The Loose Association of Wargamers

....an on-going series of probably unplayable wargaming mechanisms.

I was watching 'Queen's Gambit' with its chess clocks governing turn time & I had this flash - why not use a time limit on game turns?

OK, not for every game, but how about each player has to finish his turn in X minutes?
It could speed things up but also be a fair approximation of putting players under something like the pressure that a high command might have in a battle. Why weren't those units committed? I forgot they were there/didn't have time to move them? etc.

The difficulty would be in deciding *how* long a turn should be. And it is kind of the antithesis of leisurely, social gaming that is an appeal of the hobby.

Anyway, a daft idea for your amusement.

donald

Space Hulk has a timer for the Marines. It definitely has an impact on the game - for the better I think. It adds levels of stress and tension which make the game

It'd only really work if the time-limit only applied to movement, as it'd ruin the game if there was a limit to the time it took to shoot and settle combats etc aswell.

Might be worth a try and see how it pans out

It's one of a number of things I'd like to trial. Another is deploying your army behind blinds. And another is both players choosing a smaller force from larger rosters, using a points limit.

The finite time idea needs a fair amount of testing before i can bring it to a game with my pals.....that is unless GW hears about me & threatens legal action for infringement.

donald

Put together a big army list for a battle - say 25 units, then dice for each one using percentage dice and only the top scoring 8 or 12 units get to appear depending on the size of game you want to play
In other words you play with what turns up
You could also do this by brigade rather than unit throws and find you end up with a pile of conscripts, no artillery and maybe too many cavalry while the veteran brigade you hoped and planned for is having a a bit of R&R time looting and drinking themselves insensible on pillaged wine in some remote village somewhere

We did use chess clocks for a couple of competitions in Oz. Mainly because we had a couple of players who were inclined to play at a glacial pace anyway and slowed to a near stop when games looked like they were losing.

A time limit for the orders phase is used in Johnny Reb and works pretty well. Units not given an order (token or pinwheel), because you ran out of time or forgot them, go to "Conditional Hold" (CH). That means they can defend themselves and do some minor shuffling and formation changes, but that's it. (The other thing is they must follow the order you gave them or go to CH- there's no changing orders because you made a mistake.) We also used it for the movement phases for the boardgames Highway to the Reich and Terrible Swift Sword, so we'd get at least two turns done on a club night.

Jamanicus wrote: ↑Sun Jul 17, 2022 8:00 am It'd only really work if the time-limit only applied to movement, as it'd ruin the game if there was a limit to the time it took to shoot and settle combats etc aswell.

Might be worth a try and see how it pans out

Applies to everything in SH, that’s what adds the pressure. If you curtail the items it applies to, then you’re defeating the point of the time limit

DougM wrote: ↑Sun Jul 17, 2022 12:49 pm We did use chess clocks for a couple of competitions in Oz. Mainly because we had a couple of players who were inclined to play at a glacial pace anyway and slowed to a near stop when games looked like they were losing.

Yes, I know what you mean. I can recall a doubles game my partner and I had against two "old stagers" in a FoG:R tournament. Having spent forever on their set-up (literally measuring the distances to everything else on their side of the table, including all three edges, for EVERY single unit they put down), they accused us of "deliberately slowing the game down" because we actually conferred during a turn - like once! The outrageous dice they were getting just made it worse.....

As an umpire in a 3 aside game I have used timed moves to keep the game flowing.

The main takeaway from the players was that it stopped them tinkering and actually focused them on their plans.