A 2 vs 2 Format

[Yord]

I was originally proposing a 2 vs 2 format with an additional winning condition (“hidden agendas”) in a previous post:

Thoughts on a 2 vs 2 format

We are four players in our group, with only two factions. And, let’s be honest, watching people play is way less fun than playing yourself. Of course, it would be preferable to have the remaining players buy their own factions, but it will take some time for me to convince them and even more time for their armies to be painted (and we play only fully painted models). So what to do in the meantime? I was thinking about a 2 vs 2 format to keep everybody engaged. I have the following prerequisites…

In the meantime, we have playtested the proposed format and it became clear, that the 2 vs 2 format and the hidden agenda rules can be treated independently. So this post introduces revised rules for 2 vs 2 format while a different post revises hidden agendas.

Lessons Learned

When we playtested the previously proposed rules for 2 vs 2, we learned some things:

Good:

1. It is possible and even fun to share a faction with two players. Since you are in a team, you are sharing the thrill with your ally, which makes their dice rolls exciting rather than boring.
2. Hidden agendas were a great addition to the game. They effectively avoided too many discussions between allied players, since every player was, to some degree, following their own agenda.

Bad:

1. Playing two different allied army lists introduces unnecessary complexity.
2. Playing two different allied army lists allows the other team to focus solely on one ally’s list, effectively taking her out of the game.

Revised 2 vs 2 Format

The lessons learned bring me to propose the following 2 vs 2 format instead:

The 2 vs 2 format plays the same as the 1 vs 1 game with the following exceptions:

• The players form teams of two who control one side together.
• Each side determines which team player goes first and which goes second, e.g. by rolling dice.
• A pulse round in this format should have an even number of turns. The first player of a team takes all odd turns, the second all even.
• Each player chooses a Hidden Agenda at the start of the game.

Hidden Agendas Mode

I was originally proposing a 2 vs 2 format with an additional winning condition (“hidden agendas”) in a previous post: https://community.privateerpress.com/t/2157 In the meantime, we have playtested the proposed format and it became clear, that the 2 vs 2 format and the hidden agenda rules can be treated independently. So this post introduces revised rules for hidden agendas while a separate post will revise the 2 vs 2 format. A nicely formatted version of the rules can be found here: https:…

These simple changes to the 1 vs 1 format already made a fun game with 4.

Comments are welcome as usual.

What I would like to know: Did anybody else try out playing with more than 2 people? How did you do it?

[KhadorLord]

Very cool, thank you for sharing.

[cplmustard]

We played a 2v2 inspired by this. Each teammate brings a 6/1 list that becomes a combined list with their teammate. We used a primary scenario with 4 turns per pulse round, each player deploys with 5 DC doing alternating deployments depending on starting roll. Every model in your teammate’s list counts as friendly, you can cast cyphers, use abilities, use weavers to cast furies and nominate your teammate’s models for placing gates. You can’t however, use your teammate’s gates to deploy models. We had each team combine their starting rolls to determine which team plays first, then decide between themselves which player does their turn first in the pulse round, then alternating for the rest of the game every two turns.

[Yord]

Amazing! How did it go for you?

[cplmustard]

It was awesome! A fitting end for our summer campaign. I played as the spoiler controlling void wraiths (they got an activation every time each player finished a turn) so it was goofy fun all around but part of me thinks there’s a real format in here with this ruleset.