Best 3 Games with…3-Players!

With wargames, it can be difficult to find a partner to play a game with. But, when you add a 3rd player to the mix that can be even more of a challenge. A challenge but oh so very worth it as some of my favorite wargames are designed for 3-players. The 3-player format can create some very interesting alliances and opportunities for players to work together, team up or break those alliances when convenient and cause some real havoc. It seems that there are more and more of these 3-player games and I have played about 10 of them and have really enjoyed the way they work together. In this entry in the Best 3 Games with… Series, I want to take a look at the 3-player games that I have really enjoyed!

*Note: I used the AI header photo generator from WordPress to create this post header and I am not happy with it but it is better than anything else that I was able to come up with. I am torn on the use of AI for this type of thing but I don’t pay to create my headers and just do them on my own.

3. Brotherhood & Unity: War in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995 from Compass Games

Brotherhood & Unity: War in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995 is a 3 player card driven wargame (which can also be played by 2 players with one controlling multiple factions) that deals with the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992-1995. The game uses cards that have Op Points and Events and these feature all of the major events from the conflict including the siege of Sarajevo to the battles for the Posavina corridor, and defense of the Bosniak enclaves.

The game also has an inset mini map that represents the City of Sarajevo proper that will be a major focus of all players, either in defending it or applying your resources regularly to attempt to take it as it is worth a large chunk of victory points. The game is designed as a Point-to-Point movement system and you can tell that the layout of the map was pondered over to create a lot of interesting opportunities for movement and attack, as well as the fact that all roads basically lead to Sarajevo. The best part of the design though is the relationship and interaction between the various warring sides including the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. These factions find themselves dogging each other and attempting to tear each other apart in a very cruel and ethnically fueled war for territory control with many interlocking regions separated into as many mosaics and strategic cities.

The game brings some understanding into the scarce resources and limited goals each of these factions and how they can possibly have reached their goals. This game is designed as a 3-player game and really creates an intensive and exciting gameplay experience. The inter-factional dynamics are key to the game and players must work together or generally be overwhelmed by the more powerful Bosnians.

We found that on your first play, you will be a bit lost as to what matters most and how best to go about accomplishing those things and knowing where to attack and where to defend is a bit obscure at first. Players will have to play the game several times before fully understanding what needs to be done but this is one of the best parts of the game as it changes with you as your learn and grow in your understanding of tactics, topography and the capabilities of your forces. I also really liked the cards in this game as they really taught the history but gave each player some very nice advantages through events.

Here is a link to our video review:

2. Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398 from GMT Games

Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398 from GMT Games is a the first game in the new Irregular Conflicts Series. This new game is not a COIN Series game but it shares some of the same elements and its genesis was in a design contest held called Consim Game Jam where designers had to repurpose a COIN Series game and it’s components and make a new playable game in about 48 hours! The game that won the competition was Vijayanagara. The game is an asymmetric 1-3 player game depicting the epic, century-long rise and fall of medieval kingdoms in India over two dynastic periods.

Vijayanagara is very COIN like but with some new tricks that keep the game fast paced and interesting. We have now played the game 3 times and really love how it models 3 unique factions with their own goals and abilities that have to fight each other, but also the 2 insurgent like factions of the Vijayanagara Empire and the Bahmani Kingdom must team up and work together somewhat to defeat the mighty Delhi Sultanate. The game plays in about 90 minutes and one of the coolest things about the design is that events are very powerful and when they are taken about half of them allow the player taking the event to remain eligible. This makes the game very interesting and fast paced with little to no downtime for any player.

The game looks like a COIN Series game with multi-colored wooden discs, cubes and cylinders. The Vijayanagara Empire (yellow starts out in the south of India) while the Bahmani Kingdom (blue) starts in the west central portion of the board. The Delhi Sultanate has both green troop cubes as well as black Governors to enforce the rules and ensure that tribute is paid on time to the Sultanate.

Gameplay and turn order is organized around a deck of Event Cards, with each new card, factions have the option to carry out the event or to select from faction-specific Commands and special Decrees; Commands such as the Conscription of new troops, Governing in Tributary Provinces, and Migration to spread influence and claim new lands, and Decrees ranging from Demanding Tribute, Conspiring with Delhi’s Governors to betray the Sultan, and forming new Alliances with minor regional powers.

This one is a really well designed 3 faction game that allows 3 players to work together, if only temporarily, to achieve their individual victory conditions. I just think that the dynamics here represented and the concept of the 3 different factions having to keep each other in check is a constant source of tension and angst. I have played now the Bahmani Kingdom (twice) and the Delhi Sultanate and it is very interesting to see how the 2 factions are so separate but also do have to combine their efforts, at least early in the game, to keep the Vihayanagara Empire in check lest they control the tip of India and make it nearly impregnable. I found that trying to play keep away with the game was also very interesting and keeping the best spaces from the other actions at times is the way to go. But, you have to make progress toward your own goals or will find yourself left out in the cold of the Himalayan mountain passes and the ire of the invading Mongols. Just a great game that is best played with 3-players.

1. Churchill: Big 3 Struggle for Peace from GMT Games

Churchill: Big 3 Struggle for Peace is a Card Driven Game that can be played by 1-3 players. You will take the role of either Roosevelt, Churchill, or Stalin and participate in a series of diplomatic conferences throughout WWII, deciding the course of the war, and attempting to shape the post-war world. Each conference is a round and begins with a debating section. This is the card driven portion of the game. The players will choose a number of issue counters to bring to the middle of the table. These are the items on the agenda for that conference, which will be enacted, affect the war, and help the allies gain VP’s. Then each of these items will be debated over with the use of cards from the players hands. Each card is an historical figure that was either a diplomat, politician or attaché from history. The issues that end up under your control at the end of the debate, will be implemented how you want them to be. These issues range from allocation of production resources, clandestine actions in satellite countries, Atomic Bomb research, the opening of second fronts in each theater, and many other things.

The board sets up with the war already a few years into it’s progress. Players take turns in initiative order choosing two issues to place in the center of the table; already there’s decisions about what you need, versus what others need. Then you spend the Debate phase playing all of your staff cards to try and move those issues so you dictate how they play out on the abstracted military board. The game is so good because it allows the players to see how their negotiation and debate leads to how the war is conducted in either of two theaters. Once issues are won, you then play out the issues on the battlefield as you push each front forward with combat support, naval support or you focus on building up the system of clandestine governments that you will need to rule the continent after the war concludes. The game doesn’t appeal to everyone but it has shown me and the rest of the wargaming world the process of the decisions behind pushing around counters on the hexagonal board. Very unique game that has now spawned some other games along the same lines.

These issues are played out abstractly on a series of tracks and boxes divided into a Pacific and European Theater. Learning the game was a unique experience, because it is a unique game. The resolution of combat/political control is at such an impersonal scale I had a hard time wrapping my head around it. An entire front of the war is a single block. This contrasts starkly with the deeply personal and individual nature of the debates. And that’s what I love about Churchill. The game is incredibly fun. Playing with three players is one of the best gaming experiences out there. But playing with 2 and a bot, or even solo with 2 bots works really well too.

Churchill comes with some of my highest recommendations. Mark also released the second game in the series called Pericles, which is a very different beast and can handle up to four players. But for me Churchill is hard to top because I love the WWII theme, and I think the 3-player dynamic gives a really fun wargame experience you don’t typically find.

I have played and very much have enjoyed Triumph & Tragedy as well as its follow-up Conquest & Consequence but just felt that these 3 games highlighted were ones that I more enjoyed.

What are your favorite 3-player games?

-Grant