A team of 9 vs a team of 1. Each round each of "the 9" roll a die to "attack" and "the 1" rolls 9 dice to "defend", the nine dice are preassigned to attackers before the roll, "the 1" cannot choose afterward how to assign them. If the attacker die is higher than the corresponding defender die "the 1" loses a life. Ties always go in favour of "the 1".
Then "the 1" rolls 9 dice to attack and "the 9" roll a die each to defend again assigned before rolling. For each die "the 1" rolls that is higher than or equal to "the 9's" rolls that person loses one life if a member of "the 9" loses 3 lives they are out and can no longer roll, "the 1" also rolls one less die. If "the 1" or every member of "the 9" loses their lives the other team wins.
How many lives should "the 1" have to make this a fair game with a 50% chance of each team winning? The 9 always go first.