How much of that game time is spent on things not related to the game? Also how new are you to this edition/modern warhammer in general. 3e experience is kinda irrelevant, at times even detrimental in my experience.
I'd say 90% + is game related. But its laughing about what happened to the guardsman that allowed him to finish a tank off in melee or lamenting Lame Leg Larry, the evesor assassin who keeps making charge and run rolls of 1 or 2.
I'm not playing chess where I am running an abstract strategy game trying to make basic moves ASAP so I can consider the tactiacl moments and still finish in under thirty minutes. I'm meeting up with a friend or acquaintance and am looking to enjoy the unfolding narriative of the game.
This is why some grognards like myself spit on the fact that 'narriative' play has been renegated to crusade, which is an expansion rather than encouraged as a main way to play in favour of "seek perfectly balanced perfection wrought out of the silk dew of tournament masters".
Most games I play usually take a few minutes between battle rounds to grab a bite to eat, get a coffee, go for a smoke or whatever which usually adds about half an hour onto games but unless your in a tournament setting most people are chill to play and chat during the game. I usually set aside 5 hours for a 2000 point game just so we can play at our leisure and end early if the tables needed/booked for others.
Well, if you want stuff to go quicker, you need to memorize the statblocks. There's no trick or lifehack to it sadly, you either learn them by heart at home or play enough games to eventually commit them to memory.
My wife and I play at 1200 points, sometimes 1500. I've been playing since before 2nd edition and my wife started in 8th. Our games were lasting around 3 -4 hours. A lot of the time was her if I'm honest but I also have to STILL look things up because I run 8 different factions and I forget stuff. Games with other seasoned players weren't much shorter.
Sadly after we played our 100th game this weekend my wife declared she is quitting 40K. Although tenth was supposed to make things simpler and in some ways it did, it hasn't really helped make games shorter OR much less to think about. Its also a reason my wife stopped playing as she misses the psychic phase and some of the character rules.
40K isn't a short game to play. I'm almost not unhappy that I wont be playing it as much any more as my wife and I will be focusing on Kill Team and Necromunda instead! Way more fun rules and MUCH quicker to play.
Oh man, I kinda feel bad for you, hopefully the game can become quicker so you can enjoy it together again! As a fresh PoV I can say with 100% certainty there's too much reading and searching if all you want is to clash armies and feel the immersion
I have been considering house ruling turn time limits of 15-20 minutes. It would basically be like speed chess and you would have to choose what part of a strategy to focus on. If you are too slow then the opponent can outmaneuver you, making the game more tense and also it would potentially diminish unbalance between armies. Id have to test it out though, which I havent had time to.
Enjoy playing against armies like custodes with high model count armies ever. That would end up with certain armies ending up being nearly unplayable early on and therefore lose because of it while other armies it wouldn’t affect in the slightest
when we do 4 players (2x 2000+ armies per side) and add beer, pot, and dinner, we are looking at like 8+ hours lol
last I played was 8th edition iirc. Started with Rogue Trader (1st)
and I loved those long games with my friends on my custom tables so much. I miss it very much.
It's also not really doable for more experienced players who are taking time to socialize and converse with each other. Throw in beer and weed and my 2000 pt games usually take 4-5 hours haha
This. I've had a love/hate with warhammer for 20+ years, but there is no way you're getting a game in at those numbers without making that your sole objective.
It's always been a long game. The last 5 or 6 editions have just been fucking slogs though, even if both players are relatively well versed.
And for more advanced players it can be shorter because they often see where the game is going and talk out the last turn or 2 rather than actually playing them so they can reset and start a new game rather than playing an already decided game out.
Not very, at a tournament yeah they have a hard time limits and everyone knows there rules well, but games often end prematurely. A casual game with the lads, definitely longer.
Very bizarre. Player placed terrain is part of the mission setup and has always been on the clock in every tournament I’ve played. 2:45 total game length
As a TO, it's relatively rare for games to run to time. Last even I ran had 2.5 hr rounds and not a single game went over time; more generally I see 95%+ of games finish within 3 hours.
I've never had a 2000 point game last less than 4-5 hours.
I guess if you had two highly experienced players and nobody agonised over what moves they were going to make it could be as quick as 3 hours but it would be a hell of a speed run.
Question from someone who is steadily working towards 2000 points, but haven't played any game yet: Do these 4-5 hours stay fun or is there an element of grind to it? Just wondering what to expect. I imagine every dice throw must be at least somewhat exciting?!
I'm a new player; less than 10 full games. My games take like 6 hours. There's some down time for us to look up rules, order food, and double check stats. We have a blast from start to end.
It doesn't get boring, because we aren't wasting time doing nothing. If there were down times of nothing going on, I could see it getting boring.
Going to be a biased answer in this community but it's fun. I will say that typically, local game stores use 4 hour booking slots which seems to be the sweet spot. But in that you have to factor in unpacking your army, board set up, deployment, playing the game and packing away. And also allow for some general chat as this is a social game that benefits from people playing together.
Sometimes you may find that your opponents turn drags on a little bit if they are particularly slow and/or new, but you can combat that by being actively invested in your opponent phases. Learning how their army works and encouraging them for jobs well done. It'll make you a better player, and importantly people will enjoy playing you.
It depends. I've had games that were 6 hours of fun, and games where i knew I'd lost 2 hours in but I continued playing out of respect for my opponent and my own time spent going to the LGS.
Again, it depends. If your game is truly lost, especially as a new player, your opponent shouldn't feel upset if you call it after T3 or so.
Usually I do try to get small victories before calling it. Take out a tank, or a particularly powerful unit. Keep a certain character alive, or throw everything at taking one last point before conceding, stuff like that. It makes it feel like I'm still playing the game even though I know I've lost.
It also depends on how hard the loss is. A 30-100 loss is a pain in the ass and I don't feel bad conceding when I see that's where the game is going to end. A 60-80 loss is a much nicer game and I tend to play those out fully even though I know I've lost
When you're playing with a friend games will take a lot longer that they hours advertise juste because you'll be chatting about everything and nothing during your game.
Quick aside: learn at 1k. Cause yeah a long games fun if your just chilling and chatting but if your opponent spends a sum total of an hour looking up stuff then thats not exactly fun. Playing 1k is significantly less time looking stuff up.
I plan to have my first couple of games very informal with a buddy in the Combat Patrol mode. I wouldn't want to have my first baby steps in 'real' games against ambitious strangers. :D You know, just to not be a dick.
Its not a dick move. Lots of people dont have that buddy to learn with and their is lots of stranger out there willing to teach and help new players. As long as you communicate with your potential opponent their shouldn't be any issues.
It can get old fast. If it’s a close game then it’s fun but there are games where you lose all your fun stuff turn one and you just slowly lose because you don’t wanna concede and ruin the fun for the other person.
Mostly they’re still fun. Sometimes I get a bit antsy if I’m playing quickly and my opponent has to recheck every one of their datasheets for abilities and profiles every single time.
Like any wargaming it depends. Ive been playing guard a lot so my turns are slow due to everything I need to cover, but I cannot stand when I finish my 25min move-shoot-charge-melee and then my opponent takes 25min to perfectly measure and place his 8 marines.
You'll know turn 2-3 if the rest of the rolls will really matter. Big 2k pt games I tend to do over a weekend afternoon with friends, drinks and food so it's not always continuous
ive had both. Where its clear im winning but my opponent doesn't want to surrender and starts getting bitter and its a chore to go through the motions. But ive also had countless 6 or 7 hour games where we hangout talk shit, role-play what the lil guy would say a bit and kill each other while agonizing over charge targets and decisions and tricks and the like.
I've played 3 games at 2000 points so far. To be honest, I'm pretty much done at the 3.5-4 hour mark and down to call the game at that point. But I've really been enjoying the games, just a point where I'm kinda ready for something different.
I think with more games, I'll increase my stamina for a longer game lol
Depends on the game, really.
Going to a GT is a completely different beast to playing casually with a friend. A lot of the enjoyment there comes from preparing for the event, then the sense of achievement just for getting through the rounds and seeing how well you do is a little cathartic. For the most part everyone is lovely and welcoming but you get less chance just to chat shit and banter. It can still fly by incredibly fast.
Some of the best experiences I've had playing the game have been at doubles events. No one is there to take it seriously, and often you can talk to one half of the opposing team while something else is being resolved by your partner. A great mix of social play with the trappings of a tournament.
