Tarsh player in 3-player game

From: Robert McArthur <rjmcarthur>
Date: Mon Feb 6 02:26:51 2006

buserian_at_juno.com wrote:
> Yes, the Independents do have it difficult in the 3-player game. However,
> a good strategist can overcome many of the difficulties, if not all, by
> making good use of his exotic magical units. Still, I have always felt
> that adding in a couple more of the smaller independents for the 3rd
> player would help to balance them out. Several options present
> themselves:
>
> Give the Tarsh player Cragspider and the trolls
> Give the Tarsh player Sir Ethilrist
>
> Both the above options might be TOO powerful, given the extreme magical
> fortitude of both Cragspider and Ethilrist (when you factor in the Pillar
> of Fire, Hound, and Cloak).
>
> Give the Tarsh player the Tusk Riders (doesn't bulk them up much)
> Give the Tarsh player the Tusk Riders AND the Sun Dome Temple (a little
> better)
>
> Another option that only today occurred to me is to give the Tarsh player
> the Barbarian Horde (which do have historical ties to Tarsh). If you do
> this, you are taking them away from Sartar, so the Lunar player probably
> needs to give up something as well. Anybody want to suggest what would be
> equivalent?

I think the main problem for the 3rd player is that they're between the two main antagonists. Personally, I quite like the fact that they have to play politics rather than use straight force - more like they probably really would have to do. Their main troops - the newts - are perilously close to Sartar and the Eye can be taken quickly if the sartar player uses Hareck. Likewise, the route to Wintertop is pretty damned quick from Bagnot, especially with magicians and even more so with the overrun rule.

IMO, beefing the 3rd player up just makes it *harder* as the other two will take them more seriously and will tend to make sure that a putsch succeeds. I think the 3rd player already has enough grunt/oomph to hold off a less than fully committed attack. The one thing I'd add to them is another exotic. In the 3 player, dragons aren't used so adding cragspider to them would given the equivalent of either one more exotic (no dragon) or 2 (inc. dragon) for little extra ground forces. Ethilrist would add too many ground forces for my liking.

So if anything I'd add in Cragspider (with trolls but without dragon) to the 3 player and see how that went. Of course, I'm reasonably happy as it is (though a long time since I've played 3 up)...

Rob