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As the tittle asks, how do you deal with slow play at a tournament?

Tautastic wrote:
As the tittle asks, how do you deal with slow play at a tournament?

Difficult to deal with.
We have an actual ETC player who is the slowest ever (if he wants to be).

That is unfortunate. I had my very first tournament game to only get 2 full turns in 8th! All my previous 8th tournaments went at least 4+ turns...

Edit: FYI my opponent was not even playing a horde list...

Report them to the TO. It's really your only option.

As in deliberate slow play to gain an advantage or because the opponent is genuinely too laid back toward the game?

In either case the first port of call would be to say in a friendly manner, "Come on man, I'd like to get in more than two turns here!" so they know you're onto them and/or have an issue.

After that I'd say it's either be prepared to mark them down on gamesmanship (if that's an option) or keep cajoling them along, depending on your suspected reason for their slow play.

The only problem with going to the TO its that it can inadvertently make you look like a fussy git (even if you're not) and risk your own gamesmanship score.

I'd be interested to know what other people think.

Well, in Magic when someone slow plays it's an offense. So a judge is called to warn the player. Further offenses occur harsher penalty, such as game loss, match loss then DQ.

If someone was slow playing me, I'd have no issues with letting the TO know.

The last tournament the guys at my FLGS went to, they had a rule that you had to have played at least 4 rounds. This was intended to stop slow play. Several horde players did mention that it would be hard for them, but in the end it proved a success, with only 2 players getting warnings for slow play (but in fairness they were quite large horde armies).

Maybe adding a rule that 4 rounds minimum must be played to try and combat deliberate slow play?

 Dr. Mills wrote:
The last tournament the guys at my FLGS went to, they had a rule that you had to have played at least 4 rounds. This was intended to stop slow play. Several horde players did mention that it would be hard for them, but in the end it proved a success, with only 2 players getting warnings for slow play (but in fairness they were quite large horde armies).

Maybe adding a rule that 4 rounds minimum must be played to try and combat deliberate slow play?

What happens if you don't reach 4 rounds because you're playing a horde v horde or something?

For tournaments, use a shot clock.

Dread sock?

Honestly call in a TO if they really are slowing the game down like an ass. usually Tournies have rules set for this sort of situation me thinks.

The WMH tournament system has a clock to be maintained by each player.
Its quite difficult to get familiar with.

I would be in favour of very harsh penalties to be honest: unfinished games don't count or give some other sort of penalty. If people don't finish games then they should play a quicker army or practice their speed. I know it is maybe a bit much for most but I hate not finishing games. It is a game of 5+ turns, I don't want my late game strategy to be completely moot because my opponent can't play quickly enough.

I know I am a little slow due to still getting my tactics and rules knowledge up to speed, but generally speaking if someone is slowing down the game I will give them a few friendly nudges before getting a TO involved. Your time is just as valuable as theirs.

 Trickstick wrote:
I would be in favour of very harsh penalties to be honest: unfinished games don't count or give some other sort of penalty. If people don't finish games then they should play a quicker army or practice their speed. I know it is maybe a bit much for most but I hate not finishing games. It is a game of 5+ turns, I don't want my late game strategy to be completely moot because my opponent can't play quickly enough.

I second this opinion. I am all for stretching a casual game out to 3-4 hours because we are enjoying it and just talking a lot, but in a competitive, timed tourney, you should be able to finish your player turn in 10 minutes or less (so that each games turn takes about 20). If you cannot do this due to A) the way your army is (horde or excessive gunline) or B) you are still learning, then maybe A) use a different army or B) wait to enter a tourney until you are more comfortable with the rules.

Needing the TO to clarify any rules disputes should, of course, "pause" this time, but overall it is only fair.
I have lost tourney games because my opponent waffled during his move and shoot phase. One game in particular was clearly intentional. It was ATC and I got paired with my "ideal" match and my opponent tries to stall because he knew that my army was a 3rd-4th turn winner. He stretched the 1st two turn out almost 2 hours.

