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Subject: 3 player game: Me vs Husband and Wife team
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KumoUser is Offline


Tactician
Tactician
Posts:1
17 Oct 2015 11:38 PM  

So, every time I play against my buddy and his wife, it always turns out to be essentially me against one other player with two forces! He likes to talk a lot and tries to convince his wife to do what he wants to do and she uaully listens to his suggestions, which is understandable in that she is not that experienced of a player, but he still insists on helping his wife out; she is his proxy, more or less. In the short term it is detrimental to my forces to have to take on two players at one time with neither of them attacking the other until I am eliminated. In the short term it's good for my bro's wife because he directs her where and when to attack and defend, but it's my buddy that usually ends up winning because of it. Looking for suggestions on what to do with this strategic problem. How can I get them to fight eachother instead of me? 
Ehsan HonaryUser is Offline


Site Admin
King
King
Posts:268
22 Dec 2015 2:09 AM  
Kumo, this is a rather interesting scenario and let me just say it is tricky. In general a 3 player game is rather stable no matter who is involved. In other words no one should ever win. I have talked about this often, but basically the problem is that if all players play well, as soon as you have a strong player, the other two should gang up against him to the point where he is no longer strong. By this time two players will partner against the new emerging strong player and the cycle can go on indefinitely. This is of course if players are experienced and play a perfect game.

In your situation, you have a bit of a bias with your brother and his wife having a mutual agreement to support each other. So you will need to break this as you have suspected yourself. Here are a number of strategies you can consider:

1. Partner with your brother’s wife.

Try hard to make your brother’s wife win. You and his wife can then attack the brother. Don’t attack his wife or reduce her strength. Make this clear to your brother so he knows as soon as he starts a war of attrition with you, he would have no chance to win the game as you would want his wife to win rather than him. This will destabilise the current trend and maybe you can see an opportunity to take them both. If you play regularly, try hard to make sure his wife win as a result of your help, knowing that you are sacrificing yourself for her. You want to gain her trust so that she listens to you the next time.

2. Use the turtle strategy

Instead of being actively part of the game, just accumulate your resources into a corner of the map away from all the expansionist campaigns of the other two. In effect you want to become a threat to anyone that threatens you as you can suddenly attack him or her and take them out of the game. Because of this you are usually ignored so you can keep growing slowly. They may ignore you a bit too long at which point it can be too late. You can then attack and eliminate one, gain territories and cards and be ready to confront the other on an equal level.

3. Use diplomacy

Remember, words can also be very effective. Just say exactly how you feel to the wife. Say that it is unfair for them to gang up against you and that a bias observed is unacceptable. Repeat this often so they feel you are very sensitive to it. They will then aim to behave which can disrupt their strategies.

Hope this gives you some ideas. Let me know how you get on. I wish you all the luck.
Ehsan Honary
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Forums > RISK > Risk Game Strategies > 3 player game: Me vs Husband and Wife team