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Yesterday, I played what I would hesitate to call a game of 40k, in an Eldar vs. Eldar mirror match. We started at 2:30 PM, and I called it at 5:00 PM after having only gotten to the top of turn 2 (my opponent went first). Had this been in a tournament, I would have brought a judge over to encourage my opponent to play faster, as well as resolve some of the rules disputes we had. Furthermore, my opponent repeatedly took smoke breaks throughout the game, further prolonging his turns.

I decided that playing this game out wasn't going to be worth my time, and so I called the game and tried to resolve things as amicably as possible. I'm just wondering what more I could have done to encourage my opponent to play faster, as well as what people do in this kind of situation in tournaments.

"Look. We're 2.5 hours in and only on top of Turn 2. None of my games ever take this long. This isn't fun for me. You really need to play faster. If you must play this slow, then we're not going to play again, I'm afraid." Then shake his hand anyway and thank him for the game.

Was it paralysis through analysis? I had a guy that would take 30 minutes every move phase looking for the optimal way to move his guys around.

Next time just quit. It is not worth wasting your time.

Well, I know some notorious slow players. They have a bad reputation and nobody wants to play they in a competition.

Comment on the slow play but keep it nice.
You might ask him to:
- Not look up rules, this takes the most time. Find a quick fix for rule issues.
- Think in your turn.
- Move models more efficient.
- Roll dice more efficient.
- Chat less in his turn.

Some players simply can't do that all and are just slow. I take more time for most of them, and just try to be more relaxed about it.
There are some slow players I enjoy playing against if I bring snacks, plan more time, bring smaller games and adept to the relaxed game style. This becomes more of a social event then a semi competitive game
But I generally tend to avoid players if they keep playing slow as a result of rule arguing.

In casual play all you can really do is ask them kindly to play faster, and even lie that you have to leave at X time or do something at X time. That way there's a time limit set on the game that the opponent has to respect, and knows that they have to play faster if they want to finish. That or just say you want there to be a time limit for tournament practice sake, but they're less like to truly play in that time frame.

In tournaments just call a judge, there should be regulations for slow play, as that's borderline cheating, if not outright cheating.

Honestly, this game should only require 1.5 hours per match, half an hour of set up (probably less) and the rest for play. The increased speed would also test skill more, since it would require faster analysis and strategic planning during the game. You know, the whole adapting on the fly, as opposed to waiting and then slowly processing. Yes, it will lead to more mistakes in a game, but also more learning, and more interesting play as a whole.

How many smoke breaks do you need in 2 and a half hours? It sounds like that might have been a major factor. I’ve played games vs. a few guys who smoke, and they generally rush off for their fix mid game. And one break is normally all they need.

There are slow players. If they are new to the game, this is expected. Help them with the rules so they can get more fluent and speed things up. But vs. experienced players with few excuses, a polite reminder or two is probably all you can do, bar not playing them in the future.

for a 2000 point game, me and my friends usually spend the better half of the afternoon playing it, and we usually only get to about turn 4 at most. However we usually don't take personal breaks unless it's a potty emergency; if someone wants a break he'd ask and if we agree, we all go on break then return. No one is left at the table waiting for another to come back (even potty breaks, since we all just take it at the same time, unless only one bathroom is available).

Is the player inexperienced? Those first few games will take a very long time to play. What the OP described doesn't sound too unusual for a new player playing 2000 points, especially if they're just kind of a slow player in other games.

If he's not, then you need to pressure him to play faster. There's basically no reason why you shouldn't have been able to play an entire 7 turn game in those 3.5 hours.

I know two ICT players who play very slow and they know how to do it.

Well this is just a pickup game. You can always just tell the player it's taking way too long. I remember a league versus an IG player - He was taking literally 45 minutes each turn with lots of long winded one sided discussions. Finally I went to take the store owner aside who then told him to speed it up or it would be an auto loss.

kronk wrote:"Look. We're 2.5 hours in and only on top of Turn 2. None of my games ever take this long. This isn't fun for me. You really need to play faster. If you must play this slow, then we're not going to play again, I'm afraid." Then shake his hand anyway and thank him for the game.

Was it paralysis through analysis? I had a guy that would take 30 minutes every move phase looking for the optimal way to move his guys around.

This is surprisingly similar to how I ended up dealing with the situation, albeit I didn't directly accuse my opponent of slow play. It definitely helped that one of my buddies came over while my opponent was out on a smoke break, which let me lightly vent about the state of the game.

