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Warlords Unlimited Player Chess

20, 30 players or more establish alliances, target other players or groups and coordinate strategy through messaging.
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For instance I might be "No-life-chess-nurd-216", one of 30 player for this round. At the beginning of play I'd pick various other nurds and send out alliance proposals. These might be genuine or a ruse, you wouldnt' know. Then we'd band together and target other individuals or groups. The group might even assign a commander in chief, general etc.

One scenario might be that a group of 4 players through coordinated efforts wipe out the other groups one at a time, but then comes the interesting part. There's only going to be one winner, so the alliances will need to break down into smaller groups that turn on each other.

Four or more player chess is well known to exist, but as far as I know the strategy of aliances, back stabbing, subterfuge etc (like found in the real world) hasn't been explored. The game woudn't be so much chess as alliance building (and destruction). Could do it with checkers as well but that would just be silly.

A1 has this been done? You're the go-to guy for researching this kind of stuff.

doctorremulac3, Apr 09 2022

Kinda like this? Anarchist_20Chess
[21 Quest, Apr 09 2022]

Probably more like this, in practice. https://www.youtube...watch?v=aOYbR-Q_4Hs
The Game Prototype That Had to Be Banned by Its Own Studio (youtube video) [Loris, Apr 09 2022]

[link]






       Is this played on a single board?
pocmloc, Apr 09 2022
  

       Yes, virtual though. The main point of the game is secret communication between alliances. It would be as big as the amount of players would require.   

       I'm thinking you would actually use classic war strategies of pincer movements, feints, etc.   

       There's a thing that Genghis used to do where he'd have expendable troops, captured men that were basically told you can die now or go onto the battlefield with us and at least have a chance. He'd attack a city with these poorly trained troops who would get massacred giving the enemy a false sense of superiority, meanwhile the hardened elite cavalry would encircle the battle and close in killing anything they could, probably even their own captured fake soldiers.   

       This would be similar to that. It would not be a nice game. As far as I know there's not a game out there other than politics that requires basically being incredibly evil. But if your "allies" know it's temporary and eventually your buddy will be your enemy, hey, all part of the game.
doctorremulac3, Apr 09 2022
  

       Yea, some similarities with both the links.   

       Pretty crazy, might be as interesting as a sociological experiment as it would a game.   

       Seems like this would encourge the very worst human traits. Lying, deception, manipulation, basically pure evil. Would there even be a way to win this by being honest and trustworthy? Dhunno.   

       Wonder if sociopaths would excel at it.
doctorremulac3, Apr 09 2022
  

       Tricky to do this on an open chess board.
RayfordSteele, Apr 09 2022
  

       Yea, it could be like those chess masters who play 20 games at a time but you'd add the intrigue (for lack of a better term) of forming alliances. And breaking them eventually.   

       Wonder if it would be fun or if it would just piss everybody off like the game in Loris's link did.
doctorremulac3, Apr 09 2022
  

       A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
neutrinos_shadow, Apr 10 2022
  

       You have to play
pocmloc, Apr 11 2022
  

       My nephew is a video game designer, he's currently starting his own company and he knows about this phenomenon. I gather it's a matter of taste, some people like the subterfuge involved with this sort of thing, some take it a little too seriously (as shown in the link Loris put up)   

       He thinks this idea would sell. Maybe I'll hire him to design it.   

       By the way, not to brag (but I will) a good buddy of mine was Santa Clara County chess champion in our youth (Stanford guy, went on to become a professor. Total brainiac.) and we played a game that I almost won. I accused him of letting me get close just to play with me, and he said "I would never disrespect you like that. You were not an easy victory at all." I always thought that was pretty cool. And he wasn't just being nice. He didn't do "just being nice" and was kind of put off by my accusation.
doctorremulac3, Apr 11 2022
  

       Then again, it can be hard for champs to play against novices, as we novices can be unpredictable. Chaos can be a superpower.
RayfordSteele, Apr 11 2022
  

       //Chaos can be a superpower//
Way (waaay) back when I played cricket, my bowling was like that. Such utter garbage, the batter had no idea what the hell might be coming at them.
neutrinos_shadow, Apr 11 2022
  
      
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