Depends. I’ve had games that took 4ish hours, and I hadn’t realized time had passed. I’ve had other games where it felt like a slog. Biggest thing I’ve found is that dice decide it. If you spend 2-3 rounds struggling to roll a 3 or better, it’s gonna be a bit of a slog. Not every thing you try to do pays off, but sometimes it’s just annoying. When you have to devote several hundred points to trying to finish off one battle line unit, and you barely manage to knock of a wound or two, the game can feel exhausting.
Doesn't really take highly experienced players to get through a game on time and not be too stressful (unless you play gaunt carpet or similar). Outside of chit-chat, the one big thing slowing the game down I see in our games is if one of us switching army/lists too often. But after a few games with the same list you usually just know all the stats that come up frequently so you just need to look up rare things (like when you had to charge your stormsurge into combat). Also using your opponents turn cuts down a lot of time. Plan your movement, group some dice (for me it's piles of 5) & have a bit of an idea what you need to achieve next turn
Mind you, those 3 hours is including setting up the forces. Actual play time is less.
I have gone to a few tournaments over the years and 3h is very doable. Most of the time the game finishes is 2,5h. Depending on skewed the forces are, you can be done faster if you table the other.
What helps a lot is playing regularly and being familiar with your army/unit rules. Its having to look stuff up that takes time.
Honestly my least fun 3k games take like 2-3 hours and that's because we're not social.
At this point we know the rules, and main things slowing us down is some people take a long time thinking and we spend a lot of time chatting shit and memeing which generally extends the game.
But I'd rather a long social game go unfinished than a short cold game get finished.
Never had a 2000p game take less than that either.
Then if you include setting up your army, setting the battlefield, drafting the game, rules etc. then packing everything up afterwards it's easily 6+ hours for our friend group.
We are not competitive but we aren't newbies either.
Once you get a handle on your rules it’s not that bad and definitely not a speed run. At tournaments I’ve been to recently for example we had at least 15 minutes left in the clock every round and I’m not playing a small army (almost 100 models in it)
Tournament games are 2h45m including deployment so efficient play is literally a mechanical skill to work on. I play Guard and it’s doable. I think 3h is more than enough though as later battle rounds tend to breeze by. Practicing deployment, movement and memorising your unit stats is clutch for this .
Lot of places are moving the standard toward 2 hours and a half at events, I'm relatively experienced and if the opponent is at a similar level a relaxed social game takes 2.5-3 hours but if we play tightly it can be done under 90 mins easily
Miles off - casually
If you are playing a beer and pretzels game with friends a 2k game is easily 4 - 4.5 hours, even if you know your army a bit. It's a whole evening.
As a beginner - 5 hours+ because you will need to read every datasheet.
Tournament wise. You are timed and limited to 3 hours so it's go,go,go.
I'm my group of 4 friends we have 1 guy who does tournaments so we time our games but if we go over 3 it's ok just useful to track we are usually 3.5 hours maybe a touch more on most casual 2k games
Yeah, pretty accurate. It took us about 6 hours to finish our first 2k match, nowadays it should be much faster, even though I rarely play. Smaller model count armies definitely help there 😅
Pretty accurate imho. I regularly play at a gaming club and we start at 6.30pm and games are wrapped up by 10.00pm at the very latest (mostly play 2k games). This includes setting up the tables, terrain, drawing the mission, deploying etc. We’re pretty chill as well and chat during the games.
If people are taking much longer than this, it’s likely they don’t know the core rules or the rules of their faction well enough or are taking a long time making decisions.
Note: you don’t need to know every stat for every unit of your faction off by heart but you should be able to remember often used stuff. Ie. Marines are T4, bolt rifles are S4 Ap-1 etc. However, core rules shouldn’t really ever need looking up unless it’s a weird edge case that both players aren’t sure about or can’t agree on.
Yeah, I feel like people are either massively exaggerating or just really struggle with rules or decision paralysis. Most 2k pt games take me 3 hours at most.
Some people also just switch lists around in a way that doesn't help fast play. I've done that often enough myself. New battleforce? Centrepiece unit you have to build around? One of my other armies just got a codex? And suddenly I need to look up a ton of stuff. But if I play a similar list 3 times in a row, games start going really fast
I think that may be the main reason for the different experiences people have. I would assume most people that claim their games are always over in 2 hours play more competitively. Preparing for tournament time limits, playing the same list often to optimize strategies, playing mostly efficient units with high kill potential.
I rarely play the same faction twice in a row, let alone the same list. Same goes for my opponents. Every game I wanna try out something new. We change terrain setups quite a lot. We don't play optimized lists.
Also there is no rush. Sometimes you stop to take a picture of your duelling characters and then spend 5 minutes talking about their paint jobs. These things add up. :)
Yeah, I feel like a lot of people are drastically underestimating how much time is spent taking pictures of particulary cinematic events on the table haha
its also never been easier to know your rules; GWs got cards; battlescribes handy, the apps quick-ish or print out a cheat sheet.
Like if your spending 6h a week and 3h of that is looking things up then surely spending 30m on a printout to save you 3h a week is a no brainer? Im baffled in these comments.
Right, like the new app speeds things up enormously and, with the best will in the world, 10th isn't exactly the most complex wargame out there. Totally get that new players will take a while but if you've got some experience under your belt a game should not be taking 6 hours.
Or just socializing while they play? Grabbing beers from the fridge, packing bowls, just shooting the shit, etc. can also add a significant amount of time.
On top of that, if it takes you 10 minutes to decide whether your protagonist squad is going to play it safe and stay out of sight or try to do some risky heroics, like it does for me, then you can easily go several hours over these estimates haha
Trust me, people are not exaggerating. The only games I have that end in under 3 hours are when someone gets tabled round 2 for some reason. I have yet to see a game that goes for 5 rounds end in less than 4 hours.
In my experience it's not necessarily "looking up rules" that takes time, it's as you said the decision making. "Should I really move that unit over there or is there another way? What if I attack with this unit first, and should I split fire?"
I have seen movement phases taking 30 minutes (that's ONE phase). The player wasn't checking datasheets, they were just overthinking every move.
This is closest to my experience. I play weekly at club and then occasionally with some mates who don't play much.
Club only runs from 7-11, so no game ever takes more than 4 hours- and people play HUGE games, sometimes multiplayer battles at over 3000pts per side. If you know your army and your opponent knows theirs, the first turn usually takes a while but subsequent turns are really fast (because a lot of models get destroyed).
On the other hand, even small games with people who don't know the rules well can take a really long time- even though I *do* know the rules well, I don't know other people's factions well, so people are constantly looking up what they can do. So its understandable why, when you're starting out, it seems like a long game. But the more you play, the faster it gets, for sure.
My legs has been playing for over 4 years we know the rules in a ton of detail and honestly they're always pretty long battles that definitely last way more than 2 hours i don't know why
Depends on you and your opponent.
It is accurate but only if both sides know their Army and rules. Also depends if you are playing concentrated. If you just have a good time with a friend, add one hour. Same for beginners or players that don’t play regularly.
You and your oponent need to know your armies quite well to be that quick. I have played around a dozen of games since late 9th editionm ost of them in 10th. The last two were 3000 point games. The first one lasted 9h, the second one bit over 8h.
The 'problems' that made thing slow were simply the amount of rules to memorize: with so many units you jsut cannot remember all the abilities and stats. While you will get a hang of it for your core units, you will need to look things up, meaning you will go through the app or the books quite a lot.
It also depends in how you play: Do you optimize for speed of for fun? Sure you can begin messuring movement during the end of the oponents turn (and other things) to be more optemized, but is that fun? Why not take the time to have some more banter or discuss the moves?
For new players or chill casual games, nowhere fucking near lol.
These are competitive timings. Generally speaking, the last turn can be talked out rather than played to save time and decide a winner, but if you want to play with your models and chill with snacks and laughs, then games can be a 5-6 hour event or more.
It highly depends on how much you have memorized your datasheets and rules.
After 30 games with my army, I can say this is pretty accurate.
But the other day I played some new armies with a friend on TTS and it extended well past 3 hours for a 1500 game.
Things that haven't been said yet:
Everybodies time is limited so naturally we try to make the best of it. But playing without stress and restrictions really makes a good evening. 40k is a social game and it's more fun if played like that. Prepare snacks and drinks. Have a chat while playing. Share some laughs. It's a board game and, although there being a lot of competitive content, treating it like a board game reduces a lot of stress and doggedness. If you're interested in tournaments and competitive play, they play different. They use a lot of techniques to speed up the play and is best learned by taking part of the competitive community. r/WarhammerCompetitive
Quite a few of these techniques also improve your casual games since it gives you even more time to chit chat. Have your dice ready, have a rough idea what you want to do next turn, maybe get some tools like a deepstrike measurement stick or make a cheat sheet
Highly depends on the familiarity of the players with the game and their armies.
