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Hey guys,

I imagine there's a lot of is in the same boat where, due to parenthood, work or just general life, gaming time gets shrunk down to bite-size segments and you can no longer fit in a 2.5 - 3 hour full-blown wargame. I wanted to share what I've found so far that can fit into a more bite-sized gaming session and also to ask for suggestions!

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire

This game is so interesting to me, because it's almost like GW saw some of their demographics and said "Let's make a game geared right at them!" The only bummer for me is that with the card aspect, I'm sometimes getting beat due to being a rookie at this but the fact that it combines miniatures, hex-based play, and gives me opportunity to make terrain puts it right up my alley. With any luck, I'll share some terrain pics here later in the week

2. Definitely not CMON board games... what else?

By my numbering, you'd think I had a whole bunch of suggestions but actually, WU: Shadespire is all I've found so far. The board games my group tends to play take just as long (occasionally even longer!) than traditional wargames. So, what games am I missing here, that have some interesting strategy, yet can honestly be played in under an hour?

Suggestions most welcome

Feels. I get my 1-2 days a month to actually hit a gamestore for more than 2-3 hours. 40k or Warmachine is an all afternoon event.


I found that Guildball is a great game to play during the work week. Its extremely popular in my local area as well.

Gaslands is cheap, fun and QUICK

Zombicide but thats your #2 point

I'm not a fan of current Necromunda but Kill Team and Shadespire has been great!

XWing.

Yep, X-wing. Maybe the others based on the same system but am not certain of that.

Edit; Saga also, bit of a steeper learning curve but games tend to be under an hour for my lot but it has a good depth to it.

A few of Mantic's games look to be quick to set up and play.
Deadzone springs to mind, but I think a couple more of their's might be good.

X wing.
Gangs of Comorragh
Space Hulk (some missions)
Combat Patrol
Gorechosen
Dreadfleet (well *I* liked it)
40k in 40 minutes
Shadowar Armaggedon
Necromunda
Kill Team
Age of Sigmar Champions
SMALL "normal" 40k/sigmar
Betrayal at Calth
Burning of Prospero
Execution Force
Blood bowl
Zomicide....

Any game can be played in under 1H you just need to drop low enugh in points for the basic largescale wargames.
500 points of 40k/age or sigmar is allso done in 1H minus the time to organise.
Warmahorde is a skimirsh game but people dragged it out to a full size army game. play it at max 10-15 points and you have a game that is done in under 1H. at that pointscale you have caster, 2-4 big models and 1 unit.

Then you have spesific skirmish games. Frostgrave, Test of Honor, Wings of Glory, Gaslands, Infinity, Arena Rex, just to name a few. Many more skimirsh games out there.
If your looking for general small games then my favs are Zombi Dice, Colt Express and Get Bit.

Dreadball takes at most 30 minutes to play. Deadzone and Frostgrave are both pretty quick if you have a warband ready beforehand.

Look for skirmish games like Alkemy or Eden. They are really interesting and games typically last an hour. In tournament each round takes 1h15 which includes changing table, meeting your new opponent and all the scenery placement.

There are many other but these two are my favorite.

Wow, thanks for all the great suggestions so far, guys!

Stroller, I like your list but Zombicide's inclusion makes me a little skeptical . Maybe our group just argues too much, but it's not even close to an hour the way we play it

 RiTides wrote:
Wow, thanks for all the great suggestions so far, guys!

Stroller, I like your list but Zombicide's inclusion makes me a little skeptical . Maybe our group just argues too much, but it's not even close to an hour the way we play it

That’d be on you

Our group plays Zombicide in under an hour, but we also limit it to the base game without add-ons, and there’s usually 3 of us (running 2 characters apiece).

That's a fair point

How about Malifaux - I doubt it hits the 1 hour mark, but is it faster than some other skirmish games, or does it err on the long side?

I do have to add on that if I'm playing at lunchtime, we have 45 minutes to get there, set up, play, tidy up and get to next class. After school is more common, but again kids have buses to catch. One result of this is that there ARE no arguments - GM (Me) makes a decision right or wrong to keep the game moving, and the kids can argue the point for the rest of the week before the next game. Not always right, but it works.

Skinnereal wrote:A few of Mantic's games look to be quick to set up and play.
Deadzone springs to mind, but I think a couple more of their's might be good.

JoshInJapan wrote:Dreadball takes at most 30 minutes to play. Deadzone and Frostgrave are both pretty quick if you have a warband ready beforehand.

I'll third for Deadzone. It plays fast, and is tight. Unlike a lot of skirmish games, it comes with enough terrain in the box to play a legit game, although you will likely want more.

Does this include set-up, take down, list-building, etc? If it is 1 hour or less of actual gameplay then here are some ideas.....


1. Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant
2. Ronin/En Garde
3. Gaslands
4. Rogue Stars
5. Arena Rex
6. Bushido
7. Rampant Stars/Rampant Sun
8. Outremer: Faith and Blood
9. MERCS

Many of the Osprey Wargame Series are one hour or close to. Great for a club night. In addition, a lot of the "Boutique" skirmish games are the same way.

Good point, I think setup time often doesn't get factored in but it's a big part! For Warhammer Underworlds, I'm including setup time, but would consider things that don't fit with that included.

This is mostly theorycrafting for me but I thought it might be useful to others, too. I'm seriously considering Malfaux, since the local group plays it, although it didn't make anyone's list here so might be a bit long...

Gaslands is also super intruiging to me, from both a modeling and rules standpoint, and the fact that a number of Dakkanauts seem to have been bitten by the bug

Magic: the Gathering comes to mind

Malifaux can be quick but it is about to transition to its 3rd edition so you might want to see how that pans out first.

 RiTides wrote:
That's a fair point

How about Malifaux - I doubt it hits the 1 hour mark, but is it faster than some other skirmish games, or does it err on the long side?

Once you know what you're doing, you can easily get a game done in an hour/hour 15 tops. Until that point there's a lot of analysis paralysis, but once you get the hang of it you'll be able to get a game out really quick. Another game you can run quickly is Batman Miniatures, depending on crew size. Smaller crews, in model count rather than points (6-8 models) can be done in an hour/hour and a half. Not as fast as some of the others, but still runs pretty quick (and has the bonus of being Batman)

 ingtaer wrote:
Malifaux can be quick but it is about to transition to its 3rd edition so you might want to see how that pans out first.

That's what has me interested since it sounds like they're streamlining things a bit (which would hopefully make it easier to jump in - and maybe faster to play, too).

Rygnan, I find that's a major factor for how long most games take - how well we all know the rules

My buddy and I are brand new to Infinity, but we still managed to play three games in just under four hours. A good chunk of that time was also spent double checking on rules because we are newb scrubs who barely know how to play. There is no doubt in my mind that after a few games, you can play a full game in less than an hour.

I may be biased here, but you can deffo get in multiple games of the Roots of Magic in an hour (low model count Wizard duelling game).

http://therootsofmagic.com/

One Page Rules has several rulesets (all based on one rules engine) that allow for games with all the existing 40k/Warhammer factions and figures that play very, very quickly. Especially the skirmish versions. The most complicated thing that players have to do is convert the unit names in their heads, as OPR uses generic names to avoid IP infringement.

I personally am having a lot of fun with both of their game settings.