What do people think of Rex with five players? I haven't played it yet, but my regular group usually has five people and I'm concerned that any five player game will end with a three player alliance dominating a two player alliance. Is this an actual problem or are my concerns unfounded? Thanks.

We've had a five-player-melee just last weekend. Me (Letnev) and my friend (Hacan) were allied after Sol, Lazax and Jol-Nar decided to gang up on us within the first four rounds of the game, thinking they could grab an easy victory as they were already holding four of the five strongholds.

They looked very dumbfounded when we won after the eight round by simply taking away a different stronghold every round. If you just look at your army's might and forget tactics, you're easy prey.

Of course my ally mate was as shocked when I revealed my secret grade 8 betrayal (holding no strongholds at all) and won the game by myself.

Never have I tasted such sweet victory...

Mike said:

Well played, sir. well played indeed.

In response to the OP, a 3 vs 2 set up is certainly not impossible. It may not even be improbable, depending on your group, but it's also not as unbalanced as some might like to think. If it bugs you, you can limit alliances to two players per, or nix them all together (that would severely diminish the game experience, though.)

Always remember, the focus of this game is on politics, not warfare. A smaller alliance or even a solo player can still be a threat if he focuses on using his advantages to manipulate his opponents rather than getting obsessed with board position.

That's what I wanted to convey. Apparently I failed.

It's just the way Steve-O says: 3 vs 2 doesn't mean instant-win for the three-way-alliance. Strategy is far more important than the number of people playing on your side.

I suppose you could always limit alliances to 2 people - but I wouldn't see a reason why. For once, it's not how the game was designed, and the game was designed with fairness in mind. And for another, that would still be 2 vs 2 vs 1, hailing back to your original point.

Bottom line - give it a shot for two or three games and find out that it works brilliantly with 5 people.

That's good to hear. I can now look forward to playing.