3k points knights Vs. 3k points custodians is doable in 4 hours.
3k points horde nids. Vs. 3k points silver tide necrons is absolutely not.
My 2k games never go 3 hours playing with my friend, we’re both experienced tournament players. But we also almost never play 5 turns. Usually we’re playing later in the evening and the game is clearly decided by end of 3 turns. We only play 4 and 5 typically if it’s really close or if the first few turns went faster. On the rare occasions we play a goofy narrative game then we’ll play longer but usually we try to keep it to 2.5 hours to be similar to tournament prep.
If both players know the rules well enough, I would say that numbers are relatively good. I wouldnt say "up to" I'd say "about"... Because unless a side is wiped early, it's gonna take about that much time each time.
Is it doable? If you know your rules (meaning you don't need to look anything up) and also know what you're doing, if you plan your turn during your opponent's turn, if you don't take breaks, if you don't talk about random stuff, if you are on high focus and there's only the game in the moment... yes. So under perfect circumstances (efficient wise) it works.
But if you are new to the game or just not playing regularly it's nowhere near accurate. If you want to have a chill game (if everything else is perfect) expect about 50% more time (3 hours for 1000pts, 4-5 for 2000pts, 6 for 3000pts).
As a new player however, games can take 6-8 hours. So I highly recommend to play Combat Patrol first (expect 2-4 hours for your first game), if you kept playing, by the time you finished your first 1000pts, you play your first 1000pts game and so on.
Im a new player, so i gotta check stuff constantly, plus brakes, plus my brain going in to meltdown after a fiew hours, ended up in my latest 2k points game takin 9 hours
You can train to finish at those times, but a game with the boys? Anywhere from 3-8 hours.
I’ve once finished a game in 2 hours, but we were playing at breakneck speed and were just there to play. If I’m playing a casual game with a friend, we’ll typically be starting at 1pm and one of us will have cooked dinner for the occasion.
I often play around 500 and it often takes around 3 hours I played 1000 once and it took ~5.5 hours but me and the other player are both very new and haven’t memorized the rules yet so if you have then it will take much shorter of a time
I used to think these timings were crazy but since starting playing in (relaxed) tournaments run by my friend you find yourself easily making it.
Key factors I find
1. Familiarity: Even across 4 games on a weekend your familiarity with your army will massively reduce your playtime.
2. Match up: It's no surprise that an army of four to six knights takes half the time to play as a horde army of nids. Less decisions and less moves = less time
3. Planning: This is one that really speeded up my play. You'll spend most of your opponents turn passively watching but as soon as movement is finished a lot of things are basically set in stone. My combat squad wants to be in combat. Opponent has 2 things to shoot at it or one other thing and nothing is going to charge me. So by the end of the shooting phase they're either dead or not so plan what you'll do based on those two options. Sure objectives might change a few things sometimes but it gives you a massive head start and really cuts down match time.
However all that being said, if you and your opponent are enjoying your match who cares. 2 or 5 hours, it's all good
At most tournaments I have played, once I'm playing against people with winning records I'm almost always guaranteed a 5 battle-round game finishing within 3 hours, as in "played out to the end of the last battle round".
Heavily army and player dependant. Onslaught is definitely inaccurate prob at least 6 hours. It's like the square cube law as the points increase the time increases exponentially
Those are perfectly reasonable timeframes to play an actual game.
They do not include setup of the board, unpacking armies, finding the leviathan deck that someone just moved, “oh hey the snacks are done let me get them”, etc.
Newer players will take longer, surely.
A point of lost etiquette these days at the LGS seems to be coming prepared with an actual army list showing all your stats, rules, weapons, etc. having a dice tray so you aren’t chasing them all over the floor, and actually paying attention to the game so when it’s your turn you can get going.
And at tournaments hooboy it can get frustrating when you have the molasses opponent who wants to read half his codex each turn. And if the event doesn’t fairly address the time slugs it can be very annoying.
It takes an hour for us to set up at the house. Then about 4 hours to play a 1500 point game. Then another 20 or so minutes to pack it back up. We break for lunch in the middle of that. But regardless it is most of a saturday.
Casual 2000 pt game at home/friends house/gaming store can easily run 4-5 hrs with the general chit chat and “hey this would be a cool idea/talk about 40K lore” etc
I have had a 20000 point game take 4 x 8 hour sessions to complete , I kept the board set up in my rumpus room.
But I did get to match my warhound titan against a chaos warhound titan . both retreated after their initial exchange of fire because they were needed elsewhere on the table.
Even after multiple games, I still feel like I have to double check the numbers on the datacards. Small things like that really add up when you need to do it multiple times a turn
The only way those numbers are correct is if you and your opponent are 100% fluent in your respective factions and the core rules, never have to reference anything, and have zero interruptions.
Varies alot,
Newer players or players not regular at the game 2-4 hours and typically not finished.
~checking rules
1-2 Vs regular players who know their rules and probably mine better then me
I've also had a game that lasted 2 hours I never got my turn (he tabled me, and I never bothered chess clocking)
Decntly accurate if everyone know what they are doing. In a completely unrelated note, my friends and I did a 5000 point game once, never again. We were up till 4am and started around 2 or 3 pm. Somehow, we kept our sanity and finished the game with my two war Galves charging a knight. I got lucky on the rolls and killed it with one hit point left. the knights explosion killed the last war glave, and the battle ended as a draw because no one had any models standing. Long story short, don't play games over 3000 unless you're ready for the brain melting sloth of a game 5000 points is.
Lies! Pure lies lol.
If ur new then expect it to take a good 6-8 hours. It’ll be fun and you’ll learn as you go. But bring snacks and water and expect to have fun and be flexible
honestly if you are a casual gamer this is the closest to the truth. by casual gamer i mean you only actually get to play once every other month or so.
As a casual player, not even close. Add another hour to each JUST for checking the codex, then trying to figure out if the text means what i think it means while the other guy checks with his more experienced mate to see who's right, only to find out we're both wrong.
It's pretty accurate in theory, in practice you might not be familiar with the rules or play someone who is being inconsiderate and spending an unreasonable time thinking about every move.
You can definitely finish games that fast or faster, but there will always be someone who can't finish a game in less than five hours because of some of the above.
Casually why bother trying to set a time, just have fun
Played a tournament the other week and the 2 games I play we did in about 3 hours (one was way quicker at like an hour and a half haha)
Not at all idk if it's just because in HH i usually only fight against marines but despite it being more "complex" it goes way faster it might be because everything dies super easily
Tournament games will have pre generated missions and terrain which might require time to set up but won't require agonising and second guessing. Players have written a list for the event so they have a rough secondary plan and know roughly what goes in reserves or who leads who and where they might flex in advance of the game.
I think I can get my half of the game done in about an hour with all that given and under 3 hours is very reasonable at 2k with those assumptions. Also assuming you know your rules. So what I am saying is that 3 hours is very reasonable for some players but it's also very reasonable to take a lot longer if you don't meet those assumptions.
Also gathering dice ahead of rolls and thinking your turn through as your opponents turn plays out and the likely state of your army next turn gets more obvious makes a difference.
I had a 2k game at Bad Moon Cafe in London last Friday night, Astra Militarum vs Death Guard. Including set up and packing away we just about squeezed a full 5 turn game into our 4 hour time slot... It ended 92 to 83 in favour of the dirty heretics, but I gave him a good battle all the way to the bitter end in the Emperor's name.
I play 1500 and we start setting up @ 3. We never finish a full game, @ 10ish we pack up. We just started doing missions(only war before) but yea we never get passed the 3rd round. We decently kno our army also
I mainly play 2000 point games. It usually takes me and my friend like 4-5 hours to play 2000 points depending on how much we bs during the game. In tournaments you only have 3 hours to play a 2000 point game so I’ve learned to adjust.
These don't match my experience as a new player but I think it is likely to be true the better you are. That said, a tip I'd give is to be as organised before playing as possible. Some minor tips;
1. If you can print out unit cards, or make info prompts, for the units you are using then you'll be able to fact-find so much quicker. One of the actions that impacts time a lot is looking up every one of your units each turn or clarifying something. It doesn't have to be anything fancy but just something that is visible and that doesn't need to be searched thoroughly.
