In a standard two player game, there's only one guy to worry about. So what do you do when there's 2 or 3 opponents chasing you down?

Click "full story" below to learn the best way to survive.

Welcome to another 'How to Win" article. Today the focus is on winning with the Battle Royal format.

What is a Battle Royal? For the uninitiated, this event puts multiple players on one large map to battle it out, last man standing, Thunderdome style.

There are many variations on Battle Royal – some allow for players to team up in the early game, other Battle Royals forgo any alliances and pit all players against each other. Some feature a "Shock the Turtle" element where figures at the edge of the map take unavoidable damage every round (thus, forcing players to the center of the map) others have a "King of the Hill" feature, where the person in the middle of the map can assign automatic unavoidable damage each turn, to another character anywhere on the map. Only one thing is certain in a Battle Royal: eventually it's everyone for themselves. That said:

Know when to make alliances...

If there are no rules preventing two players from teaming up, by all means take advantage of it. Most players will welcome one less person they have to attack or defend against, even in the short term.

The fact is Battle Royal formats often pair two players each on a four player map with a stipulation that the minute a single player is eliminated all truces are null and void. This might be a good point to agree on with the other player. “I’ll steer clear of you until we knock out one of the others” is a valid strategy. Other winning formulas include a cease fire for a certain number of rounds, or teaming up to beat a particularly brutal character (Superman Prime, Thor & Loki) that you couldn’t otherwise tackle on your own.

Keep your friends close... and your enemies closer.

Alliances often work best when your “friend” is farther away from you. The less able you are to damage them in a betrayal, the more trust they’ll have in you. Truces can also work, when a player is right next to you but are more risky especially if their turn follows yours. Imagine getting blindsided by your traitorous partner when most of your force has action tokens. If turn order goes clockwise, better to partner with the guy on your right.

Know when to break alliances

Outside of personal honor the only thing that keeps a truce in place is usually the threat of a swift and hard retaliation. Be prepared for the cease fire to get called off at any time, particularly when you’re most vulnerable. Try to avoid setting yourself up for a backstabbing by staying out of range of your “teammate.” Leave yourself the ability to retaliate if necessary, and don’t take it personal when someone does backstab you. Everyone is playing to win.

A note on backstabbing: Stick to your word whenever possible and people will appreciate the honor of your honesty. If you tell someone that you won’t attack them the first five turns, then blitz them at the beginning of turn 4 don't expect to win fellowship votes. Beware the long term events of backstabbing. If you frequent a venue and have a regular habit of backstabbing, you’ll probably find the tables turned, 3:1 against you at future events.

General Strategy: Turn Order

Most Battle Royals start by a roll off: the person rolling highest goes first with turn order automatically proceeding in a clockwise order. Assuming the clockwise model is in play and first turn immunity has worn off, the player to the right will act before you do. Should the player on your right attack your force, take it in stride. Don't plot out a full blown alpha strike on their team for revenge. Instead, focus your attention to the player on your left.

Consider what happens if you retaliate to the right. You'll weaken them, at the expense of getting weakened yourself. Meanwhile, the player who gets to go next will swoop in and take a few shots at you, further weakening your team. When turn order finally comes back to the player on the right they are now trapped in combat with you. Knowing your force was weakened they may likely push to eliminate you before you can push to eliminate them.

You may be able to avoid getting sandwiched if you focus on the person to the left, attacking them before they can attack you. The player on your right may take an opportunity to clear a few figures rather than push to attack (leaving themselves open in the process). Whatever happens, attacking the player to the left will hopefully weaken their initial assault on you.

Multiplayer Power Synergy

The game dynamic changes considerably when more players cram onto a map. Certain powers have an added value corresponding with the number of targets on the board, thus capitalizing on the multiplayer format.

Mind Control for instance is almost a completely different power in a multiplayer game, and can easily wreck any player's strategy. Normally, a Mind Control attack is best served making an opposing figure attack their teammates. In a Battle Royale Mind Control may be used for far more sinister purposes other than attacks - namely repositioning:

During one 8-player Battle Royale (played on 2 maps) the opponent to my left had some very big guns waiting to pounce on me. Taking advantage of my Mind Control, I completely changed his strategy in the course of one turn. I used my Gorilla Grodd to Mind Control his Gorilla Grodd. His Gorilla Grodd then Mind Controlled an adjacent U HT Darkseid, who, in turn Mind Controlled the "Son of Darkseid" U Superman.

Now, it would have been a simple matter to have his U Superman charge one of his own figures (likely a one hit kill!), but instead, I had U Superman pick up U Darkseid and fly halfway across the board, dropping them right in the middle of another opponent's force.