But most of the time, I encounter slow play because of a gap in knowledge, rather than devious intentions. It is frustrating, but all the more reason to encourage casual play over tourneys (at least for those players)

pm713 wrote:

 Dr. Mills wrote:
The last tournament the guys at my FLGS went to, they had a rule that you had to have played at least 4 rounds. This was intended to stop slow play. Several horde players did mention that it would be hard for them, but in the end it proved a success, with only 2 players getting warnings for slow play (but in fairness they were quite large horde armies).

Maybe adding a rule that 4 rounds minimum must be played to try and combat deliberate slow play?

What happens if you don't reach 4 rounds because you're playing a horde v horde or something?

Then you practice to get your timings quicker. Using horde armies shouldn't give you a 'get out of jail' pass from penalties because you have lots of models to use. I'm not against people using horde armies, what I'm against is people using using horde armies as an excuse to slow play. I see very little reason 2 horde armies can get 4+ rounds in, unless they are running ridiculously high count horde armies of 150+ models etc. Without taking steps to ease the movement of them with trays, enough dice etc.

It's the old saying "just because your happy with it, doesn't mean others are".

 Galef wrote:

 Trickstick wrote:
I would be in favour of very harsh penalties to be honest: unfinished games don't count or give some other sort of penalty. If people don't finish games then they should play a quicker army or practice their speed. I know it is maybe a bit much for most but I hate not finishing games. It is a game of 5+ turns, I don't want my late game strategy to be completely moot because my opponent can't play quickly enough.

I second this opinion. I am all for stretching a casual game out to 3-4 hours because we are enjoying it and just talking a lot, but in a competitive, timed tourney, you should be able to finish your player turn in 10 minutes or less (so that each games turn takes about 20). If you cannot do this due to A) the way your army is (horde or excessive gunline) or B) you are still learning, then maybe A) use a different army or B) wait to enter a tourney until you are more comfortable with the rules.

~10min player turns is crazy fast. Not sure I could meet that time constraint, maybe 15-20.

I think TOs should start rethinking missions. Every tournament I've been to (not alot, maybe 4) I've either run out of time, or tabled/been tabled. Our last tournament we only got 2 games in...

Either adjust the missions to not rely on 5 full turns, or award bonus points for completed games.

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
I think TOs should start rethinking missions. Every tournament I've been to (not alot, maybe 4) I've either run out of time, or tabled/been tabled. Our last tournament we only got 2 games in...

Either adjust the missions to not rely on 5 full turns, or award bonus points for completed games.

Or just play with less points. I don't quite understand why this is so frowned upon. If, as a TO, more than a handful of games are not getting finished, ten surely you are doing something wrong?

 Trickstick wrote:

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
I think TOs should start rethinking missions. Every tournament I've been to (not alot, maybe 4) I've either run out of time, or tabled/been tabled. Our last tournament we only got 2 games in...

Either adjust the missions to not rely on 5 full turns, or award bonus points for completed games.

Or just play with less points. I don't quite understand why this is so frowned upon. If, as a TO, more than a handful of games are not getting finished, ten surely you are doing something wrong?

Yeah honestly less points less miniatures, faster game play and more emphasis on using them rather than delay tactics or overly massive dice pools.

Im assuming you have a set amount of time per game. Assuming 2 hours. so, break 2 hours up into 12 segments, accounting for a 6 turn game where each player can have an equal amount of time each to accomplish their gameplay goals. If he goes over his 10 minute segment for a turn, call a judge.

 Gunnvulcan wrote:
Im assuming you have a set amount of time per game. Assuming 2 hours. so, break 2 hours up into 12 segments, accounting for a 6 turn game where each player can have an equal amount of time each to accomplish their gameplay goals. If he goes over his 10 minute segment for a turn, call a judge.

You could need to tweak the numbers a bit, as later turns go much quicker when a lot of stuff is dead.