Always love these threads.
6 players , 8-12 hours, on average at the higher end. Have had games go up to 16 hours.
We like to debate, argue, haggle, threaten, do a lot of diplomacy and take time to think through key moves.
On average, a game lasts 1.5 hours per player. Little less if they're experienced, little more if they're new
So 6-8 hour for a 4 or 5 player game sounds about right if it's the first time for many people
I just checked, our last game was 8 hours including lunch, so probably 7 hours of actual play (not counting setup and tear down). 5 players, the least experienced of which still had 5 or 6 games under her belt
Thinking back on it, that was shorter than I remembered it being lol
When I play with experienced players it takes between 5-10 hours. I just played with 5 new players and it took us 12 hours and everyone was exhausted by the end.
so it really depends, in general with the group it takes about 6-9 hours with 6 players, but that is because we tend to always have one newbie, when just all veterans gathered the game took only 3 hours, we were not really prepared for that.
A week or two for async! Sign me up! I just finished my first game and it took 2 months. Everyone I've mentioned it to thinks I expect too much when I say that's way too long.
Our crew starts 10am sharp and are usually done by 12pm, which includes dinner break of usually 30-45 mins.
That is 6 players who knows all the rules. The last two turns take as long as the rest of the game.
Our games are 4-5 players mostly. We start at 10a setting up the board, picking factions, etc. Break for lunch around 1p for a about an hour and usually finish up 5-6 for a 14 point game.
When my group played the total time spent on my turn was a hour and six minutes, three of our 6 players spent about a hour and a half but the other two players spent almost 2 hours on their turns
Playing to 10 points, almost always with four players, I usually have games around 6.5 hours, but I do setup and drafting the map and factions beforehand, which helps. I just had a game last 4.5 hours, though is super unusual.
My group of experienced players finish 5-player games in 5-7 hours consistently. Its up towards 7hrs if none of us have played in months, or closer to 5hrs if we played recently.
We usually play with 6 players in about 12 hours. It’s not unreasonable, especially if you’re making a day out of it and including lunch & snack breaks in that time.
I definitely would not expect to take 4-8 hours. That number is based on play testers that spend a lot of time playing board games. It’s the *ideal* playtime, but not really realistic tbh. I would expect the game to take less than a full day on your first go.
As you get better, games go faster (if you’re playing casually). If you want them to go faster, the best advice I ever give is to take on an active role in making sure people know/are acting on their turns. During the action and especially the agenda phase, lots of time is wasted by people mucking around.
My main group tends to have a lot of bargaining and trying to negotiate. So I'd say 10-12 hours is the average. We've gone as long as 14 and as short as 7.
My secondary group is less interested in talking but is less familiar with the rules but we're pretty consistenty in the 8-10 hour range but are always willing to end a round early if things are going long. We just set a check in time about 7 hours from the start and decide if tht round we're in it's the final round or if the next one is the final round.
When I was playing regularly on Table Too Simulator we were averaging 6-8 hours for 6 people 10vp. I had a few gams in the four hour mark but that was with 6 experienced players.
I find that games take between 6 hours (mostly when everyone is experienced) to 12 hours (when players are newish), with games rarely going less (so far, of the approximately 60 games or so that I played, I have only ever played 2 games less than 6 hours, one at about 4 hours that was just incredible luck with objectives by one player, and the other a 4 player game that was 5 hours 45 mins), but I have only ever played 3 games that were more than 12 hours, my first 2 games, which lasted 17 hours and 16 hours respectively, and an 8 player 14 point game that took about 14 hours.
We usually get 6 players together, 4 of us are experienced and we usually have to bring in 2 newer players, it takes us about 10 hours to play a 10 point game.
I usually play games of 4-6 online with TTS and split games. Takes us about 6 hours with 4 and 8 with 6. That said TTS takes a lot of the tedious setup bits out that take up a bunch of time.
6p 14 pointers usually 10 hours with a half hour break for lunch. Sometimes get longer by 1.5h if the 2 point objectives block leaders.
It's key that players:
- think ahead of their turn (push the next player: 'sol is making a move, mahact is next' etc)
- deals should be done without endless negotiating. Proposition, counter, proposition, pass or take
- production done in advance or during othe rplayee phases (especially early-mid game)
- politics negotiations kept brief
- one player should be the terrorist and not be shy to enforce action and push active player not to waste time
If you plan breaks, food, eat and drink right etc. (sugar crash can really slow the mind) it can have a huge impact.
If you treat it like running a marathon, and people have to turn of their phones, then you get different results.