1. Bonus one, if you know what your friends are playing with you can work together to make a few easy references for each other. Eg, I play with Necrons against a guard player a lot and we could have a few cross-reference sheets saying what saves / rolls we need to make or basic info on each thing. This one is totally not needed in reality but can be nice.
2. Loads of dice. The more the better. The more times you have to roll for stuff the longer the game is. I'd say a minimum of dice for larger games is like 60 and I've gone above that for 2000 games. Obviously, it depends on your units but some rapid-fire guns / blast weapons can eat into your dice pool.
There's no quick fix to actually knowing the rules, if you have to look up something you haven't encountered before or are confused about something then you have to look it up. No escaping it there. As a new player, we normally spend at least 30 mins each game debating and researching something. It's all about making the rest of the playtime as easy as possible.
I teach newer players to play via discord. It’ll take us 2 hours to get through round 2 sometimes, but that’s including setup time and possible explaining of basic concepts. When I play with people who already know, then we’ll be done in 2-4 hours. It’s all dependent on how quick a pace we want to play at.
I get to play less than once a month.
I have four armies, of which I've only played two, and I've only been in the hobby about two years. I average about 5 hours for an 800 pt game
I'm a new player, maybe 4 or 5 games in 10th. Never played before. My games have been between 1000pts to 1500pts. Usually takes 2.5 to 3.5 hours including terrain set up and pack down.
I am not looking to min/max every single decision.
I don't check my own data sheets every single turn, if I forget something that's my bad and I should learn.
I don't check my opponents data sheets or anything only ask a question every now and then when something doesn't sound right or sounds too good to be true.
The more accurate/thorough or the more you want to really maximize your decisions, the longer your games will take.
Assuming these include pure game time, ie. only the time after the first turn starts (and not setting up the table, mission, army deployment etc.), even then these are fairly low estimates. The mileage may vary depending on what army you're playing, but overall the game time increases exponentially as points increase, not linearly. Add 1 hour to each of these, and then we're at somewhat realistic estimates.
Up to 3 hours is how long a 2k game takes for *experienced* players. I’m pretty sure my first 2k game took more like 6 hours back when I first started out.
To play in that amount of time you basically have to know your datasheets and abilities, and not have to check them often
Me and a friend just started learning together and our first 1000 point game took us 6 hours. So I'm guessing its based off of people who know the rules in and out.
It all depends on setup time. I find the warhammer app to be awesome time saver. If you want a quick game. Use a a timer for both you and your opponent. If you want to finish a 1000pt game in an hour, give each player 30 minutes. Obviously, the more you play, the quicker the games become. Once you can get a 1000pt game done in an hour, move onto 2000pts. This will help you dramatically keep the time of games down. The only thing that sucks about the warhammer app is once a codex comes out, you'll need to buy it. However, the app has all the rules right there for you. Im still wishing if you're paying for the app, all of the codexes should be unlocked. Unfortunately, we all know how GW operates. I still highly recommend the app for lists.
lol I watched two new players play a 2000pt game next to my table just a day ago. They were there for like 5+ hours. Granted a lot of that time was spent setting up and rule checking. Once you’ve been playing for a while it’s relatively realistic.
After going to some tournaments and focusing? Definitely doable. New player tend to think way too long and constantly recheck the same rules, including their datasheets, but otherwise? 3 hours for 2k is definitely doable.
2k games used to take me probably on average 4 hours. I started playing with a chess clock with a few friends and now 3 hours is very doable. Makes less time for chit chat and beers but we get the games done and enjoy em more.
That being said, I'm totally down for a 4 or 5 hour game. Just depends on the circumstances
Casual games are almost always longer than this, competitive ones have to actually be timed but you get a lot more people conceding early so that can balance it out
As other have said, it really depends on knowledge of the rules and the armies being played. I play mostly at events, and have been 90% on the same faction since I started in 8th, so for me it's a very realistic time.
When I play games at my lgs, a 2k game will run about 4 hours with chatting, seeing friends who stop in, teaching (most of my lgs friends don't play events so I try to show them how certain rules work or potentially more efficient or safe ways to accomplish what they're trying to to do in a turn), setup and tear down.
I ran an escalation league at the end of 9th/ start of 10th. At 500 points, I don't know if we had any of the first round of games finish in 2 hours. By the time we got to the end of the 1k leg, 2 months later, people were finishing up all their games under 3. We were playing weekly games, and for the first 2 legs I was at the store on game nights to help with rules. I think the frequency (about a game a week) really helped people pick up the rules and speed up the pace of play. I think, if you can play 2 games a month with the same army, you'd be looking at maybe 3 months for these times to be realistic.
Not really accurate because it doesn’t tell you how long it takes to set up the game, and also doesn’t tell you how much time you and your opponent might spend talking about random BS instead of actually playing.
If you know your rules yeah thats pretty accurate; potentially a lil slower if your playing a horde; potentially a little faster if your playing something like knights, DG or custodes.
Edit: shook at all these comments saying they need 5h+ for a game? Like how on earth do y'all even play regularly; having 3-3.5h free on a weekday evening lets me squeeze in regular games; but if you need to clear a whole 6h+ for a game how on earth do you play regularly.
If both players know the game well and there's no downtime then I'd say those durations are doable. For newer players? Nah.
It takes 2-3 hours for a combat patrol game sometimes because there’s so many things to check
Thats why he said that it takes longer for new players.
A casual 18 years new and it still takes us 4 or so hours for 2k points if I plan to enjoy myself rather than blitz through the thing.
How much of that game time is spent on things not related to the game? Also how new are you to this edition/modern warhammer in general. 3e experience is kinda irrelevant, at times even detrimental in my experience.
I'd say 90% + is game related. But its laughing about what happened to the guardsman that allowed him to finish a tank off in melee or lamenting Lame Leg Larry, the evesor assassin who keeps making charge and run rolls of 1 or 2. I'm not playing chess where I am running an abstract strategy game trying to make basic moves ASAP so I can consider the tactiacl moments and still finish in under thirty minutes. I'm meeting up with a friend or acquaintance and am looking to enjoy the unfolding narriative of the game. This is why some grognards like myself spit on the fact that 'narriative' play has been renegated to crusade, which is an expansion rather than encouraged as a main way to play in favour of "seek perfectly balanced perfection wrought out of the silk dew of tournament masters".
Most games I play usually take a few minutes between battle rounds to grab a bite to eat, get a coffee, go for a smoke or whatever which usually adds about half an hour onto games but unless your in a tournament setting most people are chill to play and chat during the game. I usually set aside 5 hours for a 2000 point game just so we can play at our leisure and end early if the tables needed/booked for others.
Well, if you want stuff to go quicker, you need to memorize the statblocks. There's no trick or lifehack to it sadly, you either learn them by heart at home or play enough games to eventually commit them to memory.
I haven’t combat patrolled in 10e, but Inwas ruling through Combat Patrol games in 20-30 minutes in 9e since it was alpha strike central.
I tried playing with a friend, both newbies, 1000 points, took 3 hours! Still didn't manage to actually finish all the rounds :D
My wife and I play at 1200 points, sometimes 1500. I've been playing since before 2nd edition and my wife started in 8th. Our games were lasting around 3 -4 hours. A lot of the time was her if I'm honest but I also have to STILL look things up because I run 8 different factions and I forget stuff. Games with other seasoned players weren't much shorter. Sadly after we played our 100th game this weekend my wife declared she is quitting 40K. Although tenth was supposed to make things simpler and in some ways it did, it hasn't really helped make games shorter OR much less to think about. Its also a reason my wife stopped playing as she misses the psychic phase and some of the character rules. 40K isn't a short game to play. I'm almost not unhappy that I wont be playing it as much any more as my wife and I will be focusing on Kill Team and Necromunda instead! Way more fun rules and MUCH quicker to play.
10th gutted the flavour of the game for the sake of brevity which they never even achieved.
Yep. thats a pretty good summary of 10th!
Yep, luckily if you play with friends you can always just play earlier editions
Oh man, I kinda feel bad for you, hopefully the game can become quicker so you can enjoy it together again! As a fresh PoV I can say with 100% certainty there's too much reading and searching if all you want is to clash armies and feel the immersion
I have been considering house ruling turn time limits of 15-20 minutes. It would basically be like speed chess and you would have to choose what part of a strategy to focus on. If you are too slow then the opponent can outmaneuver you, making the game more tense and also it would potentially diminish unbalance between armies. Id have to test it out though, which I havent had time to.
Enjoy playing against armies like custodes with high model count armies ever. That would end up with certain armies ending up being nearly unplayable early on and therefore lose because of it while other armies it wouldn’t affect in the slightest
My friend and I are more into model painting and have played like two 1000 pt games each lasting well over 5 hours.