Not only was my original target no longer in a position to blitz me, my enemy was now tied up with another enemy. Plus, his Darkseid and Grodd took feedback damage from Mind Controlling his own people! His team, now divided was subsequently dismantled because of one little Mind Control attack.

Aside from repositioning, Mind Control also gets an upgrade from the sheer number of targets available in a Battle Royal. A triple target Mind Controller will rarely have a hard time finding someone to boss around the map. Apart from Mind Control, another way to redirect an opponent attacks is with Barrier.

A well placed Barrier can negate attacks by protecting teammates. Barrier may even persuade the enemy into going after easier prey. Why waste an attack on blocking terrain when a player could just make two attacks outright on an easier target?

Whatever you do, don't waffle.

By waffle, I mean stall. There’s nothing more transparent than a player sitting in the corner waiting for everyone else to be weakened or eliminated before striking. Conventional wisdom would dictate that this is a good way to ensure survival and thus a victory, which is why many people try it and therefore why events often include a “shock the turtle” mechanic to discourage it. If you are bunkered in, don’t be surprised if a new alliance is formed to eliminate you from the tournament. Likewise, don’t be afraid to suggest a team up with another player to eliminate someone from a well fortified position.

Winning a Battle Royal is a difficult business. In a normal game, if everything else is equal, players have a 50% chance of winning, but a battle royal drops those chances drastically, and invites countless number of other variables to be concerned with. There’s really no sure fire, silver bullet method to winning the battle royal format, but I hope this article provided some tips and tricks you hadn’t already thought of.

As always, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more ‘How to Win” in the near future!

I wish you could actually accomplish that cover photo with Superboy Prime in game. Just never works that way.

Great article though.

Great article. Most of my games are home game with between 5-8 players so there are usually alot of alliances roaming around. One guy is know for breaking alliances so no one will team up with him anymore and everyone gangs up on him right away. He calls it a win when he can force everyone to attack him though so all is well.

May I also suggest sometimes playing the most optimal figures isn't the best strategy? If you plop down E-2 Superman in a battle royale, you may be putting a target on him. People tend to feel threatened by a big fig like that, but are usually more comfortable attacking them, knowing that there are plenty other viable targets for Supes to retaliate against.

At least with the people I play with, there tends to be an unspoken truce until a major threat is neutralized.

Fun article mouse.
I've not played shock the turtle forever, gotta do that again.

My favorite Battle Royale clix is AA Despero. TK, outwit, barrier and Dangerous Game - which alows him to essentially tk one fig without breakaway or attack roll. Send player 1's clix into player 2's force. Super fun.

#1 rule in battle royales as I've experienced them, 1st to committ is 1st to be eliminated.

Great article. All of the points are topical, spot on, and useful. A couple extra points from my own experience.

-Watch for the unspoken alliance. In a true Battle Royale, everyone starts off against each other, but through table talk, alliances and battle lines are formed. What if two players come into the game and appear to have no alliance, but have worked things out before the game. Not the most ethical or sportsmanlike thing, but it gets done and tends to be effective because no one realizes until it's too late. A few ways to tell:

-Did they leave themselves tactically open to their "ally" and not get taken advantage of?
-Do they make the best use of actions. Personally, I treat everyone equally in a Battle Royale. This means taking advantage where I can and pulling back when I need to. If the best move was to attack their "ally" and they didn't, ask yourself why. Even ask the player after his turn is over. "Why didn't you hit such and such?" It's a casual question and the response can give insight, especially if you know the player to be a smart player who normally makes the correct move.
-This may sound a little weird, but watch their eyes. If they don't give their "ally's" figures much of a glance when deciding what to that turn, that can be a clue.

-Lobbying- This can be a double edge sword especially if someone takes offense to manipulation. But if someone wants to attack you and you really don't want them to, ask them to attack someone else. Better yet, if they haven't declared an attack and you fear they might, offer them a one turn alliance. "I won't attack you next turn if you don't attack me now." Until the attack is officially declared, you've got time to get yourself out of a jam. Depending on your mannerisms, this good get you some bad rep for fellowship, but a good logical argument or good offer will be seen as gameplay.

-Don't Be Afraid to attack a known cry-baby or poor sport. These are the players who insist that everyone is out to get them in a Battle Royale and think God or some higher power hates them whenever they get attacked or role poorly. I've backed off them in past games simply because I didn't want to deal with their grief. In subsequent turns they killed me and were just as obnoxious at winning. On the flip side, think twice about someone who holds a personal grudge. If you've hit someone badly enough, they will come after you whether or not it's the best move, whether or not they'll get eliminated in the process. All of a sudden you've got a big thorn in your side on top of all the other players. And all the other players have one less threat to worry about.

Here's a couple edits after playing a 1,000 point battle royale this weekend. Eight players, 4+ hours, lots of insight.

