So my group has been playing a lot of 3-4 player melee lately, and two trends have developed:

1) Player winning initiative nearly always goes first.

2) 1st player nearly always chooses Crown Regent (+3 blue and redirect)

In most cases this is the strongest tactical move. Yes, there are times when one can gain an advantage by going later in the initiative order, or by choosing a title that grants another bonus or cannot be attacked by one player, but the majority of the time the advantage goes to the first mover and the re-direct power is by far the strongest.

Are we missing something, Have other metas come to the same conclusion, Does anyone else think Crown Regent is a bit over powered relative to the other titles?

-Dr.C

While I've also noticed that the Crown Regent is popular I don't feel it's overpowered relative to the other titles. I think one reason it's popular is because it doesn't support anyone, so one may attack whoever one wishes with that title. Same goes for Kingsguard in that regard. The one I find being chosen the least is Master of Whispers, since no one seems to want the extra intrigue. My personal favorites are Master of Laws, Hand of the King, and Crown Regent.

master of laws usually always gets picked first by us. Initiative winner, generally goes last unless they are trying to win that turn. Crown Regeant is nice, but some turns will have nothing to redirect....especially in a 3 player game.

Different strategies for different folks.

If you want to change up your meta's strategy, have the person who is going first kneel as much as posible, and then have all the other players do all 3 challenges against them...only being able to redirect one of them will seem like small protection for going first.

LIke with Lars, the initiative winner almost always picks to go last. I like to pick the title that my strongest opponent supports, making me immune to their challenges. Being able to redirect any one challenge is great, but being able to protect yourself from an opponent can be better. And the support/oppose titles give you the opportunity to get an extra power during the round.

Our regular 4-man group have made precisely the same observation (www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp). We almost always pick Crown Regent first, followed by Coins, Laws and one other (though very rarely Whispers, which I've only seen picked twice ever).

It's not overpowered, but it is "better" in general than the others imho. To win a melee you normally have to be able to get Power in chunks, and this title is the best tool for the job. I'd personally like the titles aspect of melee being given a bit of a rethink at some point.

We used to find that the initiative winner would choose to go last, but I suspect that the lure of the Crown Regent title has swapped things around so that nowadays the initiative winner elects to become first player more often than not.

In my experiences, if I win the initiative, I tend to make the strongest player go first, unless they appear to be within reach of a win on their challenges, or I desperately need the benefits/protections of a specific title/need to deny someone else a title choice they want. This order hamstrings that player in their choice of challenges, and leaves them most open for reprisals.

Crown Regent seems like the title most "consistently" useful to me. Coin and Laws helps out initially, while Kingsguard, Hand & Whispers tend to be about the relational aspects (or lack, in the case of Kingsguard. Or they seem to require you to have a deck that specifically wants their benefit. And building a melee deck to rely on a title just doesn't seem like a cogent strategy.

Here's my counter question: How often do people actually end up defending for one of their opponent's that they support?

Maester_LUke said:

That's one thing that could make defending for someone you support an interesting tatic, but I guess for a... machiavelic purpose... You could lose on purpose. Then, the player you support will have to manage the claim...

Point, but I'm assuming if you have to come to their rescue as their Support, then they were already planning on having to manage it.

Yep, I usually support someone because it will prevent the person attacking them from winning the game or claiming major power. Otherwise, I let them manage their pain themselves.

Yeah - aorund here its usually first player going last - and odds are that Crown Regent won't be around when it comes time for him to pick.

The one redirect doesn't help that much when you are on the bottom of the dog pile.

Its very situational for me. There are a lot of times when i absolutley need the extra gold or extra draw to implement my stargey. Crown regent is great when i ahev a solid poisiton - but getting and keeping such a situation isn't an automatic.

Going first may seem as a great advantage, but unless you are going to rush to 15 power for the win to me it seems as a tactical error. If I won initiative I typically like to go 3rd/4th or perhaps even second. This to me is a better position as a few challenges have already occured, many characters have been knelt and and effects triggered and chances are with enough people in the game that you weren't a target of more than perhaps 1/2 challenges. Crown Regent is a great title indeed if you are forced to go first and it gives a little threat and control over the board if you wish to save someone for a particular nasty challenge. Typically if second, I like to toss a throwaway challenge(Usually a military or intrigue) towards the person with crown regent, just to force the player to burn the effect or kneel more of his characters in defense making him an easier target for players that have yet to declare challenges (also makes him more of a target than myself now that the effect has been used or at least I hope so).