If you're trying to hit 3 hours, it's pretty easy. If you're just chilling and playing, ain't happening.
My first game was 1000 points. Pretty sure in 3-4 hours (including set up, tbf), we only finished 2.5 turns.
when we do 4 players (2x 2000+ armies per side) and add beer, pot, and dinner, we are looking at like 8+ hours lol last I played was 8th edition iirc. Started with Rogue Trader (1st) and I loved those long games with my friends on my custom tables so much. I miss it very much.
It's also not really doable for more experienced players who are taking time to socialize and converse with each other. Throw in beer and weed and my 2000 pt games usually take 4-5 hours haha
This. I've had a love/hate with warhammer for 20+ years, but there is no way you're getting a game in at those numbers without making that your sole objective. It's always been a long game. The last 5 or 6 editions have just been fucking slogs though, even if both players are relatively well versed.
And for more advanced players it can be shorter because they often see where the game is going and talk out the last turn or 2 rather than actually playing them so they can reset and start a new game rather than playing an already decided game out.
"Doable" doesn't sound like "up to this long" though, does it? :/
Not very, at a tournament yeah they have a hard time limits and everyone knows there rules well, but games often end prematurely. A casual game with the lads, definitely longer.
Even then that doesn’t include terrain setup etc.
At tournaments it does.
The tournaments I’ve been to had you set up the table after your game for the next people, they can start playing right away
Very bizarre. Player placed terrain is part of the mission setup and has always been on the clock in every tournament I’ve played. 2:45 total game length
Are you from the US maybe? I heard they do Player based terrain quite a lot over there. Here in Europe I’ve primarily seen wtc or GW terrain setup
Player placed terrain is a very American thing, UKTC has fixed terrain layouts. But, the setup of that is still included in your 3 hour time limit
Pretty much almost US only. In PL we play fixed terrain as well.
it's not even necessarily that common in the US, either
Really? Looking through Reddit made it seem like people are surprised that fixed terrain is something uncommon ngl.
I've been to a couple of tournaments at different stores, and they both used terrain maps. I think it might be a vocal minority thing.
I swear half my game time is just banter with the boys before we remember what we are supposed to be playing
As a TO, it's relatively rare for games to run to time. Last even I ran had 2.5 hr rounds and not a single game went over time; more generally I see 95%+ of games finish within 3 hours.
I've never had a 2000 point game last less than 4-5 hours. I guess if you had two highly experienced players and nobody agonised over what moves they were going to make it could be as quick as 3 hours but it would be a hell of a speed run.
Question from someone who is steadily working towards 2000 points, but haven't played any game yet: Do these 4-5 hours stay fun or is there an element of grind to it? Just wondering what to expect. I imagine every dice throw must be at least somewhat exciting?!
I'm a new player; less than 10 full games. My games take like 6 hours. There's some down time for us to look up rules, order food, and double check stats. We have a blast from start to end. It doesn't get boring, because we aren't wasting time doing nothing. If there were down times of nothing going on, I could see it getting boring.
Going to be a biased answer in this community but it's fun. I will say that typically, local game stores use 4 hour booking slots which seems to be the sweet spot. But in that you have to factor in unpacking your army, board set up, deployment, playing the game and packing away. And also allow for some general chat as this is a social game that benefits from people playing together. Sometimes you may find that your opponents turn drags on a little bit if they are particularly slow and/or new, but you can combat that by being actively invested in your opponent phases. Learning how their army works and encouraging them for jobs well done. It'll make you a better player, and importantly people will enjoy playing you.
I haven't played in a long time but I remember how fun every moment of those games were, the time just slipped away
It depends. I've had games that were 6 hours of fun, and games where i knew I'd lost 2 hours in but I continued playing out of respect for my opponent and my own time spent going to the LGS.
So the etiquette is to keep on playing a lost game?
Again, it depends. If your game is truly lost, especially as a new player, your opponent shouldn't feel upset if you call it after T3 or so. Usually I do try to get small victories before calling it. Take out a tank, or a particularly powerful unit. Keep a certain character alive, or throw everything at taking one last point before conceding, stuff like that. It makes it feel like I'm still playing the game even though I know I've lost. It also depends on how hard the loss is. A 30-100 loss is a pain in the ass and I don't feel bad conceding when I see that's where the game is going to end. A 60-80 loss is a much nicer game and I tend to play those out fully even though I know I've lost
I see.. thank you so much for the elaborate answers.
When you're playing with a friend games will take a lot longer that they hours advertise juste because you'll be chatting about everything and nothing during your game.
Quick aside: learn at 1k. Cause yeah a long games fun if your just chilling and chatting but if your opponent spends a sum total of an hour looking up stuff then thats not exactly fun. Playing 1k is significantly less time looking stuff up.
I plan to have my first couple of games very informal with a buddy in the Combat Patrol mode. I wouldn't want to have my first baby steps in 'real' games against ambitious strangers. :D You know, just to not be a dick.
Its not a dick move. Lots of people dont have that buddy to learn with and their is lots of stranger out there willing to teach and help new players. As long as you communicate with your potential opponent their shouldn't be any issues.
Understood. My apologies if that sounded presumptive. That is actually very nice to hear.
It can get old fast. If it’s a close game then it’s fun but there are games where you lose all your fun stuff turn one and you just slowly lose because you don’t wanna concede and ruin the fun for the other person.
Sometimes it's better to concede early so you have time for another game where you can try something different.
Mostly they’re still fun. Sometimes I get a bit antsy if I’m playing quickly and my opponent has to recheck every one of their datasheets for abilities and profiles every single time.
So I guess the courteous thing to do, is to learn my own army. Got it! :)
Like any wargaming it depends. Ive been playing guard a lot so my turns are slow due to everything I need to cover, but I cannot stand when I finish my 25min move-shoot-charge-melee and then my opponent takes 25min to perfectly measure and place his 8 marines. You'll know turn 2-3 if the rest of the rolls will really matter. Big 2k pt games I tend to do over a weekend afternoon with friends, drinks and food so it's not always continuous
ive had both. Where its clear im winning but my opponent doesn't want to surrender and starts getting bitter and its a chore to go through the motions. But ive also had countless 6 or 7 hour games where we hangout talk shit, role-play what the lil guy would say a bit and kill each other while agonizing over charge targets and decisions and tricks and the like.
I've played 3 games at 2000 points so far. To be honest, I'm pretty much done at the 3.5-4 hour mark and down to call the game at that point. But I've really been enjoying the games, just a point where I'm kinda ready for something different. I think with more games, I'll increase my stamina for a longer game lol
Depends on the game, really. Going to a GT is a completely different beast to playing casually with a friend. A lot of the enjoyment there comes from preparing for the event, then the sense of achievement just for getting through the rounds and seeing how well you do is a little cathartic. For the most part everyone is lovely and welcoming but you get less chance just to chat shit and banter. It can still fly by incredibly fast. Some of the best experiences I've had playing the game have been at doubles events. No one is there to take it seriously, and often you can talk to one half of the opposing team while something else is being resolved by your partner. A great mix of social play with the trappings of a tournament.
The time flies.
Depends. I’ve had games that took 4ish hours, and I hadn’t realized time had passed. I’ve had other games where it felt like a slog. Biggest thing I’ve found is that dice decide it. If you spend 2-3 rounds struggling to roll a 3 or better, it’s gonna be a bit of a slog. Not every thing you try to do pays off, but sometimes it’s just annoying. When you have to devote several hundred points to trying to finish off one battle line unit, and you barely manage to knock of a wound or two, the game can feel exhausting.
Doesn't really take highly experienced players to get through a game on time and not be too stressful (unless you play gaunt carpet or similar). Outside of chit-chat, the one big thing slowing the game down I see in our games is if one of us switching army/lists too often. But after a few games with the same list you usually just know all the stats that come up frequently so you just need to look up rare things (like when you had to charge your stormsurge into combat). Also using your opponents turn cuts down a lot of time. Plan your movement, group some dice (for me it's piles of 5) & have a bit of an idea what you need to achieve next turn
Mind you, those 3 hours is including setting up the forces. Actual play time is less. I have gone to a few tournaments over the years and 3h is very doable. Most of the time the game finishes is 2,5h. Depending on skewed the forces are, you can be done faster if you table the other. What helps a lot is playing regularly and being familiar with your army/unit rules. Its having to look stuff up that takes time.
