distractions in this game that you never feel totally safe. I highly recommend this game - it is also great as a six player game. By the way, I saw Britannia listed as three player game. I thought common wisdom was this is only good as a four player game. I've been trying to get a game going on this for a while with my group - two of us own it but it keeps getting passed over by other games :-( Allan +---------------------------------------------------+ | Allan Bell | | Marketing Manager - Software | | Apple Computer Australia | | ph: 02 9452 8058 (international +61-2-9452-8058) | | fax: 02 9452 8160 (international +61-2-9452-8160) | +---------------------------------------------------+