Interesting, It still comes down to stalling and stalling monitoring but on a micro level...
here all your opponent has to do is roll dice- so it should not have any delay (hence making stalling very obvious).. but you'd still have the complex units allocation- your opponent would have to either
A) not use them cleverly,
B) already have a plan in mind
C) be experienced with complex units
Which is ironic since that was one of the things that tripped up culvens opponent to spark this all off
BUt yes to our lots gaming style\ and from a anti super pedant view I certainly see it as a refinement.(It just still gets hit by that first issue;))

while there is still the possibility for stalling, it is certainly minimised (not when moving, choosing targets or shooting), and is removed entirely from turns in which your opponent makes no actions (for example, if you Run instead of shooting).

how would we handle Deployment?
should it come out of the players game time allowance, or should it be separate? if its included, then putting everything in Reserves (Daemons, Drop Pods, DW etc) would give a player a significant advantage over one who deploys normally, and this could seriously alter the metagame.

~ Tim

Good points all.
@Culven - I see and agree with the disadvantages to the "move and click" system! Tim seemed to provide the solution, you start the clock at the beginning of your turn, it ends at the end of your turn. Both players would probably not stall around with their wound and save rolls because they know their opponents can do the same.

I just looked at a pdf I had saved from the UK Grand Tournament of 2006. In their faq-pack, they state that each round lasts 2 hours. They state that this allows 8-9 minutes per game turn and tell players to allow 5 minutes for a 'warm up' and time for an 'after battle roster review'. In this case, the 2 hours would also include the deployment phase. While I agree with Time that this might favor the player who keeps all his units in reserve, he still has a 1 hour time limit for all his actions. This includes rolling for reserves, bringing them on, etc. And in a take and hold scenario, his opponent would most probably be able to take all the objectives on turn 1 and then just have to hold them till the end. So players would have to think about that as well.

IMO, having the time limit of 1 hour for each player seems fair. Everyone will know the rules beforehand and will have to opportunity to playtest it and speed up their play.

And there's my thoughts!

They discuss such a "chess clock" tournament during one of the d6 Generation's podcasts. I have only played that style of tournament once but I didn't find that it was difficult to remember to hit the clock.

Sure you go back and forth a lot but that is to be expected. Hitting the clock does not slow down the game. In fact, I found that it made people move a lot faster. Perhaps it is a benefit for low model count armies but that is a minimal benefit as you are able to move your army in your time.

The one I played was 90 minutes but you have 50 minutes on your individual clock. If you ran out of time you lost but if the overall time ended it just meant the time ended. There was one situation where one person was in a great position but almost out of time. He saw the clock and didn't move or shoot to save his time.

Did that hurt the game? Maybe. It kept him honest though.

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote:how would we handle Deployment?
should it come out of the players game time allowance, or should it be separate? if its included, then putting everything in Reserves (Daemons, Drop Pods, DW etc) would give a player a significant advantage over one who deploys normally, and this could seriously alter the metagame.

most ways of deploying would penalise someone, the reverse would overly punish those who took eldrad or the deciever to redeploy troops (they can't afford the time to use their special piece of wargear they bought..
I'd say once you start putting down minis thats when the clocks start (you'd have the 3 minute glance at each others lists\ models before this... so deplyoment was treated as part of the time allowance, this also balances up the descrepancies that would occur with dawn of war and such as you indicate...Bringing stuff on by deepstrike your using your own time allowance and you may be rushed but you have to account for it(just as the other guy did a turn earlier)..

I also am not a fan of the hit the clock any time your opponent is to take an action. I think that rolling saves, LD tests, etc. during the opponent's turn will balance out in the end. Further, hitting the clock would be a good signal that one has completed their turn.

I also think that I might want to allow 10-15 minutes before the game to deploy forces. This way Daemon and Drop Pod armies don't gain the time advantage for not having to deploy anything. It also keeps things tidy when needing to take care of pre-game actions (Scouts, A Word in Your Ear, etc.).

I think that the timing of games will also help with rules problems. It will encourage players to come to a resolution and move on, if they want to research it later, they can do so during their opponent's turn.

Culven wrote:I also think that I might want to allow 10-15 minutes before the game to deploy forces. This way Daemon and Drop Pod armies don't gain the time advantage for not having to deploy anything. It also keeps things tidy when needing to take care of pre-game actions (Scouts, A Word in Your Ear, etc.).

actually, having thought again (thanks to KMBs post), i think it would balance out, as such armies that keep everything in reserve have to "deploy" throughout the game, which will count against their players clock at that time.

to speed up deployment all around, i would suggest each player unpacks their army onto a side table (or excess area at one end of the board if the tables are larger than the required playing area), organising everything into squads etc, and points out what everything is (WYSIWYG, "counts as", etc) while reviewing eachother's lists. this could be done pregame and not count against either player's clock. then, when it is time to deploy, everything will be laid out ready - its just a case of moving the units from the side table to the DZ once your clock starts.

would something like this be possible where you play?

~ Tim

Yes. That should work. We typically play on 8' long tables with 6' of the length being the game table, and the last 2' for placing "stuff" (books, army pre-game or dead during the game, etc.). This would allow for the staging of units.

Good point on the non-Deploying armies essentially Deploying their units during game play. Having Deployment count against a player's time does make sense.

Your welcome