Decreasing game time 50% by von Clausewitz!

[DocD]

Please ignore the avatar and name to the left. This is von Clausewitz speaking!!

I was sitting at my desk this morning drinking a cup of hot joe, and my mind settle in on AandAR.
Man, I love playing that game, but it takes so long now.
How can us lifers...you know the ones with jobs or schools to show up to, or a wife or pets to please, or kids or lawns that need tending to...those kind of lifers...,how can they speed up the game and enjoy it more??

Then it hit me like a stinking stroke of sure GENIUS!!...you know the kind of genius I talking about...that WILDE E. COYETEE Genius!! NO, SUPER GENIUS!
Even though MIKE and Larry changed the rules for the better, they inadvertantly increased the time it takes to play the game. How you ask? By infusing all of that money into the game!
Now that's not good for none us...so I propose a new house rule...NO, AN OFFICAL RULE CHANGE!

All production and starting incomes are hereby RESET to their orginal values...found in the original game!

That's right folks!! Less money!!!
Less money, which means less purchasin, which means less units, which means less killin, which means less fun...(opps strike that one), which means less time it takes to complete the game!!

Alright, who's up for it?
(and remember to post to von Clausewitz) :D

[ May 15, 2004, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: DocD ]

[Gorak]

HAHAHA! that is hilarious :D ...Wile E. Coyote...Super Genius. Good stuff.

[DCareaAA]

A stroke of genius for the allies, I suppose. The axis would lose 13 dollars (40-8=32 for Germany and 30-5=25 for Japan, while the U.S. would lose just 6 dollars--42-6=36). So that's plus 7 for the allies. Might shorten the game, but in the allies favor.

In my opinion, the game could be shortened by changing the VC rules. No one really wins 10 victory cities, not really, not unless you want to play for a week, not unless the allies have no idea in the world what they are doing. Go back to a modified economic victory rule and the two- capital rule. That's my opinion.

[Frog]

better answer.

A friend and I play almost every game in 2 hours? How? We limit the purchase phase to less than 5 minutes. You can think before it's your turn, then you can purchase quicker. excluding combat, we spaend about 10 minutes per coutry on a turn. The game really speeds up.

[Zombie]

Really? When i play, the purchase phase usually takes about 5 seconds. Just time enough to take the hidden pieces that i intended to purchase and place them on the spot on the map. If someone took 5 minutes to make purchases against me, i'd get really bored.

[Clausewitz]

Hello everybody! DocD here! Made ya look!

My idea for reducing playing time is another bolt from the blue: scrap the non-combat movement phase!
Stand by for exiting news on this subject.

Oh, and Clausewitz: did I ever tell you what my Doctorate was in?
Yes, that's right, being the supremely annoying little **** who keeps getting on your ****!

See you soon; love from DocD. tongue.gif

[squirecam]

Originally posted by Zombie:
Really? When i play, the purchase phase usually takes about 5 seconds. Just time enough to take the hidden pieces that i intended to purchase and place them on the spot on the map. If someone took 5 minutes to make purchases against me, i'd get really bored.I kinda agree here. I am thinking about my purchases, and attacks ahead of time and rarely take more than 20 seconds to pull and place.

Squirecam

[Chrisolux]

Our group games take forever as well (3-5 players). Typically, it stems from lack of focus on the game and lack of strategy. I like the idea of doing away with non-combat phase (or at least combining noncom and com moves in the same phase). And I was toying with the idea of limiting the time of each turn with a little sand timer. That way, each player would be forced to be thinking of their next move throughout the game and hopefully cause the game to be played less conservatively (and just fight it out).

[Drax Kramer]

Originally posted by Clausewitz:

My idea for reducing playing time is another bolt from the blue: scrap the non-combat movement phase!
This can be considered as a bolt only if one can't look outside the box. There were no separate movement phases in the Nova game. Eagle Games' "Attack" has a single movement/combat phase where all units move and those whose movement creates a "combat situation" engage in the combat at the end of the phase.

Basically, where A&A uses three phases, Attack has only one. A sign of superior design if you ask me.

In addition, Attack has what A&A sorely lacks, a strategic redeployment phase.

Drax

[patersmith]

One of the ways my buddies and me speed up games by a whole lot is by playing for a nominal dollar amount, and having a doubling cube. (as in backgammon)
We don't want to make AA into a gambling game, but we usually put $5 on the line every game.

1) This promotes best play.

2) to avoid the the situation of "im clearly losing but it will take the allies another 5 turns to actually take Germany.. so lets drag it on" we use a doubling cube.

So when one side is clearly winning and the losing side won't give up, the winning side can "double" meaning that they can up the bet to $10. The person who is losing can take the bet and lose $10 when he eventually loses OR he can refuse the bet and admit defeat... and lose $5.

[amazingmg]

I created a turn summary that I printed copies of for the guys. This speeds things up a lot because everyone can be looking at what is next and there is no time wasted flipping cards. We didn't play with tactics or fortune cards though.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=5437

[ May 20, 2004, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: Mike ]