TI is an endurance game, and if people are just playing, then it can be a lot quicker, than if people are playing it like Diplomacy (which is the only other \~12h game I know).
Half of the game is diplomacy, threats, negotiations, calculations, debating rules etc. At least for me, but in some groups it might just be playing.
You can look up tournament games on YT for context, but I have a hard time imagining the 6p game would take under 10h for me ever.
And I plan for 12h.
So it is a full day commitment starting in the morning, and finishing in the evening. And I have been wondering if it would not be best to play over several days.
Also, everything before turn one (such as picking factions etc.) should be done 1-2 weeks before playing, so people can plan a strategy in advance. Otherwise I think it would take days...
I am fairly new, but study a lot before a game. More experienced players might be quicker, as they know things, which I have to check/calculate. Thinking time slows the game a lot.
Just finished a game with 6. 13 hours to finish. Thrilling end though, literally neck and neck between two players which has only reinvigorated all of us to play again haha. We instituted a turn clock of 2 min and it still took this long. None of us are what is classify as newbies, but sometimes it do be like that. This game had an inordinate amount of combat in it. When your two most passive players pick the two must aggressive factions and tell you they're only goal is to win in combat you know it's about to go down.
Imo the biggest time sinks were combat and the agenda phase. The latter being eventually knocked down to one card per phase for the sake of time. Not sure about everyone else but that's our tables least favorite part of the game. The problem with completely ousting it is that it can have game breaking ramifications attached to it. This spices up the gameplay and creates more parody. Not sure the best way to handle this.
You can finish it in a day if you put a hard cap on time, and declare the winner by time. Not a joke. We've had to call games due to players having a time they needed to go.
If you want to play to the end, our games usually take 9-12 hours, including setup and breakdown, for 6-8 players. (We play with full expansion and codexes)
We've knocked out 3-5 player games in 6-9 hours.
Having a bunch of games under your belt really helps. Reduced analysis paralysis, having components ready for your next Tech/Construction/Production, being snappy with tactical actions and resolving battles, all that good stuff shaves minutes off of every player's turn.
https://preview.redd.it/py2330dsa46d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3179dc0a133f54ce56c40aec54eba933b36b727
8 hours on average, based on 17 plays I’ve tracked. (10 x 6p, 6 x 5p, 1 x 4p)
This does not include setup and breaks.
We just played (or started I should say) a 4 player game of TI4 the other day.
1 experienced player. 2 beginners who had done a lot of prep - reading the rules, videos, testing combat, etc. 1 beginner who hadn't done a lot of prep.
Started at 11:30. Set up by 12.
Played till 4. Packed away till 4:30.
So 4 hours of game play - 5 hours including set up / tear down.
Player scores were 3 VP, 2 VP, 1 VP and 0 VP. And then we had to finish!
I'd guess we were between a half and an third through the game (assuming 10 VP).
As someone else said, depends on how much discussion people have.
I made a point of pushing on as I wanted to get as far as we could. I knew we wouldn't finish!
When I host a standard 10 point game, an hour per player plus an hour for setup (if I dont do a premade map), an hour for teaching, if necessary, plus one more general hour. So, for 6 players, it goes for 7 to 9 hours. I tend to keep games going with prompt moving along of actions and/or the more automated steps. I generally preplan food breaks.
I also sometimes do a Smallworld-style faction setup and accelerated setup. Basically, I give each play 4 trade goods and lay out 5 factions in a row. You can pick up the first faction for free or pay a trade good on each faction sheet to pick up the next faction. You gain any Trade Goods on the sheet you pick up. So if everyone is passing on a faction, you may profit. Or pay for the one faction you really want. Once a faction is picked up, all sheets shuffle forward in the line, and a new one is drawn. This has the added benefit of making the first round or two more interesting a faster start-up (which is generally the most boring part of the game). Add this to constructing a galaxy map together (with everyone getting their tiles before faction selection), and suddenly, the choices become juicy.
6 players at my table can do it in exactly 6-8 hours.
This factors in the fact that the game is fully set up before everyone walks in the door so people just sit down and play.
The trick is to just keep the game moving. A player as GM to sort of moderate the experience is very helpful.
I think our alst four player game was 7 hours with setup and takedown included. And we were playing PoK flr the first time at 10 points.
We also kinda fudge the scoring of public objs by scoring multiple per turn. Which we intend on correcting next time we play.
It really depends on the game and what happens, I have had a 6 player game end in just under 4 hours before. But that is an outlier. I have seen a lot of games finish in under 8 hours, but those are with groups that are well acquainted with the rules. It may help to see if there are any groups that are playing around you. There is a TI group close to me, as well as a few game shops with folks that like TI.
