Are we Taking too long?

[alemon]

Recently a friend of mine has complained that our malifaux games have been taking too long. Malifaux is the only tabletop war game that I play, so I don't have any points of reference. We've recently played a five hour game, and we've been known to go all the way to nine hours. Yesterday the newest player and I played the shortest game of our group (Gremlins versus Colette), clocking in at three hours.

So, Fellas, how long do your games usually last? how long is too long? How long is just right?

[ispep]

Unless its completely new players playing a 4 person 80 point brawl with bio/smoke breaks between each activation, I don't see how you could stretch a game out to 9 hours...

I think my first game was maybe 3 hours, but I tend to over analyze every possible move and was flipping through the book a lot. It seems average games are 90 minutes or less.

It will depend on how well the players know their crew and their opponents crew, what the crews are, what strategy and schemes you have and so forth. But I'd say as long as both players are having fun it isn't too long.

[The Madman]

YES

but

a LOT will depend on how you play...

Getting into a game is FIRST a social contract, if you're B.S.'ing and chatting and having fun- so what

if you're in a tournament- stick to playing shoot thebreeze between the matches

if you're a stickler for EVERY single rule and nuance of interpretation... or the oppsite, still learning... things can run looooong too

having played some other TTG's and even some Compedative CMG's (Star Wars & Heroclix)

IMO

a game of 25-35 ss should take about an hour- hour &half tops

[Poko]

Er...one game? As in, one battle? Yes, you can say it's a bit excessive. The longest Malifaux game I played was 4 hours, because we played 45SS with two masters each. Normal game takes about 2h for 30-35SS. I imagine there's a lot of ordering pizza, chatting and occasional break in those 5h, but it really shouldnt take that long for even moderately experienced players.

[Dragoon130]

Yeah an average for my group is anywhere 30 minutes to an hour and we rarely break that unless I'm corrupting new players.

[alemon]

Ok, thanks you guys. To be clear, we usually play with three people total (I know, I know) hovering around 35ss. The three hour game was with two people, still at 35ss.

The problem, I think, lies with the amount of crews we have to choose from. Any crews owned are fair game for everyone to use, so we usually spend the games playing new crews or new versions of the crews.

[Amarel]

Meh, we generally take about 3 hours for a 35SS game. But then we like to chew the cud and discuss stuff as we go - it's all about the having fun, after all, and people enjoy different bits of the experience.

[tenabrae]

Yeah an average for my group is anywhere 30 minutes to an hour and we rarely break that unless I'm corrupting new players.

Similar here, at 30-35ss a game should be taking around 45 minutes. I run 1:15 rounds (6 turn game limit) in my tournies and usually only the newbies or people playing summoners go over.

[Talos]

I am new to the game and for me a 25ss game takes about an hour and a half. That includes me asking questions and having to look up rules.

Playing my first 30ss game soon so shall see how long that takes.

[Ciaran]

As you get used to the rules, and become more confident in your decision making, I'm sure most of you will find your time cut down, if you want it to.

We play a Scrap of almost any points value in about forty five minutes unless we're looking a lot up. We play most Brawls in about an hour and fifteen minutes (including our largest, 80ss monster). We often find that the added models don't slow us down that much as we get into the games.

That's us though, we're all pretty experienced gamers, both war, and role playing.

[Ciaran]

To address the original question: You're only taking too long if you both feel you're taking too long.

There are ways to pick the pace of your game up if that's a concern.

1.As you become more familiar with the rules a lot of that will come naturally.

2. Play more strategy games, particularly turn based, I suggest board games. This is a tough one as no one ever wants to play games....other than Malifaux! This will help your decision making speed (which often is tied to confidence).

3. More specifically: Play resource management games. This part of the game throws a lot of newer players, which is a major facet of the beautiful system Wyrd has in place. I have started to play a lot of resources management board games, which are far less forgiving than most computer games. It seems it's helped my Malifaux game immensely.

4. Read the forums! Seriously, this has helped a lot. It gives us all a base understanding to work from. A friend is a Master's student right now, I end up giving him the Reader's Digest version, lately more tailored for his crews. Every single game he plays with new knowledge he does better.

5. Do an after action: Talk about your game with your opponent. Discuss things that could have gone better, rules issues, strategies that worked, strategies that didn't, and things that might need to be figured out for the future.

In fact, for anyone that wants to learn this game those would be my suggestions anyway. Up front it sounds like a ton of work, it really isn't once you train yourself a bit to do them.

[daemonkin]

I have found that playing the same crew a few times helps a lot to reduce the amount of look ups and gets it into your head what the models are capable of.

We can play a 30ss game in about an hour. Haven't gone above that in terms of points yet.

But still, it's a social game, if those 9 hours are spent having a laugh and a giggle then where is the harm?

D.

[Berman]

3 people games do tend to take a lot longer.

When we've doen it they do run in the 3-4hr mark.

Typical games are 2 players 30-35ss. We tend to run right about 2hrs. With some bsing and casual speed of play.

[Svenn]

9 hours?! I just can't imagine what you were doing with 30-35ss that lasted 9 hours. Did you take a several hour break?

[nilus]

Well if you are having fun then who cares how long it takes.

For tourney play we generally do hour and a half rounds for 35 SS games. Causal play games of 35 SS tend to take closer to two hours in my parts but that figured in all the time BSing and chatting and such.

Adding a third player can easily push the game into the 3 hour mark.

[paradox]

30-35ss seems to take 1 1/2 to 2 hours, if both people have a general handle on the game, at least arond here.

That's a tad longer than a "typical" sized game of, say, Warmachine might take locally (35 or 50pts in about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours), but shorter than playing a "typical" Warhammer or 40K game will (2000 to 2500pts in about 3 hours).

Of course, time also depends on how much D!#king around you do and/or how many rules questions Mav or Nerd gets if you're playing them.

[Xango]

9 hours!! not even a 12000 points warhammer last that long!, my first 2 games at 30ss as a newbie and with pandora that is hard to manage took no more than 3 hours even with smoke breaks, in www.boardgamegeek.com search malifaux and go to the files section, there you will find a reference sheet that can help you speed things up, greetings.

[macgowan]

Alemon, you answered your own question in the original post. Gaming is like sex. If they're complaining, you're doing something wrong. Fix it or get a new partner.

Why are your games so long? Too much meta? Stubbornly fighting out a lost cause? Don't know rules or crews? Here are my top tips:

1. Play smaller-sized games, 25-30 SS. ESPECIALLY if there are rules questions or you're trying out new models.

2. Don't worry about your opponent's crew. Go through the Strategies and build a list for each. It's not like the scenario is a surprise in this game!

3. When someone's not having fun, they should concede and play a new game.

Multiplayer - Play 2 against 1. This will speed up the game a LOT and ensure nobody has too much down time.

Good luck, and HAVE FUN!

[TimeLapse]

Just a quick question are you guys flipping for the end of the game on turn 6, only to find that you have another turn? how meny turns do you normaly play?

Just wondering.

-Andrew

[DangerousBeans]

When we started playing a game would usually take around 2-3 hours for 25ss (well, box battles). Now we're more experienced a 35ss game usually takes around 1.5-2hrs, including faffing and time for a power-pee/power-fag. We usually limit it to 5 turns too as we have to be cleared out the club for half ten.

I suspect that as you play more your games will speed up, although playing a 3 player will probably tack on at least another hour to the average time.

edit: To echo Ciaran, talking about a game afterwards helps immesurably speed up next time as you have presidence for any time consuming issues that may arise.

Edited September 7, 2010 by DangerousBeans