• Our group has games that last too long and we were looking at ways to speed up play. Does anyone have good strategies to keep the game moving and turn time to a minimum?

    We have talked about a time limit or even fines for too much time.

    Thanks in advance


  • For a live game, here’s a couple things that work for me:

    1. Have USSR lock in what their siberian troops are doing, then have Japan start their turn (works in the early/mid game)

    2. Have ANZAC do their turn at the same time as Italy (except for the egyptian inf)

    And as always, no matter how many players there are, always plan your move while your opponent is conducting theirs. It helps to do this in the opposite theater from where the action is. So if you’re the Allies, plan out Europe-side while Japan is moving, and plan out Pacific side while Italy/Germany is moving.


  • Great suggestions. In our games Germany and Japan go at the same time. No one ever brings the siberians to Moscow so it’s not giving Germany any information they wouldn’t otherwise have.

  • 2024 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    If the US is not at war yet then I suppose the UK can start its turn at the same time, though they may want to coordinate things a bit. If the US is at war and has finished moving its European units, the UK could start its turn there as well.

    But in the end, Global was just not made to be a short game. You may want to have a look at Spring 1942, which is a much shorter game on a global scale. Or if you don’t want to spend the extra money, consider playing either Europe 1940 or Pacific 1940, which you have anyway.

  • 2024 '22 '21 '19 '15 '14

    Here is an idea you might enjoy, which has no actual affect on the gameplay, but which will increase the pace at which players play. This will work better in my view than any kind of carrot or stick or timer. It exploits a game flow tendency that many players exhibit regarding the purchase new units phase.

    Basically you alter the game phase sequence to the following…

    Research/Repair
    Combat Movement
    Purchase
    Roll Combat
    Non Com
    Place

    Notice that all you have done is to insert the Purchase phase between the Combat move, and the actual Combat roll.

    Effectively you reverse the order of purchase and combat movement…
    from Purchase/Combat Movement/Combat Roll
    to the much speedier Combat Movement/Purchase/Combat roll.

    This does not affect the gameplay, it doesn’t change any of the results or information available to you, but it does do several something important things… First it puts your mind in a different place at the beginning of the turn.

    It focuses the player’s attention on the combat moves first and allows them to concentrate on all their attack movements immediately with no distractions about what you just bought. Then, once those movements are determined, the player makes their purchasing decision. They will purchase much faster now, because their movement decisions will suggest evident purchasing ideas to them, and they are less likely to make stupid purchases. Or to make purchases, then forget why they bought that stuff, and do a bunch of silly moves. Finally, because Purchase happens between the Combat Movement phase, and the actual Combat, it makes waffling around or backing out of your combat decisions less likely.

    Basically, once you buy, your combat moves are considered set, and can’t be altered. Think of it like this, combat move, pause to consider purchase, then roll the combats. This does something in the game flow, that really does seem to encourage a more rapid pace.

    Combat move guides the purchase, but it doesn’t have an effect on what the rolls will be. For example, you aren’t getting to choose your purchases based on the results of the combat, Purchase phase still occurs before the Combat Roll phase proper. Basically you are just interjecting it between Combat Movement, and Combat Roll. Which has no substantive consequences, just makes a formal change that streamlines the decision making process.

    Very simple, but it will increase the speed at which your players make purchasing decisions, and will encourage them to make better purchasing decisions, and to stick to those decisions once made. I’m not sure who first innovated this concept, but it was introduced to me by players on tripleA, and it did definitely speed things up.

  • '14 Customizer

    That’s an excellent idea Black Elk.  I agree that will help speed up play.  I know playing TripleA via email/forum I have reloaded the game after making combat moves because I wanted to change my purchase.  There is always something you forget to purchase based on combat moves or so it seems to me anyways.

  • '15

    The fastest games I am generally involved in have pretty much all the ideas listed above.

    • Russia movies it’s far east troops and then Japan and Germany go at the same time
    • if there are two allied players US and UK will go at the same time (only exception is when there would be a major US battle happening that may affect how UK wants to handle itself)
    • Italy and Anzac go at the same time

    If you can master this then you’ve significantly cut down the play time.  I also like the idea Elk suggested about swapping the combat move and purchase phase.  As I think about it, Ike and I frequently play that way!


  • Basically, once you buy, your combat moves are considered set, and can’t be altered. Think of it like this, combat move, pause to consider purchase, then roll the combats. This does something in the game flow, that really does seem to encourage a more rapid pace.

    I have always played like this in face to face games.


  • @cyanight:

    That’s an excellent idea Black Elk.  I agree that will help speed up play.  I know playing TripleA via email/forum I have reloaded the game after making combat moves because I wanted to change my purchase.  There is always something you forget to purchase based on combat moves or so it seems to me anyways.

    Always annoys me with AAA.
    I usually do a go in Local (wasting hours), just so I do not mess up my purchases for the real Live game. Feels like I am forever going in circles.