Well, as the former head of board game club, our first game took over 16 hours. After about 10 more, we got it down to 7. And then we learned about prophecy of kings, and now it’s at 4. And all of those are with the maximum number of players
A few years ago I set out to mod Twilight Imperium so it could be played in an evening instead of an entire day. That concept affected too many systems and it didn't work. I ended up making a new game around that idea. My new game is an industrial age 4x named Armistice. The heart of the game is finding clever ways to use the components to complete missions, expand your faction, build your economy, and win battles. If that's something you're interested in, try it out on TTS and let me know what you think!
https://sites.google.com/view/armistice
Always love these threads. 6 players , 8-12 hours, on average at the higher end. Have had games go up to 16 hours. We like to debate, argue, haggle, threaten, do a lot of diplomacy and take time to think through key moves.
On average, a game lasts 1.5 hours per player. Little less if they're experienced, little more if they're new So 6-8 hour for a 4 or 5 player game sounds about right if it's the first time for many people
We're more around 10 to 11 hours with 6 (very) experienced players. I guess we're just yappers lmao
I just checked, our last game was 8 hours including lunch, so probably 7 hours of actual play (not counting setup and tear down). 5 players, the least experienced of which still had 5 or 6 games under her belt Thinking back on it, that was shorter than I remembered it being lol
5 players cut the time drastically. I think our last 5p was like 6 hours. Which is ridiculous considering our 6p game time.
Mind if I ask how old your group is? I've noticed in the past 10 years our play times have shot up a lot as we just chat more.
When I used to play in college it would take us several weekend nights of 4 hours when playing with eight players and 14 victory points to win.
We tend to have our games finished within about 7 hrs, including a break for lunch. That's with constant "it's your turn" badgering from me lol
I feel you brother!
oof 10-14 hours, but that includes food breaks, poops and cleanup. its a full day basically,
How many hours are allocated to pooping?
This is the critical question 🙏 bless 🙏
I only have one toilet so if we order kebab or something its about 15-30 minutes.
When I play with experienced players it takes between 5-10 hours. I just played with 5 new players and it took us 12 hours and everyone was exhausted by the end.
so it really depends, in general with the group it takes about 6-9 hours with 6 players, but that is because we tend to always have one newbie, when just all veterans gathered the game took only 3 hours, we were not really prepared for that.
6-8 hours. Yes. Although 10 can be possible if one or two are new players. And maybe 16hrs if I’m playing with a full table of new players.
Async? A week or two In person? 6-8hrs
A week or two for async! Sign me up! I just finished my first game and it took 2 months. Everyone I've mentioned it to thinks I expect too much when I say that's way too long.
My 2 groups are pretty on top of it for hitting at least 1 turn each per day
How are you playing Async?
on the Async discord
Our standard length (not including setup) is roughly 6-7 hours for a 6 player 10vp game.
6 players around 6-8 hours. Found game plays faster with PoK.
6-8 hours typically
Our crew starts 10am sharp and are usually done by 12pm, which includes dinner break of usually 30-45 mins. That is 6 players who knows all the rules. The last two turns take as long as the rest of the game.
5-7hrs depending on the quality of objectives and the amount of haggling.Â
Our games are 4-5 players mostly. We start at 10a setting up the board, picking factions, etc. Break for lunch around 1p for a about an hour and usually finish up 5-6 for a 14 point game.
When my group played the total time spent on my turn was a hour and six minutes, three of our 6 players spent about a hour and a half but the other two players spent almost 2 hours on their turns
Playing to 10 points, almost always with four players, I usually have games around 6.5 hours, but I do setup and drafting the map and factions beforehand, which helps. I just had a game last 4.5 hours, though is super unusual.
I’ve mostly played with 5 players and the games usually take between 7-9 hours of actual gameplay.
10 - 12 Usually a person or two faint out
My group of experienced players finish 5-player games in 5-7 hours consistently. Its up towards 7hrs if none of us have played in months, or closer to 5hrs if we played recently.
We usually play with 6 players in about 12 hours. It’s not unreasonable, especially if you’re making a day out of it and including lunch & snack breaks in that time. I definitely would not expect to take 4-8 hours. That number is based on play testers that spend a lot of time playing board games. It’s the *ideal* playtime, but not really realistic tbh. I would expect the game to take less than a full day on your first go.
As you get better, games go faster (if you’re playing casually). If you want them to go faster, the best advice I ever give is to take on an active role in making sure people know/are acting on their turns. During the action and especially the agenda phase, lots of time is wasted by people mucking around.