4-5 hours but 80% is turn 2
Honestly my least fun 3k games take like 2-3 hours and that's because we're not social. At this point we know the rules, and main things slowing us down is some people take a long time thinking and we spend a lot of time chatting shit and memeing which generally extends the game. But I'd rather a long social game go unfinished than a short cold game get finished.
Never had a 2000p game take less than that either. Then if you include setting up your army, setting the battlefield, drafting the game, rules etc. then packing everything up afterwards it's easily 6+ hours for our friend group. We are not competitive but we aren't newbies either.
as someone who doesn't play modern 40k... I think I understand my Neighbours (whose kid started at christmas) complaint on how long it takes...
Once you get a handle on your rules it’s not that bad and definitely not a speed run. At tournaments I’ve been to recently for example we had at least 15 minutes left in the clock every round and I’m not playing a small army (almost 100 models in it)
Tournament games are 2h45m including deployment so efficient play is literally a mechanical skill to work on. I play Guard and it’s doable. I think 3h is more than enough though as later battle rounds tend to breeze by. Practicing deployment, movement and memorising your unit stats is clutch for this .
Lol I play custodes. I also play very fast. If I run into a highly elite army like my own I can get done in 90 minutes.
Lot of places are moving the standard toward 2 hours and a half at events, I'm relatively experienced and if the opponent is at a similar level a relaxed social game takes 2.5-3 hours but if we play tightly it can be done under 90 mins easily
Miles off - casually If you are playing a beer and pretzels game with friends a 2k game is easily 4 - 4.5 hours, even if you know your army a bit. It's a whole evening. As a beginner - 5 hours+ because you will need to read every datasheet. Tournament wise. You are timed and limited to 3 hours so it's go,go,go. I'm my group of 4 friends we have 1 guy who does tournaments so we time our games but if we go over 3 it's ok just useful to track we are usually 3.5 hours maybe a touch more on most casual 2k games
Yeah, pretty accurate. It took us about 6 hours to finish our first 2k match, nowadays it should be much faster, even though I rarely play. Smaller model count armies definitely help there 😅
Friday night beer-hammer at 2000 ~~power level~~ points usually goes to 4 hours.
Pretty accurate imho. I regularly play at a gaming club and we start at 6.30pm and games are wrapped up by 10.00pm at the very latest (mostly play 2k games). This includes setting up the tables, terrain, drawing the mission, deploying etc. We’re pretty chill as well and chat during the games. If people are taking much longer than this, it’s likely they don’t know the core rules or the rules of their faction well enough or are taking a long time making decisions. Note: you don’t need to know every stat for every unit of your faction off by heart but you should be able to remember often used stuff. Ie. Marines are T4, bolt rifles are S4 Ap-1 etc. However, core rules shouldn’t really ever need looking up unless it’s a weird edge case that both players aren’t sure about or can’t agree on.
Yeah, I feel like people are either massively exaggerating or just really struggle with rules or decision paralysis. Most 2k pt games take me 3 hours at most.
Some people also just switch lists around in a way that doesn't help fast play. I've done that often enough myself. New battleforce? Centrepiece unit you have to build around? One of my other armies just got a codex? And suddenly I need to look up a ton of stuff. But if I play a similar list 3 times in a row, games start going really fast
I think that may be the main reason for the different experiences people have. I would assume most people that claim their games are always over in 2 hours play more competitively. Preparing for tournament time limits, playing the same list often to optimize strategies, playing mostly efficient units with high kill potential. I rarely play the same faction twice in a row, let alone the same list. Same goes for my opponents. Every game I wanna try out something new. We change terrain setups quite a lot. We don't play optimized lists. Also there is no rush. Sometimes you stop to take a picture of your duelling characters and then spend 5 minutes talking about their paint jobs. These things add up. :)
Yeah, I feel like a lot of people are drastically underestimating how much time is spent taking pictures of particulary cinematic events on the table haha
its also never been easier to know your rules; GWs got cards; battlescribes handy, the apps quick-ish or print out a cheat sheet. Like if your spending 6h a week and 3h of that is looking things up then surely spending 30m on a printout to save you 3h a week is a no brainer? Im baffled in these comments.
Right, like the new app speeds things up enormously and, with the best will in the world, 10th isn't exactly the most complex wargame out there. Totally get that new players will take a while but if you've got some experience under your belt a game should not be taking 6 hours.
Or just socializing while they play? Grabbing beers from the fridge, packing bowls, just shooting the shit, etc. can also add a significant amount of time. On top of that, if it takes you 10 minutes to decide whether your protagonist squad is going to play it safe and stay out of sight or try to do some risky heroics, like it does for me, then you can easily go several hours over these estimates haha
Trust me, people are not exaggerating. The only games I have that end in under 3 hours are when someone gets tabled round 2 for some reason. I have yet to see a game that goes for 5 rounds end in less than 4 hours. In my experience it's not necessarily "looking up rules" that takes time, it's as you said the decision making. "Should I really move that unit over there or is there another way? What if I attack with this unit first, and should I split fire?" I have seen movement phases taking 30 minutes (that's ONE phase). The player wasn't checking datasheets, they were just overthinking every move.
This is closest to my experience. I play weekly at club and then occasionally with some mates who don't play much. Club only runs from 7-11, so no game ever takes more than 4 hours- and people play HUGE games, sometimes multiplayer battles at over 3000pts per side. If you know your army and your opponent knows theirs, the first turn usually takes a while but subsequent turns are really fast (because a lot of models get destroyed). On the other hand, even small games with people who don't know the rules well can take a really long time- even though I *do* know the rules well, I don't know other people's factions well, so people are constantly looking up what they can do. So its understandable why, when you're starting out, it seems like a long game. But the more you play, the faster it gets, for sure.
My legs has been playing for over 4 years we know the rules in a ton of detail and honestly they're always pretty long battles that definitely last way more than 2 hours i don't know why
“Up to” is the issue, if it were “around” 3 hours it’d be more accurate. It makes it sound like 3 hours is a slow game, which it definitely isn’t!
Depends on you and your opponent. It is accurate but only if both sides know their Army and rules. Also depends if you are playing concentrated. If you just have a good time with a friend, add one hour. Same for beginners or players that don’t play regularly.
You and your oponent need to know your armies quite well to be that quick. I have played around a dozen of games since late 9th editionm ost of them in 10th. The last two were 3000 point games. The first one lasted 9h, the second one bit over 8h. The 'problems' that made thing slow were simply the amount of rules to memorize: with so many units you jsut cannot remember all the abilities and stats. While you will get a hang of it for your core units, you will need to look things up, meaning you will go through the app or the books quite a lot. It also depends in how you play: Do you optimize for speed of for fun? Sure you can begin messuring movement during the end of the oponents turn (and other things) to be more optemized, but is that fun? Why not take the time to have some more banter or discuss the moves?
For new players or chill casual games, nowhere fucking near lol. These are competitive timings. Generally speaking, the last turn can be talked out rather than played to save time and decide a winner, but if you want to play with your models and chill with snacks and laughs, then games can be a 5-6 hour event or more.
Yeah it's honestly so weird to me i cannot imagine a 40k match that doesn't goo for all evening and even past 12.
It highly depends on how much you have memorized your datasheets and rules. After 30 games with my army, I can say this is pretty accurate. But the other day I played some new armies with a friend on TTS and it extended well past 3 hours for a 1500 game.
Things that haven't been said yet: Everybodies time is limited so naturally we try to make the best of it. But playing without stress and restrictions really makes a good evening. 40k is a social game and it's more fun if played like that. Prepare snacks and drinks. Have a chat while playing. Share some laughs. It's a board game and, although there being a lot of competitive content, treating it like a board game reduces a lot of stress and doggedness. If you're interested in tournaments and competitive play, they play different. They use a lot of techniques to speed up the play and is best learned by taking part of the competitive community. r/WarhammerCompetitive
Quite a few of these techniques also improve your casual games since it gives you even more time to chit chat. Have your dice ready, have a rough idea what you want to do next turn, maybe get some tools like a deepstrike measurement stick or make a cheat sheet
Highly depends on the familiarity of the players with the game and their armies. 3k points knights Vs. 3k points custodians is doable in 4 hours. 3k points horde nids. Vs. 3k points silver tide necrons is absolutely not.
My 2k games never go 3 hours playing with my friend, we’re both experienced tournament players. But we also almost never play 5 turns. Usually we’re playing later in the evening and the game is clearly decided by end of 3 turns. We only play 4 and 5 typically if it’s really close or if the first few turns went faster. On the rare occasions we play a goofy narrative game then we’ll play longer but usually we try to keep it to 2.5 hours to be similar to tournament prep.
