I think the 3/2 system helps. The drop of activations also helps.

I do have to laugh, in one of my games at the MI Regional, my opponent was quite impressed with how many rounds we got in in the last 10 minutes. It was at least 5, in addition to the fair amount we had already gotten in.

Amen! It is SO much more fun this way. But - I like tournaments, so gotta play differently.


I think a lot of what Jim said is great. I would like to add a few things though.

I have had many games lately where the other player is playing slow. Not because they were novices, and not because they were stalling. It was because I put them in a bad position and there was no good move. I could see them cycling through all possibilities in their mind on how to proceed, and coming up with death for themselves each time. I am not saying this is a valid reason for playing slower, but it does happen. It is not just the novices. In fact - I often see it more in experienced players. They tend to see the folly in bad moves, and are searching for better ones. Novices just go ahead and move, then see why it was bad afterward.

Also - 2 pt wins happen. That's OK. I have had virtually all 3 pt wins this year, (actually I think I HAVE had all 3 point wins this year, not counting the sole loss). But that's not to say in certain match-ups a 2 point win wouldn't happen.

The key is you have to be working towards victory conditions. This does include Gambit. If you have your rock melee squad in gambit, it is the other person's responsibility to engage you. You are allowed to sit in gambit all day and force them to come to you - you do not have to chase them down into the far corner of the map. If you are in gambit and your opponent is not, and they refuse to engage, call over a judge. If you are both not in gambit - you'll likely both get a warning. If you are both in gambit (but on other siders of a wall like on the destroyed bunker map), then it's a judges call.

In MO regional I out-activated everyone, but still played quicker. It should go quick to move a bunch of scrubs. It also should be noted that some moves are inherently going to take much longer. For example - it's not fair to just see how long someone takes for a single activation - the judge needs to see how a full round unfolds. When I played the lancer people would take forever moving their 10 figures desperately trying to find places to hide. During that time I would instantly spin my pieces. Then at the end I would have to count out 72 spaces for the lancer's path (24 + 24 from the Pawn + 24 start of the next round with the MTB) in multiple ways, and they would complain it took too long - not even realizing how long they took before in the round.

It always seems like the other person is taking longer than you. You're just sitting waiting while they are thinking.

Also - some squads match-ups just inherently take longer. You have to know that when you build a squad. You have to know how to deal with that. It wasn't uncommon when I played the lancer to have only 3 rounds in in the first 30 minutes, but end the game in 45. Slower going in the beginning, but then it's lightning fast.

Bottom line - You have to try and finish in an hour. Build with that in mind. Play with that in mind.



This is key - outplaying your opponent. I think it is possible to outplay your opponent and get a 2 pt victory. In some cases, you can even accept the 2 pt victory (keep in mind if no action happens after 5 rounds the games ends regardless). If you are in Gambit, your opponent is not and it's the better move for you to just take the 2 pt win - you can, and it is legal. With super high defense and soresu style mastery stupidness back in play, games could literally go forever. You have outplayed your opponent if they cannot engage (or are too scared to engage), you are in gambit and ahead on points. Press the advance to get a 3pt at the risk of losing, or take the sure 2pt win. Your call there. Both are legal. How does a Lancer beat Nom Bombs? By playing carefully and cagey - taking only what they give you, and it will likely be a 2 pt win. Obviously try and get the 3 point win, but in certain match-ups it is less likely to happen.

Also - I would encourage judges to not be shy about a warning. Go ahead and give it, in fact give a double warning if they are both not playing fast enough. Then you can erase it (yes you have a right as the judge to erase it) if the game finishes in under an hour. If you think about it - it makes sense: The goal is to finish under an hour. It appeared at first that was not going to happen. But it did happen, so it negates the warning. I was never so mystified as when I got a warning 2 years ago for slow play in a game I finished. I won the game in 5 rounds, and the judge said we should have got more rounds in sooner. WHAT!?! I FINISHED the game, it doesn't matter that the first 3 rounds took 30 minutes. In my opinion - I think the warning should have been erased. I have no problem with a judge saying - if this game doesn't finish, you will receive a slow play warning. If that doesn't speed things up, I don't know what will.

With our group's slowest player, one problem he has is that he just doesn't know his cards that well, and has to check them out each time he makes a move. While I know if I'm playing Ganner, my main options are either to Levitate someone, Force Push someone, Lightsaber Sweep, or just make a normal attack; it makes it much faster if you have a finite list of options in your head and can just pick one.

There was a SHNN on this last year, I think; one thing I remember them saying is that there can be a move or two where you can take a little while to figure stuff out, but most of the time you should be able to make your moves really quickly.

I have major issues playing against the Lancer; it takes me ages to work out the positioning of all my pieces against it; I just haven't played against it often enough.

Just for fun I got two 30 second sand timers. If your opponent did not move in that time you got to activate one of his characters, and it couldn't move, but it could do anything else. Jak and I played a game like this. 30 seconds is alot of time.

Yeah, this is important to remember. It's fine if during a game you spend a while (a few minutes, tops) figuring out a single really big turn or phase. Many games hinge on a single big turn (especially with something like Lancers to worry about), so you can spend a little extra time figuring those turns out. You have to make up for this, though, by doing your other turns very quickly. An average game that doesn't get completed in an hour should still last at least 6 rounds; that's an average of 10 minutes per round. That's a lot of time! And that means that if you finish most of the round in 2 minutes, you can spend a couple minutes on one or two activations that round. Don't push it to 10 minutes just because you can, of course, but if you did everything else fast you can focus on the important move a little longer. Just don't do this more than a 2 or maybe 3 times per game, and you still need to keep it to a reasonable amount of time.

The other key I think is what Jim mentioned: You must play as fast as needed to complete the game in time. If that's too fast for you to really think through and make the ideal move, well, then you're just going to have to make a less ideal move