Modifying the games' start set up for a better fairness!

Here is a suggestion that I believe will make the games better for everyone:

It would be better if you could change the game set up so in the first round of every game, no matter how many territories or continents each player controls, everyone receives the same amount of additional troops.

This way if everyone starts with 16 territories in a 6 player game, even the last person in the queue would receive 5 additions although he might only have 11 territories by the time he/she starts the turn.

Also if a player is lucky enough to land a whole continent by random, he would still be getting the same amount of troops in the first round.

You should have witnessed the games were by the time a player reaches his turn, not only he has lost a few territories, but he now gets half the troops others received prior to him starting. Which would put him in a very hard situation at the start and also throughout the game.

I am not sure if this can be coded, but if doable, I believe it would add to the fairness of all future games.

The amount of territories in a map is chosen in such a way that this happens very rarely. Also, the difference is at most one troop. I think that is part of the "bad luck" being last, but there are certain privileges as well. I don't think it should be changed. I have never lost a game because of this.

This would be easy to code but it will only happen if a majority wants it done and all the admins want it done. If you think it's important then point everyone you play with to this thread and have them convince us. You'll have to change Cireon's mind too, he's pretty important around here.

Hi Cireon,

I understand your point. But being last is enough bad luck I guess, it would get worse if you also receive less troops, specially in big maps like World extended, where I witness, on a regular basis, the last players in an 8 player game receiving 2 troops less than others.

Wouldn't this make it fairer?? The more we try to make the game fair the better quality games we play. Don't you agree?

Appreciate the feedback,

Kaveh

I will try to direct other players to this topic

I remember playing on board with my friends and someone getting Australia in the draft! back then we didn't know what to do, so we decided to give him the same amount of troops as others. This random draft luck rarely happens.

But the other issue (losing your territories before your turn), happens most of the times in 7p+ games with lesser experienced players in it.

I strongly agree that being the last one to play in large games in enough bad luck, and all players should receive the same amount of troops for the first round.

I'm not really that keen on changing the rules of the game for the first round. 

I suggest that the odd territories (currently neutral) be allocated from the last player up, which should help make up for the obvious disadvantage of starting last eg. on a 42 territory map, 8 player game the first 6 players would start with 5 territories while the last 2 would receive 6.

It doesn't make that much of a difference to me.

i think that not specialy improtent when you had 3 , 4 or more players in game, everithing else is litlle skill and lot of luck

I believe that the disadvantage of going last in a match is balanced by the fact that this player also has to turn in last if they play their cards right. Turning in last usually means a higher troop turn in value compared to the person that goes first in a match usually having to turn in first and taking the least amount of troop turn in. The game naturally balances this problem out. I believe we should keep it the way it is.

Though, it's not hard to turn in last if you really want. If player 1 skipped a card for 1 round, he would turn in last and he would have had an extra turn bonus.

Having played many '3 reinforcement deathmatches' where a lot of my troops are in the way of many who wish to take a bonus region and their turns are before mine, by the time I get my first turn (for example) I have only 5 - 6 unlinked territories remaining out of 9 - 10 and look like a nice easy target for everyone, but especially those who just got their bonus regions, effectively out of the game before even taking 1 turn and would still only get 3 troops regardless.
On the flip side, landing a lucky bonus region on the drop and playing 1st, 2nd or 3rd, even getting the same reinforcements as everyone else, would make no difference to the game, I'd still get to keep the bonus region and be stronger.
Luck is luck and lesser experienced players will slay your blocking troops without a second thought.

However, Villain191's suggestion (Post #7) actually makes more sense (Deathmatch only).

I know that some rules on this site are different than in Risk, but I'm pretty sure that in the actual Risk board game that everyone is supposed to start with the same number of troops first round no matter what for this exact reason. 

As for people saying that when going last you get the benefit of the card turn ins increasing, this does not help in fixed games where the first person to get cards is the best off.

Also in increasing or capped card bonus games if the first person chooses they may simply place their troops and end their turn effectively making them the last to turn in while getting a few extra starting troops which negates the benefit of starting last.

Essentially I feel like it is already difficult enough to start last that it doesn't make any sense to be punished further when you lose countries without having a turn.

I forgot to mention this above but it making this change would also negate the need for map makers to avoid maps with total territories of 36-38 and 45-51 since it removes the chance for the disadvantage altogether.