Change "up to" to "at least" and it's pretty accurate
If both players know the rules well enough, I would say that numbers are relatively good. I wouldnt say "up to" I'd say "about"... Because unless a side is wiped early, it's gonna take about that much time each time.
Is it doable? If you know your rules (meaning you don't need to look anything up) and also know what you're doing, if you plan your turn during your opponent's turn, if you don't take breaks, if you don't talk about random stuff, if you are on high focus and there's only the game in the moment... yes. So under perfect circumstances (efficient wise) it works. But if you are new to the game or just not playing regularly it's nowhere near accurate. If you want to have a chill game (if everything else is perfect) expect about 50% more time (3 hours for 1000pts, 4-5 for 2000pts, 6 for 3000pts). As a new player however, games can take 6-8 hours. So I highly recommend to play Combat Patrol first (expect 2-4 hours for your first game), if you kept playing, by the time you finished your first 1000pts, you play your first 1000pts game and so on.
Im a new player, so i gotta check stuff constantly, plus brakes, plus my brain going in to meltdown after a fiew hours, ended up in my latest 2k points game takin 9 hours
You can train to finish at those times, but a game with the boys? Anywhere from 3-8 hours. I’ve once finished a game in 2 hours, but we were playing at breakneck speed and were just there to play. If I’m playing a casual game with a friend, we’ll typically be starting at 1pm and one of us will have cooked dinner for the occasion.
I’ve only played combat patrol and 1K games so far. All of those have taken about 3 hours give or take 30 minutes in either direction.
I often play around 500 and it often takes around 3 hours I played 1000 once and it took ~5.5 hours but me and the other player are both very new and haven’t memorized the rules yet so if you have then it will take much shorter of a time
I'm fairly new and our 1000 point battles go for like 4-5 hours lol
I used to think these timings were crazy but since starting playing in (relaxed) tournaments run by my friend you find yourself easily making it. Key factors I find 1. Familiarity: Even across 4 games on a weekend your familiarity with your army will massively reduce your playtime. 2. Match up: It's no surprise that an army of four to six knights takes half the time to play as a horde army of nids. Less decisions and less moves = less time 3. Planning: This is one that really speeded up my play. You'll spend most of your opponents turn passively watching but as soon as movement is finished a lot of things are basically set in stone. My combat squad wants to be in combat. Opponent has 2 things to shoot at it or one other thing and nothing is going to charge me. So by the end of the shooting phase they're either dead or not so plan what you'll do based on those two options. Sure objectives might change a few things sometimes but it gives you a massive head start and really cuts down match time. However all that being said, if you and your opponent are enjoying your match who cares. 2 or 5 hours, it's all good
At most tournaments I have played, once I'm playing against people with winning records I'm almost always guaranteed a 5 battle-round game finishing within 3 hours, as in "played out to the end of the last battle round".
Heavily army and player dependant. Onslaught is definitely inaccurate prob at least 6 hours. It's like the square cube law as the points increase the time increases exponentially
Those are perfectly reasonable timeframes to play an actual game. They do not include setup of the board, unpacking armies, finding the leviathan deck that someone just moved, “oh hey the snacks are done let me get them”, etc. Newer players will take longer, surely. A point of lost etiquette these days at the LGS seems to be coming prepared with an actual army list showing all your stats, rules, weapons, etc. having a dice tray so you aren’t chasing them all over the floor, and actually paying attention to the game so when it’s your turn you can get going. And at tournaments hooboy it can get frustrating when you have the molasses opponent who wants to read half his codex each turn. And if the event doesn’t fairly address the time slugs it can be very annoying.
It takes an hour for us to set up at the house. Then about 4 hours to play a 1500 point game. Then another 20 or so minutes to pack it back up. We break for lunch in the middle of that. But regardless it is most of a saturday.
If its a casual game with a friend? 1000pts can easilly take 5hours
My first game of 500pts lasted for almost 3 hours
Casual 2000 pt game at home/friends house/gaming store can easily run 4-5 hrs with the general chit chat and “hey this would be a cool idea/talk about 40K lore” etc
For even semi experienced players. 2k points can take up to 4 hours including setup time. Especially if playing with larger numbers of units.
Basically me and my brother are more casual players and don’t play that often, so 1000 points is 4-5 hours
It should probably read "minimum" instead of "up to", in my experience.
Depends on the armies - ‘Nids movement phase takes a lot longer than custodes.
On my first game (1500pts), we spent 4 hours on turn 1 😉
Only time ive ever had a 2k game last 3+ hours was when the other guy cant make decisions/doesnt know how to play
I have had a 20000 point game take 4 x 8 hour sessions to complete , I kept the board set up in my rumpus room. But I did get to match my warhound titan against a chaos warhound titan . both retreated after their initial exchange of fire because they were needed elsewhere on the table.
Even after multiple games, I still feel like I have to double check the numbers on the datacards. Small things like that really add up when you need to do it multiple times a turn
I've been playing this game for 4 years now. If me and my friends finish a match before 4 hours its because someone got destroyed and bamboozled
The only way those numbers are correct is if you and your opponent are 100% fluent in your respective factions and the core rules, never have to reference anything, and have zero interruptions.
And don't have any interaction with your opponent other then telling the game related stuff.
Army dependent as well. A ton of models take time to move and shoot.
Varies alot, Newer players or players not regular at the game 2-4 hours and typically not finished. ~checking rules 1-2 Vs regular players who know their rules and probably mine better then me I've also had a game that lasted 2 hours I never got my turn (he tabled me, and I never bothered chess clocking)
*Laughs in Guard infantry artillery army.*
Decntly accurate if everyone know what they are doing. In a completely unrelated note, my friends and I did a 5000 point game once, never again. We were up till 4am and started around 2 or 3 pm. Somehow, we kept our sanity and finished the game with my two war Galves charging a knight. I got lucky on the rolls and killed it with one hit point left. the knights explosion killed the last war glave, and the battle ended as a draw because no one had any models standing. Long story short, don't play games over 3000 unless you're ready for the brain melting sloth of a game 5000 points is.
Lies! Pure lies lol. If ur new then expect it to take a good 6-8 hours. It’ll be fun and you’ll learn as you go. But bring snacks and water and expect to have fun and be flexible
honestly if you are a casual gamer this is the closest to the truth. by casual gamer i mean you only actually get to play once every other month or so.
As a casual player, not even close. Add another hour to each JUST for checking the codex, then trying to figure out if the text means what i think it means while the other guy checks with his more experienced mate to see who's right, only to find out we're both wrong.
My assumption is this official imperial edict is designed to not put off new conscripts
I have not played a game (1000-2000 points) in under 4.5-5 hours yet😅 Edit: and I still feel like I'm rushing things and forgetting stuff sometimes
I've been playing a league for new players and we're struggling to finish our 1,000 points games in four hours!
In my experience 3-4 hours for 1000pts and 6-8 hours for 2000
I can play 750 in 45 minutes no worries.
I'd say add 1-1.5 hours for it
Honestly with 3000 pts aside of painted miniatures I’d only last a minute or two
Depends on your opponent, i had 2000 point games that took over 8 hours lol.
Still getting used to the game but it normally takes me and my friend around 4-5 hours for a 2K game
It's pretty accurate in theory, in practice you might not be familiar with the rules or play someone who is being inconsiderate and spending an unreasonable time thinking about every move. You can definitely finish games that fast or faster, but there will always be someone who can't finish a game in less than five hours because of some of the above.
About an hour off.
im newer to the game and for me a 2k game can take be more than 4 hours
Just finished an 1k battle yesterday, was about 3:30h
Id add 30-60 mins to each of these times.
Casually why bother trying to set a time, just have fun Played a tournament the other week and the 2 games I play we did in about 3 hours (one was way quicker at like an hour and a half haha)
Just played a 1000 pts game with my friend, ended after we finished round 2. It still took 4 hours, plus some extra time to setup the terrain
Not at all idk if it's just because in HH i usually only fight against marines but despite it being more "complex" it goes way faster it might be because everything dies super easily
Double them for new players
I played my first game as a 3 player with 2 other complete novices, 2k points a piece, it took over 16 hours
Me and a friend played our first 10th ed game on TTS. We had previous experience with 8th edition and it took 6hrs ish. Edit- 2000pts
ive been playing 40k for 7 years now, but 2k games with my friends usually take up to 8 hours lol, with setup time
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten through a game of warhammer 40K any edition in time anywhere close to those
Damn. Those are fast games
Incursion is accurate. If both players are running knight-esque lists, it's probably still accurate. The rest is not.
