How long are your FC games?

[pinecone]

How long does your average FC duel take? They say it's an hour but I'd personally say (from expirience) that it can be drawn out to two hours fairly eaisily. What do you guys think?

(Poll will last for 30 days)

[Carthaginian]

I was forced to vote "Other" because it's hard to accurately gauge how long the game takes if you play against yourself all the darn time.
Is there no one in East Alabama that plays FedCom!

[ericphillips]

I chose 2 hours (but i really wish I could write in "Planck time"). Two hours is about right in a duel with two 150 point ships.

[marcus_aurelius]

Once the game gets started probably 2 hours for a 2 person duel (or small squadron). Usually the game goes 2-3 turns and then we can reasonably predict the winner (when plasmas are not involved).

When we play with 4+ players it can be a 3 hour game. Also, with this many players there is usually a 30+ minute strategy session before the game where each side thinks (or overthinks) the strategy for the battle.

We have had time issues in the past with mid-game strategy sessions. Recently we have tried to ban them and limit to quick whispers at the table. Once a battle has started in "real life" there are no time-outs for long strategy sessions. Quick whispers at the table can simulate coded ship-to-ship communications.

[pinecone]

Yeah, two hours is about how long it takes to decide a winner of a duel. I'd say a small squadron battle can easily go to three or four hours. We played "Refiner's Fire" a while ago and it took 5 hours to finish.

[pinecone]

Interestingly enough, I did once play an FC duel that was only 17 seconds. It was while I was on vacation with my family. I asked my dad if he wanted to play a mental game of FC. After some "Oh, come on's" he agreed. It was a Fleet scale F-CA vs. K-D7 matchup, with a fixed map. I (The Fed ship) set speed 8 forward and pre-loaded photons. My Dad set speed 16 in reverse. The game was over by the third Sub-Pulse.

There it was, my 17 second game.

[ericphillips]

Freak things can happen. I played in a matchup against another player. He was Gorn, I was Fed. We each had fleets of six to seven ships, from BB down to CA.

Should take a long time, right? He made a mistake in tactics, and through some good rolls he conceded after direct fire of turn 1, impulse 8. Ouch. And the dude is a good player!

[Savedfromwhat]

Heh what a dope that guy was eric... oh wait...

[Stele]

When I play with my girlfriend, we usually play up to 10 turns; 2 hours at a time if necessary. Duels seem to be the preference.

[pinecone]

You have a girlfriend who plays FC!? Does she have sisters?

Just joking. It seems that 2 hours is the normal amount of time it takes to play a game. I'm glad that I wasn't being "slow" when playing FC, because they say it only takes 1 hour, but our games always seem to take longer.

[Krellex]

You have a girlfriend who plays FC!? Does she have sisters?

Just joking. It seems that 2 hours is the normal amount of time it takes to play a game. I'm glad that I wasn't being "slow" when playing FC, because they say it only takes 1 hour, but our games always seem to take longer.

You beat me to it, Pinecone

Actually, I was surprised that my sister in law wanted me to show her the ropes. She's a closet Trekkie.

[Stele]

Don't ask me why it interests her. I won't stop her from wanting to play a game. She really likes the Romulan K7R.

[Drew Klenotic]

It's not all that wierd. When my parents got married around 38 years ago, my mom used to play him in war games (in fact, when I was just old enough to start learning the games, my mom gave me a few pointers about taking my dad on in Blitzkreig - if any of you Avalon Hill fans remember that one).

She doesn't play anymore, but I think that's because she got too good.

[Drew Klenotic]

As to the length of games..... I guess that depends on whether beer is involved or not.