I had a chance to finally try out a 5 player game. To make up for the gold shortage, we all started with decks consisting of 3- 1 gold cards, 1- 2 gold card, and the 3- 1 cost units. We each kept the 2 gold card in our hands and drew 4 random cards. This may not have been the most balanced approach but it worked.

We played the Quest for Power scenario. 5 players didn't really change anything that I could tell. One of the players was almost a complete noob but he seemed to pick up the basics pretty fast.

I played the dwarves this time. I did not go "all out" with my play style since I didn't want to alienate the noob. I was rendered mostly helpless after the 5th turn or so when I gambled to claim one of the rewards. Any result on the attrition die except the 2 skulls would have meant victory for me, but as luck would have it…

If there was any drawback to 5 players it was just that the 4th and 5th players were mostly screwed when it came to claiming any of the rewards that came out of the event deck.

I look forward to trying out other scenarios with 5 players to see how they work out. I have high hopes for Resurgence and Wars.

If I felt I would be playing a lot of these 5 of more player games I would invest in a second basic set, but at this time it doesn't seem worth it.

Thanks for sharing! I haven't had a situation where we had 5 players yet, but I imagine I might some day. If you get a chance to play other scenarios, I look forward to hearing how they go.

Tony P. said:

Why not simply use any neutral card not designed for this scenario (such as Battle Cry or similar), as a 1 gold card for the 5th player? Then, as people destroy gold you may exchange that card if you wish…. I did it once and it worked very well. You need just one of them as long as nobody wishes to purchase 1gold cards (which usually won't happen).

Freeman said:

Thanks for the idea. I should have thought of that myself! I'll try that next time. I just have to be carefull to only use cards that are pointless for whatever scenario we play or 1 cost units from the 6th unused faction. I play with my tweener and teenage stepsons and nephews and they tend to have "fast hands" if you know what I mean

Budgernaut said:

I'm really looking forward to eventually playing Rune Wars this way. I played a 4 player game once pre-expansion, and even the players that were put out first were interested in seeing who won and how. With the expansion factions and the mercenaries I can imagine a 5 player Rune Wars game getting pretty bloody.

I'm reluctant to try Cataclysm with 5 players. Some of the Event cards might make things too difficult with Holy War being the least of them…

Tony P. said:

An idea to solve this :

Every round, change the first player. (= the 1rst player is also the last, every round).

- Round 1: player A, player B, player C, player D, player E, player A, Event

- Round 2: player B, player C, player D, player E, player A, player B, Event

- Round 3: player C, player D, player E, player A, player B, player C, Event

Remove the Fortuneteller from game (for other scenarios, remove all the events wich are helping the last player).

I finally had a chance to try five players. Everyone had five 1-gold cards except me. I used one Ravager (no one was playing orcs) and it was the first "gold" card I destroyed. Nobody wanted to buy 1-gold cards so it worked really well. We'd have to tweak it a little bit more for 6 players.

Tony P. said:

If there was any drawback to 5 players it was just that the 4th and 5th players were mostly screwed when it came to claiming any of the rewards that came out of the event deck.

An idea to solve this :

Every round, change the first player. (= the 1rst player is also the last, every round).

- Round 1: player A, player B, player C, player D, player E, player A, Event

- Round 2: player B, player C, player D, player E, player A, player B, Event

- Round 3: player C, player D, player E, player A, player B, player C, Event

Remove the Fortuneteller from game (for other scenarios, remove all the events wich are helping the last player).

I think I really want to try this out. We played the Quest for Power scenario last week and it just wasn't any fun. We felt like the second and third players really couldn't do much at all since first player consistently grabbed the influence from the central play area.

However, I just learned that we missed a crucial rule that may alter things in the future: you are not allowed to have more than 2 landmarks. The first player ended up claiming three and quickly got to 20 power. If we'd realized this rule, the game would have lasted longer and some of the better 2-stage cards from the event deck would have shown up, allowing others to get power (because those other cards seem to do bad stuff if you claim it and you're in the lead, so presumably the first player wouldn't take those cards).