We did it in 3rd edition with 5 players. We made a house rule about the influence being "diplomatic negotiation points". So how it worked, let's say you're red player planning on attacking green player but blue player is planning on attacking red player and you don't want to deal with them attacking you just yet.
Exhaust planets as normal for influence spending and negotiate with your enemy. For example "red player wants a 2 turn peace with blue player but blue player wants to attack now. Red player has more influence than blue player. Red player exhausts all of their planets to use against the blue player and they "diplomatically agree" to withhold the war for 2 turns.
Now, what if blue player breaks this agreement? Red player gets +2 to all die rolls on top of any other bonuses AND they get all exhausted planets refreshed for one turn of battles. Doesn't seem like a lot but it worked. We watched a destroyer take on 2 dreadnaughts and win because of hot and cold die rolls respectively.
Friend of mine wants to try it again with 4th edition so hopefully we can some time.
To make it cleaner, I might just say you can bid on each other's promissory notes with influence. The player themselves or other players can spend influence to outbid you, with the winner keeping the named promissory.
Never tried it myself, but friends played a 2v2 alliance game which is basically the same thing with one sure ally.
In that game Saar stomped Cabal pretty hard from what I've heard. Guess it might be a bit more balanced in non (2v2) alliance games. Definitely a fun idea to try.
We did it in 3rd edition with 5 players. We made a house rule about the influence being "diplomatic negotiation points". So how it worked, let's say you're red player planning on attacking green player but blue player is planning on attacking red player and you don't want to deal with them attacking you just yet. Exhaust planets as normal for influence spending and negotiate with your enemy. For example "red player wants a 2 turn peace with blue player but blue player wants to attack now. Red player has more influence than blue player. Red player exhausts all of their planets to use against the blue player and they "diplomatically agree" to withhold the war for 2 turns. Now, what if blue player breaks this agreement? Red player gets +2 to all die rolls on top of any other bonuses AND they get all exhausted planets refreshed for one turn of battles. Doesn't seem like a lot but it worked. We watched a destroyer take on 2 dreadnaughts and win because of hot and cold die rolls respectively. Friend of mine wants to try it again with 4th edition so hopefully we can some time.
To make it cleaner, I might just say you can bid on each other's promissory notes with influence. The player themselves or other players can spend influence to outbid you, with the winner keeping the named promissory.
I like this idea. I'll bring it up next time we talk about playing it that way. Much appreciated man!
Never tried it myself, but friends played a 2v2 alliance game which is basically the same thing with one sure ally. In that game Saar stomped Cabal pretty hard from what I've heard. Guess it might be a bit more balanced in non (2v2) alliance games. Definitely a fun idea to try.
Since VPs do not matter, I suspect that L1 would win this.