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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member Groups: Member
Joined: 5/31/2010 Posts: 1,628
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I know that games are typically timed to one hour, but my question is, What would you consider a good amount of time for a round, or a phase? And how many rounds do most of you all typically go through before the time limit is up? I understand that the type of squads being played may influence, this so an average time would be great.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member Groups: Member
Joined: 3/27/2008 Posts: 871 Location: Cincinnati, OH
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It's really hard to say, everyone plays a certain way. That's why the 2pt Win for DCI/SWMGPA was added so if you are playing slow but still win you don't get the full points. If you think your opponent is taking too long, you could casually tell them to speed it up and if they don't you can have a judge watch to determine whether it's intentional slow play or not.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member Groups: Member
Joined: 5/31/2010 Posts: 1,628
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Thank you for the response. How many rounds would you say you typically play in an average match because it seems like the group i play with can only ever manage to get through 5-6 rounds before time is up and this seems very slow to me.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member Groups: Member
Joined: 6/5/2009 Posts: 190
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That's likely on the slow side.
They should be playing fast enough to have a reasonable chance to play their squad to victory within the time limit and using about half the available time (ie 30 minutes.)
So if you've scored, for example, 175-160 points in those 5-6 rounds you're probably playing fast enough. You were close to completing the game but things just didn't work out.
If your scores are more like 100-80 when time runs out you're way too slow.
A lot of times it takes an open, friendly, discussion among a whole group to really try to improve this. And things like stopwatches or chess clocks to compare times or egg timers to show when a phase is going far to long can help. A lot of people don't realize they're slow until you show them that it's been your turn for 10 minutes of the game, and their turn for 45 and that's the reason you're in round 4 with five minutes remaining.
But the main thing is to get everyone on the same page about the point of the game being to finish in the time limit, and "winning" on tiebreakers is not really winning.
Most games take about 8-10 rounds to fully complete, so you should be looking at rounds going by about every 6-7 minutes on average. (But there are tons of extenuating circumstances so overall game completion percentage is more important than round-by-round speed.)
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Rank: Moderator Groups: Member
, Moderator
Joined: 9/23/2008 Posts: 1,487 Location: Lower the Hutt, New Zealand
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Episode 63 of the Sith Holonews Network is really good for this! Plus there's a post on swmgamers.com called 'Slow Play' - its really good!
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Rank: Uggernaught Groups: Member
Joined: 1/25/2011 Posts: 34
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Man the games my friend and I play must be comparable to the geological time table. we play 200 point squads and its taken us up to 3 hours or more to complete a game. This could be do to my newness to the game and refering to the rule book pretty often though.
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Rank: Flash Speeder Groups: Member
Joined: 8/5/2008 Posts: 41
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Cmears if your learning the game take your time. The main goal is fun, however long you take (you will speed up as you learn the rules). However, if your playing in a competitive tourney then all the previous comments apply. Good to hear new people are picking up the game.
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Rank: Destroyer Droid Groups: Member
Joined: 5/22/2011 Posts: 30
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cmears wrote:Man the games my friend and I play must be comparable to the geological time table. we play 200 point squads and its taken us up to 3 hours or more to complete a game. This could be do to my newness to the game and refering to the rule book pretty often though. yea just remember, in fun games it's your turn (make the most of it) some good pointers are. If you cant see any clear move then tap two people you are willing to leave standing where they are, or move them into a beter position(even if its only one square). Also if you want some one in a certain place without sticking them out in the open then move them closer to the goal allowing them to make the move with less risk next turn. If your waiting for your opponent to give you an opening then a good idea is to force it, sometimes you will find that you have set the play so that your opponent isn't willing to make and potentialy risky moves, a good trick (but hard to learn) is to predict what your opponent would do and actualy force them to do these risky moves whilst thinking the idea was theirs. (like inception ) the way you would do this is to lower the risk or make them think you are taking the risk (ITS A TRAP!!!), then they would move in and BAM its game on. The game always heats up and goes faster when its in action mode so getting to that point quicker will cause the game to go beter. the last tip is always have a plan before the game starts. if you win map then you should have an idea a to what you will do from each side of it, if you lose map then you have a few mins to decided what you want to do for the first 3 rounds, this will cause the game to go quick (for you) if your opponent is taking to long, a little encouragment can egg them on to make their move (not badgering them, just make it clear that it is their move, or ifthey are taking to long a friendly "come on , lets go" can encourage them to move faster) dont worry about the three hours thing, me and my friends started off like that, now me and my mate can knock a 200-250 game in under 30 mins. it'll pick up as ou go along. A good game is a fast game.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member Groups: Member
Joined: 4/2/2011 Posts: 163 Location: Portland, Oregon
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Getting familiar with the cards and the rules helps. Time spent checking the rulebook or re-reading cards goes down quickly with experience. One thing I've seen people do is get paralyzed by a decision and just not move forward. If someone shoots your Jedi you can't spend a full minute debating whether you want to try a Deflect or save the Force Point for later. Make a decision, angst and deliberation isn't going to result in better decisions most of the time, just slower ones.
One thing I've wanted to try is using a chess clock and just giving each player 30 minutes for their half. Your clock runs out first? You lose.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/20/2009 Posts: 522
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I normally get 8-10 rounds done in a game (provided my opponent isn't playing too slow). Knowing how figures work, thinking several moves ahead, and familiarity with my squad all factor how I develop my play style. As time goes on, you'll get more comfortable with what the capabilities of pieces are. Practicing with a squad and variants of it also help speed up your play time. Eventually, you'll develop your own strategies against certain pieces and squads. Until then, take the time to learn the minis you play with and the minis you play against.
Sincerely, Jester007
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