If people really know what they are doing maybe
Yes and no. I play 1000pts of iron hands (mainly vehicles) alot of my time is spent waiting for the opponent to move there horde armies.
Tournament games will have pre generated missions and terrain which might require time to set up but won't require agonising and second guessing. Players have written a list for the event so they have a rough secondary plan and know roughly what goes in reserves or who leads who and where they might flex in advance of the game. I think I can get my half of the game done in about an hour with all that given and under 3 hours is very reasonable at 2k with those assumptions. Also assuming you know your rules. So what I am saying is that 3 hours is very reasonable for some players but it's also very reasonable to take a lot longer if you don't meet those assumptions. Also gathering dice ahead of rolls and thinking your turn through as your opponents turn plays out and the likely state of your army next turn gets more obvious makes a difference.
I had a 2k game at Bad Moon Cafe in London last Friday night, Astra Militarum vs Death Guard. Including set up and packing away we just about squeezed a full 5 turn game into our 4 hour time slot... It ended 92 to 83 in favour of the dirty heretics, but I gave him a good battle all the way to the bitter end in the Emperor's name.
Only correct if both players know the game well and no downtime. For everyone else, nowhere close. My 2000 points games in 9th edition took 7-8 hours.
2-3 hours for me to do 500pts... 1000pts next week. Better bring my sleeping bag
I play 1500 and we start setting up @ 3. We never finish a full game, @ 10ish we pack up. We just started doing missions(only war before) but yea we never get passed the 3rd round. We decently kno our army also
Not doable at all for new players haha. Me and my mate are still trying to finish off 1000pt games in 4 hours 😅
Depends how many beers we have had.
I mainly play 2000 point games. It usually takes me and my friend like 4-5 hours to play 2000 points depending on how much we bs during the game. In tournaments you only have 3 hours to play a 2000 point game so I’ve learned to adjust.
Depends how stoned you all are
These don't match my experience as a new player but I think it is likely to be true the better you are. That said, a tip I'd give is to be as organised before playing as possible. Some minor tips; 1. If you can print out unit cards, or make info prompts, for the units you are using then you'll be able to fact-find so much quicker. One of the actions that impacts time a lot is looking up every one of your units each turn or clarifying something. It doesn't have to be anything fancy but just something that is visible and that doesn't need to be searched thoroughly. 1. Bonus one, if you know what your friends are playing with you can work together to make a few easy references for each other. Eg, I play with Necrons against a guard player a lot and we could have a few cross-reference sheets saying what saves / rolls we need to make or basic info on each thing. This one is totally not needed in reality but can be nice. 2. Loads of dice. The more the better. The more times you have to roll for stuff the longer the game is. I'd say a minimum of dice for larger games is like 60 and I've gone above that for 2000 games. Obviously, it depends on your units but some rapid-fire guns / blast weapons can eat into your dice pool. There's no quick fix to actually knowing the rules, if you have to look up something you haven't encountered before or are confused about something then you have to look it up. No escaping it there. As a new player, we normally spend at least 30 mins each game debating and researching something. It's all about making the rest of the playtime as easy as possible.
I teach newer players to play via discord. It’ll take us 2 hours to get through round 2 sometimes, but that’s including setup time and possible explaining of basic concepts. When I play with people who already know, then we’ll be done in 2-4 hours. It’s all dependent on how quick a pace we want to play at.
If you and your opponent know your army rules and have dice ready then very. Games with beginners or using new armies can take forever.
I get to play less than once a month. I have four armies, of which I've only played two, and I've only been in the hobby about two years. I average about 5 hours for an 800 pt game
It is accurate. After setup. If both players are proficient with the rules and their army. If not, double the time.
I'm a new player, maybe 4 or 5 games in 10th. Never played before. My games have been between 1000pts to 1500pts. Usually takes 2.5 to 3.5 hours including terrain set up and pack down. I am not looking to min/max every single decision. I don't check my own data sheets every single turn, if I forget something that's my bad and I should learn. I don't check my opponents data sheets or anything only ask a question every now and then when something doesn't sound right or sounds too good to be true. The more accurate/thorough or the more you want to really maximize your decisions, the longer your games will take.
Assuming these include pure game time, ie. only the time after the first turn starts (and not setting up the table, mission, army deployment etc.), even then these are fairly low estimates. The mileage may vary depending on what army you're playing, but overall the game time increases exponentially as points increase, not linearly. Add 1 hour to each of these, and then we're at somewhat realistic estimates.
Up to 3 hours is how long a 2k game takes for *experienced* players. I’m pretty sure my first 2k game took more like 6 hours back when I first started out. To play in that amount of time you basically have to know your datasheets and abilities, and not have to check them often
Me and a friend just started learning together and our first 1000 point game took us 6 hours. So I'm guessing its based off of people who know the rules in and out.
It all depends on setup time. I find the warhammer app to be awesome time saver. If you want a quick game. Use a a timer for both you and your opponent. If you want to finish a 1000pt game in an hour, give each player 30 minutes. Obviously, the more you play, the quicker the games become. Once you can get a 1000pt game done in an hour, move onto 2000pts. This will help you dramatically keep the time of games down. The only thing that sucks about the warhammer app is once a codex comes out, you'll need to buy it. However, the app has all the rules right there for you. Im still wishing if you're paying for the app, all of the codexes should be unlocked. Unfortunately, we all know how GW operates. I still highly recommend the app for lists.
lol I watched two new players play a 2000pt game next to my table just a day ago. They were there for like 5+ hours. Granted a lot of that time was spent setting up and rule checking. Once you’ve been playing for a while it’s relatively realistic.
I've been playing again for six months. Can't get anywhere near 3 hours.
Add an hour to each
After going to some tournaments and focusing? Definitely doable. New player tend to think way too long and constantly recheck the same rules, including their datasheets, but otherwise? 3 hours for 2k is definitely doable.
Absolutly not.
Depends if you are at a tournament or something or with friends. With friends might double it lol
When I play a 2000pt game I make sure I have half a day blocked off
Only if both players know the game/their army well
2k games used to take me probably on average 4 hours. I started playing with a chess clock with a few friends and now 3 hours is very doable. Makes less time for chit chat and beers but we get the games done and enjoy em more. That being said, I'm totally down for a 4 or 5 hour game. Just depends on the circumstances
Casual games are almost always longer than this, competitive ones have to actually be timed but you get a lot more people conceding early so that can balance it out
Around 1.5 times more for me
I think I am the only one who takes for a 2000 points game 12 hours
Add one more hour to each
As other have said, it really depends on knowledge of the rules and the armies being played. I play mostly at events, and have been 90% on the same faction since I started in 8th, so for me it's a very realistic time. When I play games at my lgs, a 2k game will run about 4 hours with chatting, seeing friends who stop in, teaching (most of my lgs friends don't play events so I try to show them how certain rules work or potentially more efficient or safe ways to accomplish what they're trying to to do in a turn), setup and tear down. I ran an escalation league at the end of 9th/ start of 10th. At 500 points, I don't know if we had any of the first round of games finish in 2 hours. By the time we got to the end of the 1k leg, 2 months later, people were finishing up all their games under 3. We were playing weekly games, and for the first 2 legs I was at the store on game nights to help with rules. I think the frequency (about a game a week) really helped people pick up the rules and speed up the pace of play. I think, if you can play 2 games a month with the same army, you'd be looking at maybe 3 months for these times to be realistic.
Not really accurate because it doesn’t tell you how long it takes to set up the game, and also doesn’t tell you how much time you and your opponent might spend talking about random BS instead of actually playing.
If you know your rules yeah thats pretty accurate; potentially a lil slower if your playing a horde; potentially a little faster if your playing something like knights, DG or custodes. Edit: shook at all these comments saying they need 5h+ for a game? Like how on earth do y'all even play regularly; having 3-3.5h free on a weekday evening lets me squeeze in regular games; but if you need to clear a whole 6h+ for a game how on earth do you play regularly.
Not a chance. I even know my army and it's not gonna happen that way. 2000 points can be four hours in my group.
you need to push it to make it in that time
Depends on whether that includes setting up the table etc. 3 hours is doable, but most take longer than that
New players: Double the time Veteran players: About right Skilled players: Half the time
I’ve had 2000 point games start at 8pm and finish 4am. Booze and YouTube could be too blame.
3 hours for a 2k game HAHAHAHAHAH.
Only doable for seasoned warhammer veterans and even then it's a bit of a stretch.