Believe me, this was no case of Analysis Paralysis. A somewhat comprehensive list of things that slowed the game down:

-Rules dispute about how glancing and penetrating hits are allocated to vehicle squadrons
-Rules dispute about whether or not you can deny Blessing psychic powers
-Rules dispute about how Bladestorm works for Eldar Shuriken weapons
-Rules dispute about how wounds are allocated into Wound Pools
-Having to constantly look up weapon stats, despite both of us playing Eldar and his possessing both the Eldar and Harlequin codexes and having an Army Builder list with all relevant weapon info

I don't know if the other player was dyslexic, but he was quite possibly the slowest reader I have ever met. I didn't want to interrupt out of politeness, but it was annoying for him to read part of a page, come to a conclusion, and then be proven wrong not two paragraphs later.

Nevelon wrote:How many smoke breaks do you need in 2 and a half hours? It sounds like that might have been a major factor. I’ve played games vs. a few guys who smoke, and they generally rush off for their fix mid game. And one break is normally all they need.

There are slow players. If they are new to the game, this is expected. Help them with the rules so they can get more fluent and speed things up. But vs. experienced players with few excuses, a polite reminder or two is probably all you can do, bar not playing them in the future.

Considering that my opponent was constantly vaping throughout the course of the game and took multiple breaks throughout the course of the game, I think he was using the breaks as a excuse to get away from the table so he could think out his turn. Had this been in a tournament, I would have asked him to either take it after the game, or do t in between rounds. Then again, under ITC rules, the game never would have counted as we didn't get through two full turns.

I have played an inexperienced blob IG player before, and we at least made it to turn 3. This guy had been playing since 3rd edition, and had done plenty of 7th (I asked).

Tinkrr wrote:In casual play all you can really do is ask them kindly to play faster, and even lie that you have to leave at X time or do something at X time. That way there's a time limit set on the game that the opponent has to respect, and knows that they have to play faster if they want to finish. That or just say you want there to be a time limit for tournament practice sake, but they're less like to truly play in that time frame.

In tournaments just call a judge, there should be regulations for slow play, as that's borderline cheating, if not outright cheating.

Honestly, this game should only require 1.5 hours per match, half an hour of set up (probably less) and the rest for play. The increased speed would also test skill more, since it would require faster analysis and strategic planning during the game. You know, the whole adapting on the fly, as opposed to waiting and then slowly processing. Yes, it will lead to more mistakes in a game, but also more learning, and more interesting play as a whole.

The "I have to go at 5:00" was basically an excuse to get out the the game, as I was not having fun and had more important things to do. Had this been in a tournament, I would have called the judge over both for the rules disputes and to encourage my opponent to play faster. Personally, I think two-and-a-half hours is enough to get through as standard game in a tournament context, as that will at least let people potentially get to turn 5.

In casual play, I find it helps when I tell people whether I want a focused game or a "chillax" pastime game before we start.

 niv-mizzet wrote:
In casual play, I find it helps when I tell people whether I want a focused game or a "chillax" pastime game before we start.

There's a difference between wanting a laid-back game and taking two-and-a-half hours to complete 1.5 turns.

Yeah ... I smoke, ALOT. However, I try to do that while not slow down my fellow gamer. I tell them to make their moves and if need be shoot me and let me know what saves I have to make. 99% of the time the other player is good with that. By the same token I am constantly scanning the battlefield for what troops are going to do what on my turn. And for all those players that are worried about the other guy cheating while you are away ... if they cheated then they did not get a true win.

I just played a game Sunday against a buddy that had to leave at 1:30. We tried like hell, but alas, we did not meet our deadline. the BA/IK force I had was truly a minimal amount of models, his IG or astra mech or whatever GW calls them now, had so many models. One thing about this game is to try and keep it light, have fun with it. If you can't, don't play him again without telling him to HTFU.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
Next time just quit. It is not worth wasting your time.

I've done this, no regrets at all. Just look at your phone, pretend you got an email/text/whatever you want. Do this to drop games with bad TFG as well! "Sorry TFG, I cant keep playing, just got a text from the wife." Trust me, it is easier than telling the truth, no one likes to hear that they are boring you.

I would rather sit around and do nothing, than have a terrible evening of gaming.

"Sorry I have to go because I need to, uh, make a grilled cheese :| /shrug"

The good thing about speaking two languages is that I can call up my dad and discuss what's for dinner and then say i need to leave to help out with construction at home.