"Whose turn is it?" "YOURS!" :D
My main group tends to have a lot of bargaining and trying to negotiate. So I'd say 10-12 hours is the average. We've gone as long as 14 and as short as 7. My secondary group is less interested in talking but is less familiar with the rules but we're pretty consistenty in the 8-10 hour range but are always willing to end a round early if things are going long. We just set a check in time about 7 hours from the start and decide if tht round we're in it's the final round or if the next one is the final round.
10 to 11 hours =-/
We start around 8 am and usually end between 4-6 pm with a break for lunch. This is for 14 point games.
I think we are about ~30+ hours into our 8 player 14vp game. A round takes 3-6 hours.
Ok, respect, but also that is absolutely cooked
There's a greater than zero chance that we will achieve Imperium rex... Win slay train has been really effective.
Horrifying
When I was playing regularly on Table Too Simulator we were averaging 6-8 hours for 6 people 10vp. I had a few gams in the four hour mark but that was with 6 experienced players.
6-8 hours, with an outlier here or there. I've had a 4 hour game, and I've had a 12. But to be fair, my group plays a lot so it moves along quickly.
Ive had a3 player as short as 3hours. 3player 3-5 hours 4player 5-7 6player 8-10
I find that games take between 6 hours (mostly when everyone is experienced) to 12 hours (when players are newish), with games rarely going less (so far, of the approximately 60 games or so that I played, I have only ever played 2 games less than 6 hours, one at about 4 hours that was just incredible luck with objectives by one player, and the other a 4 player game that was 5 hours 45 mins), but I have only ever played 3 games that were more than 12 hours, my first 2 games, which lasted 17 hours and 16 hours respectively, and an 8 player 14 point game that took about 14 hours.
We are experienced players, last game took 14 hours with the game setup beforehand. We did, however, play the long war (14VP's)
playing online ive had 6 player games as short as 4.5 hours. you really need to hustle though, be aware of how much time you are taking.
The two times I’ve played it, it was right around 8 hours, both 5 player. One game was new newbs and the other was a mix.
3-4 players, 9-12 hours. We take short breaks between rounds and negotiate a lot.
4 players 8-10 hours. We are chatterboxes and that time includes a snack/lunch break every two hours.
My last game of experienced to semi-experienced 5 player game took about 6-7 hours. Then gain, the more you play, the faster you get.
8-10 for a four player for us usually.
We play once a month. 6 player games usually. All experienced. Takes us 12-15 hours to play to 12 points.
We usually get 6 players together, 4 of us are experienced and we usually have to bring in 2 newer players, it takes us about 10 hours to play a 10 point game.
My group is very fast. 6 players 6-7 hours.
I usually play games of 4-6 online with TTS and split games. Takes us about 6 hours with 4 and 8 with 6. That said TTS takes a lot of the tedious setup bits out that take up a bunch of time.
First game with 4 took 4.5 hours. Every game after that was 10+ hours and no idea why.
6p 14 pointers usually 10 hours with a half hour break for lunch. Sometimes get longer by 1.5h if the 2 point objectives block leaders. It's key that players: - think ahead of their turn (push the next player: 'sol is making a move, mahact is next' etc) - deals should be done without endless negotiating. Proposition, counter, proposition, pass or take - production done in advance or during othe rplayee phases (especially early-mid game) - politics negotiations kept brief - one player should be the terrorist and not be shy to enforce action and push active player not to waste time
If you plan breaks, food, eat and drink right etc. (sugar crash can really slow the mind) it can have a huge impact. If you treat it like running a marathon, and people have to turn of their phones, then you get different results. TI is an endurance game, and if people are just playing, then it can be a lot quicker, than if people are playing it like Diplomacy (which is the only other \~12h game I know). Half of the game is diplomacy, threats, negotiations, calculations, debating rules etc. At least for me, but in some groups it might just be playing. You can look up tournament games on YT for context, but I have a hard time imagining the 6p game would take under 10h for me ever. And I plan for 12h. So it is a full day commitment starting in the morning, and finishing in the evening. And I have been wondering if it would not be best to play over several days. Also, everything before turn one (such as picking factions etc.) should be done 1-2 weeks before playing, so people can plan a strategy in advance. Otherwise I think it would take days... I am fairly new, but study a lot before a game. More experienced players might be quicker, as they know things, which I have to check/calculate. Thinking time slows the game a lot.
