Round Times for 800 Tournaments?

pcelella · Post by **pcelella** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:49 pm

I'm considering putting on an 800 point FoG tournament in May for my local wargaming group. I figure that by May everyone interested will have a chance to read the rules and get a few games under their belts. My question is, what length of time has a 800 point game been designed to span once you have reasonably experienced players? Before I send out invites, I wanted to make sure I appropriately schedule the block of time in the hobby shop gaming area.

My guess is 3 hours rounds with an one hour (or 1/2 hour) break in between rounds. Any thoughts or comments?

Thanks

Peter

neilhammond · Post by **neilhammond** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:45 pm

If the timing fits, I'd allow 3.5hrs per game with 1 hr between games. Even by May there will still be plenty of newer gamers who will want time to work through a game.

hazelbark · Post by **hazelbark** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:50 pm

i agree with neil.

The 3 hour time frame requires a high focus and determiniation to get into the fight fast.

hammy · Post by **hammy** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:31 am

At Burton this weekend we managed to finish three out of four 1000 point games with 3 1/4 hrs per game.

I would still for a first tournament go with 3 1/2 hours but the last bound bit of FoG is a lot quicker than the last bound of DBM so if you would normally call time with 15 minutes to go and then have games overrun anyway with FoG you can call with 10 to go and will probably not have any overrun.

nikgaukroger · Post by **nikgaukroger** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:12 am

Same here, 3 out of the 4 games all finished well within 3 1/4 hours.

rbodleyscott · Post by **rbodleyscott** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:20 am

nikgaukroger wrote:Same here, 3 out of the 4 games all finished well within 3 1/4 hours.

Well we only finished 1 out of 4 games in the time limit. (1000 points doubles, 3hrs15mins to last pair of bounds call) - although all 4 games were enjoyable with much bloodshed, and it was nice to see so many figures on the table.

Current thinking after discussion with several of the movers and shakers is that 900 points would be better for doubles tournaments with 3hrs15mins to last pair of bounds call, 1,000 should work fine with 3hrs45mins to last pair of bounds call.

stevoid · Post by **stevoid** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:36 am

So I take it that you experienced FOG tourney goers would expect that 800pt games with 4 hours allowed should present few problems re completion, even by relatively inexperienced antipodeans?

Steve

rbodleyscott · Post by **rbodleyscott** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:52 am

stevoid wrote:So I take it that you experienced FOG tourney goers would expect that 800pt games with 4 hours allowed should present few problems re completion, even by relatively inexperienced antipodeans?

Should be fine.

speedy · Post by **speedy** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:56 am

FWIW we finished two of our four games at Burton (and we'd only played around half a game between us before the day.)

Use of Generals seemed decisive in reaching a result in our games, if both sides heavily commit their generals to front rank fighting there are probably going to be more hits, more death rolls, more attrition, etc, etc .... and probably less rallying too .... leads to a quicker finish, winning or otherwise ....

speedy · Post by **speedy** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:02 pm

FWIW we finished two of our four games at Burton (and we'd only played around half a game between us before the day.)

Use of Generals seemed decisive in reaching a result in our games, if both sides heavily commit their generals to front rank fighting there are probably going to be more hits, more death rolls, more attrition, etc, etc .... and probably less rallying too .... leads to a quicker finish, winning or otherwise ....

pcelella · Post by **pcelella** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:08 pm

Something else we are considering for this first tournament is the use of preset terrain. I know that eliminates one piece of strategic thinking from the full game, but most of our players won't know the rules well enough yet to pick up on that level of subtlety. We would try to set up a variety of terrain types, let the player with the highest pre-game initiative pick their table, and then in each game, the player with the higher pre-game initiative would pick the table sides. I figure this should save at least 15 minutes or so off of set up time.

Thoughts on this?

Peter

miffedofreading · Post by **miffedofreading** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:22 pm

What's the smallest practical game for a pair of newbies??

Say 600 points ROman V Carthaginian?

Would like to be able to play in 2 hours, 3 hours max......

Reasonable?

Andy

hammy · Post by **hammy** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:49 pm

miffedofreading wrote:What's the smallest practical game for a pair of newbies??

Say 600 points ROman V Carthaginian?

Would like to be able to play in 2 hours, 3 hours max......

Reasonable?

Andy

I have played a number of games using pairs of starter armies (which are 600 points) and they work well. The only possible exception was where ew played 600 points of 15mm Huns against Late Romans on a 6 by 4 table. That was not fun for the Romans, they got shot to bits and destroyed in detail.

miffedofreading · Post by **miffedofreading** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:56 pm

I will stick to fairly classic roman / carthage battles for now. Nothing too fancy, forget elephants, chariots etc.