My local store is trying something a little different that they call 'Escalation'. They've run it with 4-6 players, but three might work.

Each player starts with a 25 point ship deployed the edge of a board (spaced out evenly). When that is destroyed, they move on to a 40pt ship, rolling a dice to see where to spawn. Finally, the use a 55pt ship. A single victory point is awarded for destroying any other ship. The points value of each ship destroyed is recorded in case of ties.

Send one to the shop for drinks, chips and pies.

While my buddy Eugene was in town, we had quite a few chances to play multi-way games, and these are the best rules we came up with.

Also Epic format is great for any number of players. Those Epic ships (the Raider and Gazanti in particular) are so complicated it's best to assign just the Epic ship(s) of a faction to one player.

i have 2 of my friends help me train for tournaments by playing against me together. 2v1. 200 points vs 100 usually ends like you expect. but sometimes, just sometimes, the kill me a little slower.

Two players play, the third guy (randomly chosen by dice roll) makes snacks, cooks food, mixes drinks, TO's when necessary. Winner holds the table, loser becomes the new cook. Keep food and drinks coming. It's supposed to be fun after all.

We always do "triple threat" matches, just a good ol' three-way free for all. First to kill 100pts worth of ships (or whatever the lowest point total is for a single player) is declared the winner. Set up in a triangular pattern to prevent anyone from getting sandwiched, and the nature of "get the kills to get the points" really nullifies any good strategy from temporary alliances.

Works absolutely brilliantly, and makes for a hell of a time trying to outfly two opponents instead of just one.

Pick one to be your lifelong friend and ally. Shun the other mercilessly.

Free-for-all creates too many kingmaker scenarios. Two people just gang up on one.

Play a single game of 2v1, 110pts or so vs 100pts. The players on the same team get the bonus points, but they can't communicate with each other, so they run the risk of bumping and generally getting in each other's way. Hilarity ensues. A good times is had by all.

We used to do 2v1 with magic it never ended well no one likes being ganged up on.

My life as an Imperial player in Imperial Assault campaign games.

What do you do when you have three players?

Play Imperial Assault campaign. Or Heroes of the Aturi Cluster for X-Wing.

Play the mission that's in the Aggressor (IIRC) pack... it's a 1v1v1 mission

We just trade off. Arbitrarily 2 people play then 3rd plays winner then the pair that haven't played yet play. Usually that takes all the time we have after work before the lgs closes so everyone gets 2 games and it's great.

We usually go for a 2 v 1 approach, 200 points per side. (Although we do still put the list building restrictions of two 100 point lists on the person who is fielding 200 points solo.)

This is actually what we do, though we have moved to 240 points a side recently, now that we have 5 players (3 80 point builds/side, with the two player team splitting up the ships from one build). We play this way every week. It's at my brother's house, we have one big 3x6 map on one table, 6 obstacles, and go for it. And we usually have pizza!

Usually go free-for-all, 50-point games, starting equidistant from eachother. Keeps the games short and vicious. Shots are pretty opportunistic, so ganging up isn't much of a concern.

I always enjoy a 25v25v25 furball.

I've always enjoyed 1v1v1 @75pts a player. No more than 4 ships per player. Also with the restiction of maximum PS5 difference between ships or pay 1pt per ship per difference. Basically a Howl-Mini needs a bridge pilot and cannot simply Max Academy's.

I've also noticed that silent agreements to crush certain builds tend to happen someone comes to the table with this:

Corran Horn — E-Wing 35
Push the Limit 3
R2-D2 4
Engine Upgrade 4
Ship Total: 46

Tarn Mison — X-Wing 23
R7 Astromech 2
Engine Upgrade 4
Ship Total: 29

And yes I did bring that one day... and may never again field it. 2 ships vs 150pts doesn't end very well for the Rebels. It feels like good old 'Nightmare-mode' on Wing Commander (or insert favorite Flight Combat Sim).

The only thing more likely to get double team ahead of this are Large-based super tanks... and even then it's a toss up.

But who doesn't enjoy running the Gauntlet every so often?

3 Player Free For All Deathmatch

• Score by each ship killed point value
  • Full socre no partials
  • Kill stealing is acceptable
• Double point kills
  • At the top of each turn randomize one player to award double points for each ship of theirs killed
• Killed by Roid/Off Board
  • any ships killed by rocks or by flying off the board count against that player's total kill score
  • play with Tractor Beams for extra trollerific effects

I play Draft Mode, 3-Player, Free-For-All Deathmatch

• 125 points, draft your pilots, then draft your upgrades. Roll for initiative on the draft using two D6s after each round of selecting. It takes forever to select all the ships and upgrades, but it forces me and my buddies to change up what ships we use each and every game, since you are rarely going to get to put together the list that you want to put together, since we often steal ships from one another.

• Full score only no partials. Kill Stealing Allowed. Two hour time limit, whatever ships/u[grades that you have still left get added to your score, as well as whatever ships you managed to shoot down

• A couple notes, we don't care about limiting the ship choices to just one faction when it comes to three players, so it is a regular sight during our games to field both Rebels and Imps on the same side, and Scum too. I think it makes for much more varied games than just going one faction per player. Last game we played, I had Wedge/Fel/Jake on my team vs Vader/Corran/Kavil and Han/Whisper/Tycho. I even got to roleplay a bit, saying that Wedge and Fel, brothers-in-law in the old EU, got to team up for once. Wedge got killed mid-game, and I roleplayed Fel being all pissed about it, going on a rampage. He managed to shoot down 4 ships after that, winning me the game, all while he had just one hull left. It was good times.

the IG expansion has great mission!
TRY IT! DO IT NAO!