I played a game just now, map normal earth, where the continents where divided between 3 players. Each was defending his borders with large forces. Now to attack would mean you and 1 enemy lose their largest force, so the 3rd player wins. This resulted in a stalemate where no one could win. My question is, how to set up the game to prevent this from happening. Maybe some great attack bonus, to deter people from turteling?

There are a few settings you can play with.

For one thing, cards. If you make the cards more powerful, it increases the incentive to keep attacking. If a player doesn't attack, they don't get cards and will quickly fall behind another player that's getting cards.

Another thing to try is the [army cap](http://wiki.warlight.net/index.php/Army_Cap). This puts an upper limit on the number of armies you can stockpile - once you reach the limit, you stop getting new armies and are forced to attack someone if you want to keep growing.

- turn on / increase fog and restrict intelligence (spy, recon, surveillance cards): without exactly knowing eachothers strength, people have to play more aggressive or they risk the other players becoming too strong
- use the army cap to avoid indefinite arms races
- grant extra armies for X territories controlled to encourage further expansion
- use wastelands / abandon cards / blockade cards to add more variation to the map and give more tactical options
- change attack / defense modifiers - how about a game where attacking armies are more effective than defending armies?

stand off, stalemate, blob stare

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1204573

you could of course have made a deal with one of your opponents to take out the other.

you could also hide your stack by pulling back or start stacking behind...and making them guess where you're stacking. Then you can surprise them by showing up somewhere else with a stack...or come back to the choke point with a big stack.

With misdirection you can do a lot

samurai, that one was hardly over. You can sacrifice some armies for expansion...or even go back door to threaten...then attack the lower amount blob

Samurai, there was nothing about that game which mandated a stalemate. Once two opposing armies get large enough, adding 7 more doesn't make much of a difference. Green could have taken North America without being seen, and Orange could have taken Asia without being seen.

A 1v1 game should almost never reach a stalemate like that, unless the map literally only has one way to reach your opponent.

It was a no fog game guys ^^

no fog games are the leading cause of stalemates.. in 2-24 player games

Friends don't let friends play no fog?

I don't think the occasional stalemate is that bad, call it a draw and vote to end.
Means nobody wins and players were equally strong in that game.
chess ends in draws so often. nothing wrong with that.

even with no fog there was more to be had in that game. On the bright side, no one lost

Tic Tac Toe ends in draws too