-Don't play a colossal. You will get ganged up on for two reasons. One, you're the biggest threat. Two, kill points for the KO are a game breaker. One guy played Starro and got reemed like nobody's business. Everyone focused on him and didn't really attack anybody else until Starro was gone.

-Swarm teams are a bad idea and Nova Blast is a good idea but will potentially put a target on you. Nova Blast is great for causing wonton carnage, but people may use extra resources to knock out your Nova Blaster. If you're playing for points, swarm teams are a bad idea because people will snipe you for the easy points, especially if all they can do is take a pot shot on their turn.

-Don't use any known hated pieces. I hate superman with a vengeance, moreso in heroclix than in comics. My buddy used two of them. E2 got slaughtered and Superman Prime wasn't much better. Then got their hits in, but also had targets on them.

-Use some mystics and wild cards. In a 1v1 game, you have to attack the other player, so mystics is just a fact of life. In a BR, having that mystic feedback can deter someone from attacking you. They may move around you or leave you alone all together.

-When you've got the most powerful piece on the board, consider running that piece away. This isn't turtling, but being the power piece is an open invitation for people to gang up on you and take out multiple pieces at once. If you run away, they can either chase you or fight each other. More times than not, they'll lose interest in Shazadam sitting in the corner. For the record, Shazadam did 30+ damage yesterday, would've been around 50+ without 3 successful impervious rolls by opponents. I particularly liked the oneshot crit on Sinestro.

-Immortal_Raven

Great article! Never thought about the Shock the Turtle for this format.

I love Battle Royale's we did one with Shock the Turtle & king of the hill in play....crazy fun.

The guys I play get all pissy when I gang up on them so I usually just roll a die to decide who to attack first.

If you make to Gencon and we get a battle royale or two in I'll be employing the "eat cheeseburger over the map and get mustard all over it so the other 2 people quit strategy." Works every time I heard. Except when Wizkids is giving away chases to the winner - they people won't even care about the mustard or how many times I've farted.

I've found that a healthy range attack helps determine who attacks who. Everyone feels compelled to move forward, so make sure you're covering the area where your opponent would approach, and he'll rather move off in the other direction.

For instance, if my neighbor is looking at my team of bruisers, or a 12-range Darkseid and Parademons on the other side, where is he safest moving? He may not want to get into a brawl with my figs right away, but there's still more of a cushion on my side where he won't be attacked yet.

Good point all around. This is my favorite format of play I won one with

94 MM e Deadpool +Auto Regen and ICWO
106 MM e Cable + ICWO

Due mostly to the kindess of strangers lol Deadpool was the last one left.

Immortal Raven, you've pegged me perfectly. I am the "revenge/thorn in the side" kinda' guy. (I don't know why...) Pretty much in Battle Royals, if you move towards me, I'm going to attack you. If you attack me, the clix you attack me with is going to die...first. Most guys who play with/against me try to avoid me, and a truce usually breaks out because they don't attack me.

Of course, when someone does "eventually" attack me, I tend to keep my forces together. So it's usually my entire force build vs. half of yours or less. But I am very honorable. I don't attack anyone until they attack me, unless we don't have a truce going. (the object is to "KO" everyone...)

If no truces are going, and no one wants to move towards me, I'll usually attack the "one" clix I don't like. I'll think, " Ms. Marvel (Skrull) will be my first KO..."

Awesome post, that contains a ton of stuff I wish I'd included.

Especially:
-Watch for the unspoken alliance.

I've seen this at big regional events, where a team of players from another venue roll in and use numbers to swing fellowship votes. I suppose it also applies in the BR format (or any format really).

-This may sound a little weird, but watch their eyes.
Never would have thought to point that out, but this is true in most games. When I play Risk, I tend to take a second and gloss over the WHOLE map, rather than just keep looking at where I want to attack. Even if I have no intention of rolling into Asia, I still look there. Body language, as Patrick Jane knows, can give away a lot of secrets.

-Don't Be Afraid to attack a known cry-baby or poor sport.
Nothing bothers me more than this. I've seen players complain about being ganged up on a lot, especially when it's untrue. One thing usually holds out - no one likes to listen to whining, and they are oft eliminated quickly.

On the flip side, think twice about someone who holds a personal grudge.
Oh man - the Blood feud as I like to call it. Spite. You've made it so I can't win, so I'll make sure you don't either. There's really not much you can do once it's started, except calculate the risk of dealing with them versus running. There's also not a great way to prevent this from happening. I've found that people get angry at any number of reasons, and if they unfortunately decide to vent that anger in your direction, there's not much you can do except beat them.

Consider yourself repped, sir.

I only have one guy at my shop that plays, the owner. I enjoy playing with him, but I would like other opponents as well. I would especially like to play a battle royal. But alas, I'm stuck with one on one.