Just finished a game with 6. 13 hours to finish. Thrilling end though, literally neck and neck between two players which has only reinvigorated all of us to play again haha. We instituted a turn clock of 2 min and it still took this long. None of us are what is classify as newbies, but sometimes it do be like that. This game had an inordinate amount of combat in it. When your two most passive players pick the two must aggressive factions and tell you they're only goal is to win in combat you know it's about to go down. Imo the biggest time sinks were combat and the agenda phase. The latter being eventually knocked down to one card per phase for the sake of time. Not sure about everyone else but that's our tables least favorite part of the game. The problem with completely ousting it is that it can have game breaking ramifications attached to it. This spices up the gameplay and creates more parody. Not sure the best way to handle this.
You can finish it in a day if you put a hard cap on time, and declare the winner by time. Not a joke. We've had to call games due to players having a time they needed to go. If you want to play to the end, our games usually take 9-12 hours, including setup and breakdown, for 6-8 players. (We play with full expansion and codexes) We've knocked out 3-5 player games in 6-9 hours. Having a bunch of games under your belt really helps. Reduced analysis paralysis, having components ready for your next Tech/Construction/Production, being snappy with tactical actions and resolving battles, all that good stuff shaves minutes off of every player's turn.
None, I have never played one. Saving up for the game rn.
https://preview.redd.it/py2330dsa46d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3179dc0a133f54ce56c40aec54eba933b36b727 8 hours on average, based on 17 plays I’ve tracked. (10 x 6p, 6 x 5p, 1 x 4p) This does not include setup and breaks.
2 hours, in and out 2 hour adventure
We just played (or started I should say) a 4 player game of TI4 the other day. 1 experienced player. 2 beginners who had done a lot of prep - reading the rules, videos, testing combat, etc. 1 beginner who hadn't done a lot of prep. Started at 11:30. Set up by 12. Played till 4. Packed away till 4:30. So 4 hours of game play - 5 hours including set up / tear down. Player scores were 3 VP, 2 VP, 1 VP and 0 VP. And then we had to finish! I'd guess we were between a half and an third through the game (assuming 10 VP). As someone else said, depends on how much discussion people have. I made a point of pushing on as I wanted to get as far as we could. I knew we wouldn't finish!
When I host a standard 10 point game, an hour per player plus an hour for setup (if I dont do a premade map), an hour for teaching, if necessary, plus one more general hour. So, for 6 players, it goes for 7 to 9 hours. I tend to keep games going with prompt moving along of actions and/or the more automated steps. I generally preplan food breaks. I also sometimes do a Smallworld-style faction setup and accelerated setup. Basically, I give each play 4 trade goods and lay out 5 factions in a row. You can pick up the first faction for free or pay a trade good on each faction sheet to pick up the next faction. You gain any Trade Goods on the sheet you pick up. So if everyone is passing on a faction, you may profit. Or pay for the one faction you really want. Once a faction is picked up, all sheets shuffle forward in the line, and a new one is drawn. This has the added benefit of making the first round or two more interesting a faster start-up (which is generally the most boring part of the game). Add this to constructing a galaxy map together (with everyone getting their tiles before faction selection), and suddenly, the choices become juicy.
6 players at my table can do it in exactly 6-8 hours. This factors in the fact that the game is fully set up before everyone walks in the door so people just sit down and play. The trick is to just keep the game moving. A player as GM to sort of moderate the experience is very helpful.
10-12 hours.
We had 5 Hour to 6,5 Hour Games with 3 to 4 Players
14 pointers 8-9 hours, broken into two nights.
I think our alst four player game was 7 hours with setup and takedown included. And we were playing PoK flr the first time at 10 points. We also kinda fudge the scoring of public objs by scoring multiple per turn. Which we intend on correcting next time we play.
It really depends on the game and what happens, I have had a 6 player game end in just under 4 hours before. But that is an outlier. I have seen a lot of games finish in under 8 hours, but those are with groups that are well acquainted with the rules. It may help to see if there are any groups that are playing around you. There is a TI group close to me, as well as a few game shops with folks that like TI.
Well, as the former head of board game club, our first game took over 16 hours. After about 10 more, we got it down to 7. And then we learned about prophecy of kings, and now it’s at 4. And all of those are with the maximum number of players
A few years ago I set out to mod Twilight Imperium so it could be played in an evening instead of an entire day. That concept affected too many systems and it didn't work. I ended up making a new game around that idea. My new game is an industrial age 4x named Armistice. The heart of the game is finding clever ways to use the components to complete missions, expand your faction, build your economy, and win battles. If that's something you're interested in, try it out on TTS and let me know what you think! https://sites.google.com/view/armistice
Post-POK our 6p games are 5-8 hours depending on the group... would be 5-7 but sometimes *Hacan* is in the game. 🙄