How Long Is Your

MichaelStockin

MichaelStockin

Lord
Typical game?

Over on another forum someone described a two hour game as a long slog.
I am guessing Mordheim is easily done in that time, but a typical WFB game takes a good while longer.
 
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As youngsters ages! A game would take a good solid day at whoever's place, hell it might take an hour to set the game up. I'm going to say 3-4 hours at least for most games back in the day. These days I might be a little more conservative on my army selection and not try to field every single model I own so they might be little quicker - unless I spend half the time trying to find my reading glasses of course. I last played Mordheim at Beachhead and think that was probably maybe a 1.5hrs ish game?
 
two hours is a slog? I haven't played for years mostly due to lack of people (there MIGHT be some people locally I could play with, But I don't know them and I'm unable to be more social to get to met them.. (So if anyone is able to play in the Hastings-Battle-Bexhill area, Hi ya! I know a couple of nice places I can sort out to play at) but I remembered for both WFB and 40K 2-3 hours was probably average though could probably be faster depending on things.

Though me and a few friends do play Heroquest quarterly (so it is taking some time) which we probably get 2 missions in 3 hours but we are a bit laid back and a fair amount of talking going on at the same time.
 
Eric said:
As youngsters ages! A game would take a good solid day at whoever's place, hell it might take an hour to set the game up. I'm going to say 3-4 hours at least for most games back in the day. These days I might be a little more conservative on my army selection and not try to field every single model I own so they might be little quicker - unless I spend half the time trying to find my reading glasses of course. I last played Mordheim at Beachhead and think that was probably maybe a 1.5hrs ish game?
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Yeah given the freedom of youth a whole day could be worked over, now death encroaches (!) I'd say 1.5-3 hrs, but I'm going for a big one at BOYL next year.
 
Since moving to the West Country, I've adopted a Cadbury's Caramel bunny 'Take it easy'/'Why are you rushing around?' approach to things. Today, I learnt that Miriam Margoyles did the voice which is (1) surprising (2) disturbing.
 
I have what is probebly the world largest Cadbury's Caramel Bunny merchandise collection ^_^; also, she was the original voice (and it's a shame that in real life these days, she is such a
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but was replaced in the 90s with Tara Flynn. The few places which even remember enough to know about Tara Flynn says she was just the voice in ireland but that was wrong. When in the 90s they introduced the new 'nuts about caramel' they had her record some new lines so at the end of the advert the voice over of Bunny would say about Cadbury's caramel and new Nuts about Caramel (which was caramel's cadbury polluted with nuts).

and no.. I don't have enough space to be able to show off all my collection in one go. I know of only a couple of pieces I don't have but they are VERY rare in that they are mostly shop display stuff. Rarer then the rarest piece in my collection, which is a 90s officially Cadbury cameral hot air balloon team jacket which was only given to members of the hot air balloon team. So yeah, that was probably no more then 20 or so made. very nice jacket ^_^
 
I'm with the 'takes most of a day' crowd. Not that I get to play that much but I have noted the shameless cheating and utterly filthy lists have gotten a little better since the heady days of my early teens. Well to be exact, the other players are definitely better behaved...:roll:
 
Mostyn said:
I'm with the 'takes most of a day' crowd. Not that I get to play that much but I have noted the shameless cheating and utterly filthy lists have gotten a little better since the heady days of my early teens. Well to be exact, the other players are definitely better behaved...:roll:
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These days I'd rather lead an entire army of doomed halflings to valiantly retreat towards dinner than try and max out a few chaos champs with unbeatable combo weapons and armour. It's so much more fun trying to get little Gerry to outrun a dragon.
 
I tend to prefer shorter games. Two hours is pretty typical, but it very much depends on what we're playing. Most of the time it's Full Thrust or Pulp Alley. Modified RT tends to run a little longer, but we can knock one off fairly quickly most of the time by keeping the number of models reasonable. (Don't ask how many points. I really don't know. We don't count. But let's say maybe three to six squads to a side is our usual RTMod, except for the occasional survival game or the "just throw it all on the table" festivals.)
 
Depends on the game, something skirmishy like Necromunda or Mordheim it's usually over and charts consulted post game in under a couple of hours. If it's a game of 40k or Fantasy then it's done when it's done, you can't rush these things.

Can't see me taking part in a 3 day 40k sesh again though, I like my sleep these days, being awake for more than 5 minutes now is an inconvenience. 😆
 
