Friday Night Shots – Player Count

Welcome back to our usual Friday!

Sorry for last weekend’s abnormal post.

We’re getting back to the swing of things here at Dude Central, with a visit to the bar on Friday night!

Ok, I still haven’t done the “New to Me” post yet, but I have a few days.

And I just realized that I haven’t done my Combat Commander ladder write-up yet either!

That one just left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

You’ll see why when I actually get it posted.

Anyway, come on in and enjoy the warmth as the temperatures outside are starting to get more Spring-like!

Maybe I should turn down the fire now…

Or put it out!

(Ok, that’s the last fire joke for this current season…they’re getting old. I don’t see a burning need for them anymore)

How about I get you a drink and we can talk about boardgames?

I’ll turn off the William Shatner Sings the Blues CD…not sure how that got in the jukebox.

Gremlins?

Tonight, let’s talk about your ideal player count in games.

What’s your ideal?

I know player count can be a fluid thing, with some games accommodating more players and some fewer.

And of course there are the solo and 2-player only games, which maybe you prefer?

Most wargamers probably prefer 2-player games because…most wargames are 2-player games!

Or solo games.

I will get that played one of these days.

But what about you eurogamers?

Or wargamers who also enjoy euros and ameritrash games?

Player count is often just determined by who shows up on any given day, of course.

At our Sundays, we can have anywhere from 3-5 players per game, based on how many show up.

If we can get 6 players to come, then we can split into two 3-player games.

Getting 8, for two 4-player games, is heaven!

Does it depend on what your favourite game is, or type of game, anyway?

I know that Paladins of the West Kingdom is a game that some people will never play at more than 2 players. Others won’t play it at more than 3.

While some friends of mine will play it at 4, and I actually would too, I know I’m in for a really long game when that happens.

I budget for it.

Other games almost require a certain player count, even if it’s not set in stone.

Time of Crisis really shines at 4 players.

It’s ok at 3, terrible (or at least it looks it, as I haven’t tried it) at 2.

For the smaller player counts, portions of the map are out of play. This isn’t always a bad thing.

Tyrants of the Underdark actually does that and it works really well because it constrains players’ growth and forces them to interact.

But with Time of Crisis, while it kind of does the same thing by constraining players and forcing interaction, one of the rival emperors that can come out from the Event deck shows up in a province that’s out of play (you can’t place a governor there).

In a 4-player game, somebody likely has control of that province and while having a rival emperor on the board hurts whoever is Emperor, it also hurts the provincial governor of that province.

They might want to take the rival emperor out, just to save their own control!

They might not, of course, since it is hurting the “real” emperor.

But maybe the “real” emperor also is governing that province?

Then they will definitely be in a good position to take them out!

They can just place an army there and go to town.

In a 2-3 player game, however, nobody governs that province.

That forces the Emperor to have to make an effort to go down and eliminate the rival.

It’s annoying.

(You can use the new bot system from the expansion to actually have the equivalent of 4 players, which may be a decent option but I haven’t tried it yet)

Then of course you get those games with high player counts which just don’t work well at lower ones.

Infamously, 7 Wonders is a game that excels at a high player count, but it’s terrible at 2 players and I wouldn’t even really want to play it at 3.

For two players, there’s a dummy player, which really is not good.

However, this game excels at 4-7 players, because it’s just so damned fast even with a high player count.

I’d love to try a 6-8 player game of Stationfall one day, just to say I did.

But it would have to be at a convention, as there’s no way it would work in our normal game day setting.

Even so, it works pretty well at 4-5 players.

I don’t know how well at 2-3, though.

I started this post asking about your ideal player count, but in a way it really does depend on the game.

That being said, I think personally my ideal player count is 3, followed closely by 4 (so I don’t mind either one).

A 3-player game, it’s a bit more intimate and social, and it’s usually quicker.

But 4 is good too!

I do love me some 2-player games and wargames, though I really don’t get much of a chance to play them, though.

Maybe one day…

Do you have an ideal player count when you play a game? Or what kind of player count do the games you like require?

Let me know in the comments.

Tonight’s post brought to you by Smirnoff Pink Lemonade vodka, the number 1270, and the letters S&F.