40K Deep Thought: Speeding Things Up
More and more modern tabletop games are getting faster – but how fast do players want 8th Edition to be?
Tick Tock tick tock…
I think we can all agree that 40K 7th Edition is a fairly bloated game. There are a lot of rules to wade through and things like the psychic phase and the assault phase can take quite a long time. Maybe just as bad is the overall “get playing time” from when two players arrive at the table to starting turn 1. There can be a whole lot of pre-game setup and complexity. Dont even get me started on the overly complex missions these days.
Now 40K has been here before. Anyone who played way back in Rogue Trader, or 2nd edition remembers the minutia players had to wade through. Luckily modelcounts were somewhat lower back then, but it seems that with every edition 40K just keeps adding on the rules pounds.
NOT built for speed.
Cleaning up rules not only makes gameplay easier, but can decrease average playtime. These days the industry is moving towards faster gameplay as well as some design choices to speed things along.
Have you noticed that games such as Warmachine, Age of Sigmar, X-Wing, Armada, and others have unit stats on cards that are designed to be kept at the tabletop. This is a big deal as it help cut down on the constant “looking things up” time. Things like the extra clean “flat number” rules for shooting in say X-wing or Age of Sigmar keep players from having to memorize or reference charts as well. Yes it may sacrifice a tad of complexity, but if you can get in more games – I know what I would choose.
How Long?
This brings up my real question for the crowd. Put aside questions about how large an average “competitive” game should be and focus just on the experience of playing a 40K game from start to finish.
How Long Should it Take?
Let’s throw up some time ranges and some games that fit in there: (these will be imprecise, but more of a general guide)
- 0-15 minutes (card games)
- 15-30 minutes (Shadow Wars Armageddon)
- 30-45 minutes (X-wing)
- 45-60 minutes (X-wing – Warmachine – Age of Sigmar)
- 60-90 minutes (Warmachine – Age of Sigmar – Star Wars Armada)
- 90-120 minutes (Star Wars Armada – 40k)
- over 2 hours (40k)
The Future
But the big question is what speed of game does GW want 40K to be?
I could easily see the game dropping to a goal of 60-90 minutes at 1000 – 1500 points to encourage faster gameplay, and the opportunity for more rounds of play per gaming session. I would guess that is a goal of about 33% faster than 40K currently plays. I would always rather get in more games if possible. In fact one of my least favorite things in tabletop gaming, is when you reach a point where you know the game will go in a certain direction, but you still have to play it out for another hour to get there. It’s frustrating to both the winner and the loser – and something that diminishes as the average game length decreases. It’s a phenomenon that rarely irks in X-Wing compared to 40K for example.
~ What is your desired gamelength goal for 40K’s next edition? What do you think most contributes to longer games in the current edition?
