3 player for arena thoughts

[rumz512]

Curious to know how veterans feel about 3 players in stands

[fiscused]

The reason I don't play much arena is because I find the 2-player version too dull. In person, we always limit the expansion boards in 2p to encourage alternate strategies.

[JipenDavid]

There's a wealth of strategies in the two player game, I don't think it's a big problem. Actually I think in the three player game everyone is kind of forced to fill the home board, in a two player game there's at least the option to not do it (arguably a slightly worse option, but still some top players have had good success with it). Often I watch a game and see strong players do actions that I never even considered, and they still have successs with it.

Sure, in a two player game it's very important to try and be the starting player in round 3 for example, but I don't think that limits strategies too much. There's also kind of a metagame going on with which islands are in vogue but it's not too limiting imo.

In a 2 player game there are more choices in the line of "If I do X, my opponent will probably do Y which means I cannot do Y myself and I'll have to do Z, is X+Z better than Y and if so, can I afford my opponent getting Y etc."

In a 3-player game you make more choices in the line of "what is best for me right now?", because the available actions (and islands, and mountain strips etc.) will look completely different when it's your turn again. Being the starting player (or at least player 2) in some rounds is very advantageous but something you cannot control as well as in the 2-player game.

In my experience you also very quickly run out of grey tiles, which isn't too big of a problem I think. The bigger problem to me is that if you're in a three player game and reach the endgame there are often no more good actions (long houses are all gone, emigrations are blocked, homeboard is already filled etc). Maybe it's worth it to not fill your homeboard early, just so there are good actions left at the end of the game, I'm not sure yet.

On the plus side, horses seem to be better to take in round 4, whilst in a 2-player game you mostly get horses in round 6.

I prefer the 2-player game strategy wise, it's also quicker and we actually had some live arena games firing, which seems to have become much more rare right now. I will still play this a lot, don't get me wrong, but I'm hoping we'll get to two players after one season.