In less than a week, the Imperial Assault World Championship (Worlds) will take place in Minnesota. In addition to the traditional skirmish tournament that many players will partake in, Fantasy Flight Games is also hosting a side event – a four-player, Free-For-All skirmish tournament. For all the time I’ve spent practicing and analyzing the traditional two-player variant, I’ve given the four-player skirmish modes very little thought. Sure, I’ve played this mode occasionally with my friends, but never reflected on how one can best position themselves to win. Hence, I find this a good time to do some theory-crafting on four-player skirmishes.

As any seasoned competitive player could tell you, two-player competitive games are largely about being able to anticipate your opponent’s maneuvers. For instance, on Jabba’s Palace, can you send a unit into the pit to claim an objective without your opponent following after you? Does your opponent need to send one or two units to secure the objective from you? If he or she does follow you into the pit, are you at an advantage when it comes to the combat between the remaining units? Creating a decision tree and analyzing the best course of action is the way to engage with these questions. This, however, becomes hard in four-player skirmish, as it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to play around your opponents’ options, because instead of one threat, you now have three. Combine this with special maps and objectives – and it turns out that four-player skirmish is an entirely different beast when it comes to strategy in comparison to its two-player brethren.

Therefore, I found this to be the perfect opportunity to share my thoughts on the four-player, free-for-all variant of skirmish. Enjoy!