  • 2024 '22 '21 '19 '15 '14

    As I recall, this option has existed for tripleA mods since at least 2011. It was a phase order idea implemented in the tripleA game NWO, and discussed as a general idea for larger maps in TripleA even before G40 came out. I can remember reading a conversation about this stuff with Comrade Kev and Veq a few years ago. I imagine there is probably a tripleA mod of this by now for G40.2 floating around somewhere.

    I think the general principle is sound though, since many of the delays you encounter in game, have to do with purchasing decisions. Or, as is sometimes the case in large maps with very involved turns, that players buy something, then forget why they bought it, and make a mistake somewhere. This leads to yet more delays, as they then have to replan everything during Non Com to try and salvage their botched purchase haha.

    In FtF games what this sort of playstyle prevents, is the situation where players conflate the Combat Move and Combat Roll phase. So for example, a player says, “OK well I know I want to do this, so lets run this battle real quick” and then after seeing the results they decide “Oh wait, I forgot to run this other battle, so lets do that now.” This happens a lot in FtF games, where you don’t have a computer to enforce the strict separation of phases. Here what you do is insert the Purchase phase between them, so there is this natural pause in the action, and then the rolls. It gives a really nice pacing to the flow of the game, a more accelerated pacing.

    Of course in tripleA, there is also a problem of conflating combat movement and non combat movement (since the engine doesn’t enforce this). If you play tripleA you’ve probably seen this happen quite a lot, or been guilty of it, or made a mistake because of it yourself. By sneaking the purchase phase between combat move and combat roll, you also help to delineate Combat movement from Non-Combat movement, and encourage players to wait until non combat to make non combat movements, which can also help.

    Basically what it does is help to prevent a lot of common mistakes that players make as a result of the purchase position in the phase order, and shifts that purchase phase to a position where you’re less likely to make mistakes. Less time consuming mistakes = more time spent on the action, or at least I believe that’s the idea behind it.


  • That’s a good suggestion Black_Elk about moving the purchases between combat move and actual combat (regardless of it being a time saver or not for other reasons listed). Purchases are used to keep your lines reinforced (moving forward), or to replace units you may lose in your combats (air comes to mind). Many times you don’t realize the units you’re putting at risk until after the combat move phase, and at that point by rule it is too late to do anything about it (purchase phase over). That is when the time continuum gets all whacked out because you start waffling, or asking to make changes (like you pointed out).

    With that said, most groups will encourage players to at least start looking at their purchases as the player before them are taking their turn (you might not be able to start moving units etc…). Should this still be allowed, because it can help keep things moving, but it could also lead to making changes which could defeat the whole purpose of the phase change LOL. So should you still start your purchases early (opponents turn), but just don’t give it the final seal of approval until your combat moves are done? I would like that, but I tend to be the one that takes a lot of time LOL


  • @ShadowHAwk:

    We use 120 dice in 4 different colors, mind you the small kind of dice.
    This means that most battles we can collect our dice and throw them all at once and count the hits.
    It saves a little bit of time each round of combat takes about the same amount of time, saving 10-15 mins a round still is a nice time saver.

    Nice

  • '17 '16 '15

    Here is a altered global xml with the purchase phase inbetween combat move and battle.

    your welcome Wittman

    Here is a updated objectives properties. You will need to rename by dropping the .txt at the end before you put it in the Global zip.

    The objectives won’t show up on the menu without it.

    ww2global40_2nd_edition CBFP.xml
    objectives.properties.txt


  • Thank you, Barney. Will look later.

  • '21 '18

    In our game group, we use a diceroller application on I-Pad. It’s easier and faster than throwing dices. Big battles are resolved quickly this way.


  • @Sire:

    In our game group, we use a diceroller application on I-Pad. It’s easier and faster than throwing dices. Big battles are resolved quickly this way.

    NoNoNoNoNo you didn’t just say you let a computer roll your dice in a FTF game. Such a thing would never fly in our group. If that’s the case you should just skip the whole set-up and map etc…and drag out your laptops on the kitchen table play on AAA. Having the dice in your hand and taunting the other side is part of the experience.

  • '17 '16 '15

    Have to agree with Wild Bill

    It’s like playing craps, yahtzee or any dice game. One can “tune in” to the dice:)

  • '21 '18

    The classical excuse for defeat is no more it’s the dices fault but now it’s more the I-Pad fault.

    Seriously, it’s really helps to speed up the process. No more dices fall overboard. Small battles are resumed like this. A cruiser and a destroyer attacks an enemy destroyer. We roll only one time. The first two dices of the row are the attackers and the third is the defender and we go down the rows until a winner is declared. And big battles resolved themselves in 2-3 minutes.

    We have a maximum of eight hours each time we play because of family obligations so each tricks we find to speed up the process is welcome.

    I like this thread. We already use some of the hints presented here but we got some additional ones to include in our future games.

  • '17 '16 '15

    Yea I’m sure one can have a “hot” or “cold” I-pad as well :)

    I’m sure it speeds it up quite a bit.

  • '17 '16

    Probably can add this Houserule:

    Our fastest game ever
    http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=34868.msg1350898#msg1350898

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