In my experience, from the games I have played, this is how I'd categorize each game I've done and played:
  • Warhammer 40,000 7th Ed: 1 to 5 hours, varying on opponent, and primarily if I'm getting curbstomped by Turn 2.
  • Warhammer 40,000 8th Ed: 1 to 2 hours, same as before, but worse.
  • Warhammer 40,000 9th and 10th Ed: 1 hour, it's the same as the last two, but even worse, in fact, it's very bad experience. Hell, I'd be lucky if it gets past 1 hour, and then if it does, it becomes 6+ hours because of all the rules you need to flip through.
  • Warhammer 40,000 3rd Ed: 3 to 6 hours, varying on opponent, army comp, and difficulty of the battle itself. This one's honestly the most fun since I rarely notice the hours spent with the wargame, but I also exclusively played it online, so the time to set up is far lower than it is IRL wise.
  • Warhammer Fantasy 8th Ed: 4 to 8 hours, this is because the edition is a bit bloated with Special Rules, and Rules upon Rules, and flipping through army books, and having to deal with people who aren't really finesse with the system, but are also tryin' to break it as much as possible.
  • Warhammer Fantasy 6th Ed: 2 to 4 hours. Doesn't really ever get past that, and that's mostly because again, playing online, and also again, it's with people who are enjoying the game for what it is, though it also feels to be the most fluidly paced games with minimal needed rules, while maximizing narrative enjoyment. Only flaw with 6th I will say is there's no Empire General disappointingly.
  • Warhammer Fantasy 3rd Ed: Only played it once properly, and it took about 5 hours. Surprisingly doesn't require that much book flipping, and since I already knew other editions of Warhammer, it helped greatly when looking into 3rd's rule set.
  • Battletech: 5 to 8 hours. This isn't because of the game itself being clunky, or the players bein' awful, it's the setup time, plus it being a You Go I Go alternative activation style, where you move one model, then I move another model, etc. etc. It gets really sluggish, but it's like with Warhammer 40K 3rd, I rarely notice the time going by, and it's enjoyable none the less. Oh and other reason that it gets longer in time length is because of how many mechs are on the board, with a Lance of 4 vs another Lance of 4 being relatively the 5 hour mark, while larger formations such as Company V Company can get into the 8 hour mark, even ended up in a game with Battalion V Battalion that took multiple days to complete.
  • AD&D 2e: 4 to 8 hours. This is based on DM and how long he's willin' to go, but in my experience, normally it's about the 4 hour range when in RP heavy sessions, while combat heavy ones can get up to 8 hours due to the complex planning players tend to do.
  • Warmahordes: 2 hours max I've done. It's one of those games that by Turns 2 or 3 you already know who won straight up regardless of planning, because it's a game system that's deadset in being as comp heavy as it physically can be. Not my cup of tea in terms of game system, but highly intriguing universe.
  • Infinity: 2 to 3 hours. It's a skirmish game, so rarely goes super long, but it does feel sluggish, and unlike with previous games, with exception to the ones I have negative experiences in, Infinity kinda feels like it's name sake honestly.
  • Mordeheim: 1 to 4 hours, depending on Warband pairing and mission objectives. This one's simple, not that complicated. Also, love Mordeheim, Gorkamorka, and Necromunda for all the same reasonings as the other, which is narratively fun, and it's campaign focused, so, great enjoyment with that.
  • Gorkamorka: 1 to 4 hours, depending on the power scale of the Warbands, and depending on mission objectives.
  • Necromunda: 1 to 3 hours, quicker because of much more tighter boards, in that they're smaller in scale, and being very kill happy, so, moves quicker.
  • Legion Imperialis (Modern Epic): 1 to 4 hours. Honestly the system isn't insane, and isn't too stupid, thank God too, but it's likely because I'm currently trying it out in a narrative sense, rather than a comp or a pickup sense.
  • Battlefleet Gothic: 6 to 48 hours, this one's actually kinda drastic from most of these games, as while in Battletech, multiple days can be a rare occurrence, I've noticed once you hit 2k pts in Battlefleet Gothic, it gets REALLY long and bogged down because of rules flippin' and makin' sure your positionin' is right. But God damn is it fun to play. Seriously enjoy it for what it is.
  • Five Leagues from the Borderlands: 45 minutes to 2 hours. It's a solo wargame, so minimal player issue, since it's just you, vs an pseudo AI system. Rules are simple and easy to follow, and game isn't too complicated, and with it being a Skirmish scale, it really does go really fast.
  • Five Parsecs from Home: 45 to 2 hours. It's the same issue as Five Leagues, but for Scifi side of things than fantasy.
  • Rangers of Shadow Deep: 1 hour to 2 hours. It's a solo RPG / Wargame mix, where it functions like a D&D campaign, but solo, and it isn't too bad, especially since it's pretty enjoyable of a system.
  • Pike & Shot: 2 to 4 hours, but hadn't played much, so, my experience's been mostly with other newbies to the system.
  • Warhammer Historical, Wild West: 2 to 5 hours. Because it's using similar systems as Warhammer, easy to pick up and play, and it's a skirmish scale, so easy to follow.

And that's all the games I can think of at the current moment. If I remember anymore, might post them up as well to give an idea how long each game gets. But personally, length of a game shouldn't matter, what should matter is the enjoyment you get out of it, and whether you want to simply loose yourself in the enjoyment, or keep a time crunch as best as you can. These games can get shorter based on your tastes, and how prepped you are, and can be sped through with minimal issue if you know the rules like the back of your hand. But at the end of the day, as long as you're havin' fun, then that's what's important.
 
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Our campaign games (8th ed) take a LONG time, 6+ hours. Then ... for my sins ... my new method is to leave the table set up, use my pencil notes and the fuzzy original pictures to reposition everything as it occured each moment in the game, so that I can take focused pictures for the battle report. This latter exercise can take 5-8 evenings to do!

It could be easier if I had a better means of taking the pictures, but I am stubborn in the use of my cheap and old equipment!

TBH, I am exhausted! ;)

Edit: And yeah, players do also forget / not know / twist the rules, and that slows the games down too
 
^You get such exceptional results, though. Maybe they justify the time invested? I'm certainly grateful. (And trying to learn. Borrowed your chair technique for a recent post myself.)
 
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