diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/precedence/BaseQueuePrecedencePolicy.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/precedence/BaseQueuePrecedencePolicy.java
index b8014af7..057508a6 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/precedence/BaseQueuePrecedencePolicy.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/precedence/BaseQueuePrecedencePolicy.java
@@ -38,9 +38,10 @@ implements HasKeyedProperties {
         return kp;
     }
     
-    /** constant precedence to assign; default is 1 */
+    /** constant precedence to assign; default is 3 (which leaves room 
+     * for a simple overlay to prioritize queues) */
     {
-        setBasePrecedence(1);
+        setBasePrecedence(3);
     }
     public int getBasePrecedence() {
         return (Integer) kp.get("basePrecedence");