Battle Brothers of the GCWA: Jarl Clem

Jarl Clem – Slow Play

Today I wanted to touch on a topic that every one of us is guilty of at some point. I am not saying that everyone has intentionally slow played at some point so calm down. What I am saying is that sometimes we take too long during our turn even if we are honestly not meaning too.

“But 8th edition has made the game faster with easier mechanics and no scatter die”

Index 8th edition was much faster, but with every Codex that has come out, another wrinkle is added to the mix which could possible add more time to the match. This past year I played all five games at the American Team Championship to a natural conclusion (which was less than a month into 8th ed.), then matches started slowing down a bit and probably went to about 70/30 completion up until War Zone Atlanta in November. After that, I do not believe that I have played in a game that came to a natural conclusion but a hand full of times since then. What happened, I am not really sure.

Regardless I need to push myself and push my opponent to play faster. This has the stigma of being a jerk, but I plan on going into each match with the understanding that I am going to be more aggressive in this.

How I will approach time for now:

1. At the beginning of the game let my opponent know that I am going to keep and write down how long we are taking by turn. Example below for 3 hour rounds:

a. 20 Minutes to go over list, set table and deploy both armies.

b. 20 Minutes to each players First Turn (total 40 minutes) TOTAL TIME 1 hr

c. 15 Minutes to each players Second Turn (total 30 Minutes) TOTAL TIME 1 hr 30 min

d. 15 Minutes to each players Third Turn (total 30 Minutes) TOTAL TIME 2 hr

e. 10 Minutes to each players Fourth Turn (total 20 Minutes) TOTAL TIME 2 hr 20 min

f. 10 Minutes to each players Fifth Turn (total 20 Minutes) TOTAL TIME 2 hr 40 min

g. 10 Minutes to each players Sixth Turn (total 20 Minutes) TOTAL TIME 3 hr

2. Try using the GW Dice app for large dice rolls. Yes some people could be against this, and I will always ask first and keep it fair.

3. Staying organized on my tray to make deployment easier.

That time line for a 3 hour rounds looks scary, and I don’t know if I can even play that fast. Maybe with some practice I can have it happen.

Another thing that people are discussing is using a chess clock. This idea is extreme but making it a countdown with each player getting 1.5 hrs is a true way to be fair. Once you are out of time, you can no longer play. I am purchasing a chess clock on amazon now, and look forward to giving it a shot in some practice games.